The socialist German state presented itself with a broad program at the “Week of the GDR” in 1977.
Photo: Repro
On April 25, 2024, a small, joyful group gathers at Praça José Fontana in Lisbon to take part in the festive parade to mark the Carnation Revolution fifty years ago. The Portugal-GDR company once had its headquarters here. Nostalgia? Utopia? Dreaming?
“The GDR was one of those countries that I thought would be worth getting to know,” remembers Ana Paula. »If the fascist regime hid their existence, it would certainly have to have completely opposite characteristics. So I believed that the GDR could be a model for how I wanted my country to be.
Die Bewegung der Streitkräfte (Armed Forces Movement)) overthrew the Caetano regime on April 25, 1974 and paved the way for the democratization of Portugal. According to the will of the insurgent captains, this included establishing relations with all countries on the basis of friendship and cooperation and guaranteeing freedom of assembly and association.
As early as June 1974, on the initiative of the writer Fernando Namora, a league “for cultural, social and scientific exchange with the socialist peoples” was founded, under whose umbrella the Associação Portugal-RDA was a registered association under the direction of the musicologist João de Freitas Branco and the writer Alexandre Feio dos Santos Babo. On December 4, 1974, its founding was publicly announced at the Teatro Municipal São Luíz in Lisbon in the presence of a representative delegation from the GDR and its first ambassador to Portugal, Erich Butzke.
Photo: Repro
Two years later, Klaus Steiniger, the journalist with a “diplomatic background,” as he saw himself, conveyed the congratulations of the GDR-Portugal Committee. This was formed on June 27, 1975 as a partner of the Associação in the League for International Friendship of the GDR. Klaus Steiniger had already arrived in Portugal on May 13, 1974 as a special correspondent for the SED newspaper “Neues Deutschland” and reported regularly, partisanly, knowledgeably and often with revolutionary pathos about the situation there.
The association’s efforts to “establish and stimulate mutual acquaintance, cultural, social and scientific exchange in the interest of cooperation and peace” corresponded both to the foreign policy goals of the GDR and to the political-ideological principles of the SED The general population of the GDR was excluded due to the limited freedom of travel.
Exhibition in Berlin-Friedrichshain
Klaus Steiniger
Portugal 74 Carnation Revolution
Chronicle of a departure towards freedom, progress and democracy. An exhibition by Peter Steiniger, Claudia Opitz and Sebastian Köpcke
Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin
www.muenzenbergforum.de/portugal-74
Thursday, April 25th, 6:30 p.m., foyer
Exhibition opening with the Ernst Busch Choir, speeches and a concert by Higino Andrade and Manuel Matos
Sunday, April 28, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m
Freedom Party: The “Festival of Freedom” with stands, film program, music and singing. 4.30 p.m.: Screening of the documentary film “Prazer, Camaradas”, debate with contemporary witnesses
Sunday, June 2nd, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m
Portugal em Festa (Portugal feiert): Finissage and Portuguese cultural festival. Music, snacks and drinks, workshops, films about the dictatorship and April 25, 1974.
Even when Portugal turned away from a socialist perspective after November 25, 1975 and embarked on the path to a Western-style democracy, the Associação was able to successfully carry out its activities to popularize an attractive image of socialism with support from the GDR.
1979 was probably the company’s best year, as Alexandre Babo noted in retrospect. The number of members was already 6,000 and a network of 27 local groups stretched across the entire country. The quarterly magazine “Novos Caminhos” published for members had a circulation of 7,500 copies.
The 30th anniversary of the GDR was celebrated in a lavish and well-publicized manner in Lisbon, Almada, Alhandra, Arganil, Barreiro, Cova da Piedade, Coimbra, Elvas, Estremoz, Évora, Mafra, Marinha Grande, Montijo, Moita, Santarém, Setúbal and Torres Novas. The opening event took place in front of 4,500 visitors in the representative Lisbon venue Pavilhão dos Desportos and the highly frequented exhibition “GDR – 30 years of cultural, social and scientific development” was shown in the building of the National Society of Fine Arts.
The Associação recruited 40 well-known people from all areas of public life for an honorary commission. There were the famous Fado singer Carlos do Carmo, the writer José Saramago, the football coach Artur Jorge and the former President of the Republic, General Francisco da Costa Gomes. There was a demand for German courses held across the country, which were supported by the GDR by sending lecturers and teaching materials.
Due to the deep systemic crisis in the GDR at the end of the 1980s, this work also found itself increasingly difficult. With German unification on October 3, 1990 and the associated end of the GDR, the end of the Associação Portugal-RDA was also sealed.
It is April 25, 2024: The Portuguese-German group at Praça José Fontana joins the parade. 25 de Abril semper!
Dr. Rainer Bettermann (born 1944) was a lecturer in German as a foreign and second language at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena until 2009. From 1976 to 1981 he worked as a German lecturer at the Associação Portugal–RDA in Lisbon. Translations: José Saramago: “Hope in the Alentejo” and “The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis”.
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