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Germanic Collections

"Long live Nicaragua"

Gerhard Kurt Mueller (1986)

This poster depicts a woodcutter (with sticks on his back) planting the words "Long live Nicaragua."

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Nicaragua was one of the primary targets of the GDR poster campaign because, like Chile, it too was a nation with a revolution trying to establish a fledgling Marxist government, run by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional), or FSLN. East Germany had to express its support, both to impress the Soviets and to publicize worldwide legitimacy for its own communist government.

To read a short history of how the Sandinistas came to power, adopting policies similar to Cuba's and thus provoking the US to launch its support for the Contras, and how the Sandanistas lost their grip on power in the election of 1990 please click here .

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"Help Nicaragua!"

Una Paniagua (1985)

Paniagua uses many forms of symbolism in this piece of graphic artwork. Notice Uncle Sam's boot crushing the tree of life which is filled with doves and the colors of the Sandanistas. The branches have the following statements written on them: guaranteed minimum wage; despite the USA political aggression, the economic growth in 1983 was 5.1%; since 1980 illiteracy has been essentially eliminated; paid vacation; Diptheria and Polio were successfully battled.

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"Solidarity Account 444: 1+2+10+5+20...= A hospital for Nicaragua"

Ines Verberg (1988)

Verberg shows that numerous little donations added together can ultimately fund a Nicaraguan hospital.

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"Life support for Nicaragua...From sick tent to hospital"

Kahane (1988)

Again, the Solidarity Committee commissioned this artist to create a poster which would encourage GDR citizens to donate to Account 444.

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Augusto Cesar Sandino

Augusto Cesar Sandino, a revolutionary and political hero who inspired the Sandinista movements in Nicaragua, led a guerilla campaign throughtout the 1920's and 1930's against U.S. political and economic intervention in Nicaragua. U.S. influence began when the U.S. intervened in the Central American nation under the Rosevelt Corrolary to the Monroe doctrine, a corrolary whcih allowed the US to intervene if it felt that Europe was gaining too much of an influence in in Americas. The US controlled all elections, and allowed the authoritarian Somoza regime to maintain power for decades in Nicaragua. After U.S. military forces departed Nicaragua in 1933, Sandino continued to fight against the Nicaraguan National Guard, a domestic police force which controlled politics and which had been heavily supported by the United States. Sandino was executed on February 21, 1934 by the Nicaraguan National Guard. He was captured while leaving a meeting at the Presidential Palace, a meeting whose theme was a potential peace agreement between the Sandinistas and the government. Now a martyr, his name was taken to identify the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a unified opposition to a later Somoza regime.

Sandino is shown with a beautiful Nicaraguan landscape as well as a dove and some laurel leaves, which represent peace.

"Der Schein truegt" is a pun. It means both "the bill is deceptive" and "it seems deceptive." This anti-US messsage shows GDR citizens that the United States was funding the Sandanista opposition, the Contras, in Nicaragua.

American troops say "Drop your weapons and put your hands up high!" to the little Nicaraguan boy whose only weapon is learning how to read and write.

Last modified: June 27, 2005