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"Du bist Deutschland" was an initiative of "Partners for Innovation" coordinated by the Bertelsmann AG and involved 25 media companies. The campaign ran from the end of September 2005 till January 2006. With its TV spots, posters and a budget of ca 30 million Euros, its aim was to inspire positive feelings about the country, principally for the general election of 2nd October 2005. 2005 was also celebrated in Germany as Einstein Year, the 50ieth anniversary of the death of the Nobel Prize winner (1879-1955). For this occasion, the Berlin Town Hall was decorated with an Einstein quote from a letter of 1920 that commemorated the erstwhile famous citizen of the city: "Berlin is the place, where, because of personal and academic friendships, I felt most at home…" In 1933 Einstein, who was Jewish, had to flee Germany to the USA. |
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'Even after 1945
Albert Einstein didn't want to have anything to do with the land of his
origin. He never saw Germany or Berlin again. His abhorrence of everything
German that developed into an irreconcilable hate (The Private Lives of
Albert Einstein, Roger Highfield and Paul Carter, 1994) remained unaltered
till his death: "He made it clear that he didn't want to have anything
to do with the country of his birth, the inhabi tants of which, he didn't
distinguish as being less guilty of the massacre of the Jews than Hitler.
The intellectuals behaved as badly as the mass, with the exception of
only a handful of his closest colleagues, he said. He was convinced that
the Germans were the cruellest race on earth; according to him they have
the mentality of gangsters and have demonstrated no indication of regret
for the years of mass murder…".
Albert Einstein cannot make a stand against
the shameful posthumous reinterpretation of his long obsolete letter
now cited on the red town hall.' |
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| Einstein
was born in Ulm, as were Tanya Ury's Jewish grandparents Sigmar and Hedwig
(neé Ullmann) Ury, who fell victim to the Nazis. The second-generation artist Ury, born in London, acquired dual-nationality
in 1993, the year when she also moved to live and work in Germany.
Text to the poster: Du bist Albert Einstein (You are Albert Einstein). (Photo: Tobias Gerber, Bilderberg, ©2005) that was widely distributed in Germany 2005: You are Albert Einstein You think that your development is slower than
everyone else's? Relatively funny. That's what Albert Einstein said
of himself. The "late developer" was later to win the Nobel
Prize. A deutscher Medien (German Media) action under
the initiative of "Partners for Innovation." www.du-bist-deutschland.de English Text on Tanya Ury's photographic image: I am Albert Einstein Am I slow? Now they're advertising German patriotism
in my name. Not funny. I may have been a Nobel Prize winner but back
then I had to flee the country, for my life. Witticism from the 60's: To do is to be - Descartes |
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| '…At the core of the (Du
bist Deutschland) campaign was a so-called manifesto, that was also central
to the advertisements. The spots that were up to two minutes long, presented
chiefly German celebrities at historical scenes in the countryside or
city. They illustrated the campaign slogan Du
bist Deutschland (You are Germany) in
various ways: "You are the Wonder of Germany", "You are
the Tree", and similarly with sayings and metaphors like, for example,
"Your willpower is like fire in the belly" that were to bring
about positive feelings, impress and sweep the spectator away.
…Many critics appeared on the scene because the campaign was aimed at individuals as members of a nation-state. They argued that this was a nationalistic position similar to nationalist thinking patterns of National Socialism. As supporting evidence, comparable National Socialist slogans were mentioned: It is a fact that the National Socialists employed a slogan, directed at Hitler, however: "Denn Du bist Deutschland" (Because, you are Germany) at a rally in 1935 on the Ludwigsplatz in Ludwigshafen. This is illustrated in the book "Ludwigshafen - Ein Jahrhundert in Bildern" (Ludwigshafen - a Hundred Years in Pictures" of the Ludwigshafen on Rhine City Archives, 1999 (ISBN 3-924667-29-2). The sentence is positioned over a large portrait of Hitler. The renowned historians Hans Mommsen and Hans-Ulrich Wehler considered the (Du bist Deutschland) campaign was nevertheless not fraught. The slogan can be found in altered form within the film "Triumph des Willens" (Triumph of the Will) by Leni Reifenstahl, with the words: "Sie sind Deutschland! You (plural) are Germany (as opposed to the singular form of the campaign)".' http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_bist_Deutschland Translation from German Tanya Ury) |
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