Jugendweihe

Jugendweihe

East German propaganda poster encouraging the youth to participate in the Jugendweihe, a socialist coming-of-age initiation ceremony

This poster shows four GDR youth in the foreground, two boys and two girls. The boy and girl in front carry books, and the boy also carries a hammer. The tall boy in the back raises his hand toward the sky. Two men appear above them in a separate background scene, a military officer and a pilot surrounded by the night sky. On the left side of the poster in the center, the GDR flag flies over the Brandenberg Gate in the distance. The slogan reads, "Jugendweihe, all your strength for the great and noble cause of socialism!"

In the GDR, the Jugendweihe was a socialist youth initiation ceremony meant to replace Christian confirmation. It began in 1953, so it was a relatively recent tradition when this poster was made. However, the Jugendweihe's roots date a century earlier to a German secularist movement that the SED appropriated for political purposes. Teenagers participating in the Jugendweihe recited a ceremonial pledge and then received a propagandistic book and a certificate. Today, teenagers in the former GDR region celebrate the Jugendweihe without political connotations. This poster was reissued in postcard form for the 60th anniversary of the GDR's founding and is still available for purchase.

Sammlung Prax

Ost-Shop.de

Panorama Berlin

1958

German

Postcard

4.25" x 5.5"