Abstract

In 1953, a few weeks after the failed June 17th uprising in East Berlin, the West German parliament [Bundesparlament] created a national holiday to reaffirm the goal of eventual reunification. The June 17th holiday was commemorated in the Federal Republic from 1954 until unification in 1990, at which point it was replaced by October 3 as the official Day of Germany Unity. This postcard from 1980 cites the preamble of the German Basic Law: “The entire German people is called upon to accomplish, by free self-determination, the unity and freedom of Germany.” The postcard was issued by the German Burschenschaft, a nationalist student fraternity, and features a revisionist map showing Germany in its 1937 borders. In this way, it explicitly challenges the postwar order established by the Potsdam Conference in 1945.

June 17th Holiday (1980)

Source

Source: June 17th postcard by the German Burschenschaft [Deutsche Burschenschaft], 1980, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. Inv.-Nr. PK 2016/366. Available online at: https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/NC5CNPF44Q57PHZZLDJMEKTWCXUIN3XY

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin