RDA vs RFA en anglais

        Following the defeat of Germany in 1945, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union apply decisions they took during the Yalta Conference in February 1945. These ones have been confirmed in August 1945 at the Potsdam Conference. That’s why not only Germany, but also Berlin, are divided in four parts, one for each of them and one for France as W. Churchill insisted for it. Two blocks emerge from this quadripartite country. On one hand, the West side which is composed by USA, UK and France; on the other hand, the East part, controlled by the Soviet Union. Germany’s situation added to blocks became the objective evidence of the Cold War which opposes the two superpowers of the post-war period, the USA and the USSR. These two countries are clashing in order to obtain hegemony on diverse plans such as ideological, political and military ones even though there is no direct confrontation between them, and also on commercial, economical or geopolitical ones. All those differences are touching every sector and are translated by the Cuba crises, the arms race, space conquest and more specifically the iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall. In 1949, governments of both sides announce that Germany will be separated in two parts. In July, the West block proclaims the creation of a new German State, the FRG. As an answer, East part announces the GDR, created in October.

        The documents we are studying are dated October 1949 for the first one, and 1974 for the second one. The first document is a statement by the Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany, pronounced on the occasion of the formation of the GDR, and in which he defends all the advantages of this new state and denounces several inconsistencies of the FRG towards Potsdam’s decisions. The second document is a caricature called Familienporträt, which means family portray, and it was made by Fritz Behrendt. He’s an anti-nazi artist who used to live in GDR, but he has been kicked out for titism. In this visual document, he denounces Soviet Union abuse of power.

        How do they show the difference between the image of the two Germany that is spread by USSR, and reality?

We’ll see how the speech of the east-German dignitary leads to the glorification of GDR, before watching how the caricature reestablishes the truth.

        Firstly, Soviet Union presents FRG and GDR in such a way that the West-Germany is darkened, and the East-Germany glorified.

        After justifying the creation of a new state within quadripartite Germany, pretexting it could lead to the country’s reunification, the first document denounces several inconsistencies of the FRG towards Potsdam decisions. The Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany shows the East-Germany consider the country “as one whole” and that it has no other goal but to restore “German’s unity”, contrarily to FRG. Indeed, the soviet party supports that the quadripartite union can only be negative to the country, and that only democratic elections will provide Germany the stability it needs. Still in this document, it is said that this reunion must be “based on an active participation of all democratic forces of the German people”. Yet, the “puppet government” based in Bonn and selected by the FRG, appears determinated to avoid this German reunification. Hadn’t the West-Germany tried “deepen for the split of Germany”, the country would have been a “democratic and peace-loving” place led by the Soviet party. It is suggested that this new power is the follower of Nazi’s Germany (1933-1945), as only former Nazi leaders could effectively run the sector. These people are designate as “imbued with open revanchist yearnings”, so they want to reestablish the Third Reich. Though, this practice, putting ancient Nazis at powerful functions, has been used to both FRG and GDR. This point is developed by Behrendt’s drawing as he rigs out L. Brejnev with a cap which looks more like a Nazi officer’s cap than the one of a Russian general. He definitively puts everybody as disciple of Nazism.

        So far, we can say that GDR seems pretty confident in Germany’s restauration and it shows the FRG as a social outcast. However, this speech, pronounced three days after the GDR’s proclamation of Independence, widens the ideological gap between USA and USSR. Furthermore, in a Cold War context, it is obvious that they’re doing this for a personal reason, not only for the reunification. And the second document illustrate extremely well this point. Hadn’t been other characters on the caricature, we could have said that GDR was a great State.

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