Poster issued in West Germany for Die Grünen [The Greens] and used to promote the East German Greens in the East German elections of 18 March 1990, featuring an image of children playing in countryside threatened by the destructive effects of industrial development.

Poster composition divided diagonally into two sections. On one half there is an idyllic scene in green and yellow printed on a white ground of two children playing with a toy train in a garden. The other side, printed in black on white, simulates pieces of a jigsaw which make up a picture of a grim urban landscape: traffic, factories in the background spewing out fumes and drums of toxic waste dumped in the foreground.

This object is part of a group of graphics inspired by the pro-democracy movement in East Germany in 1989 and 1990, which saw popular demonstrations result in the overthrow of the Communist government, led by Egon Krenz, culminatinng in the free elections of 18 March 1990. All the material, which covers a wide range of the political parties and movements that took part in these events, was gathered by V&A Curator Margaret Timmers in East Berlin in the week preceding these elections.

Poster issued in West Germany for Die Grunen [The Greens] and used to promote the East German Greens in the East German elections of 18 March 1990, featuring an image of children playing in countryside threatened by the destructive effects of industrial development.

Poster issued in West Germany for Die Grünen [The Greens] and used to promote the East German Greens in the East German elections of 18 March 1990

E.2091-1990