Daily life in the GDR was inseparable from exposure to SED propaganda. In this picture taken in 1980, a bride and groom and their wedding guests are pictured in front of the registry office in Erfurt, which prominently displayed a banner with the party slogan: “For Peace and Socialism” [“Für Frieden und Sozialismus”]. The photographer was Uwe Gerig, a freelance photojournalist who worked primarily in the southern districts of the GDR. In 1983, he and his wife managed to flee to West Germany during a trip to then Yugoslavia. Before their escape, he protected parts of his photo archive from the Stasi by mailing his negatives and slides to friends in the West.