Action squirrel
The Squirrel Campaign was an initiative launched by the German Federal Ministry of Food in 1961 to encourage private households to set up emergency food supplies . This was supposed to secure the supply of the population in crises and disasters, but especially in the case of a war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact , which would have taken place on German soil (see Cold War ).
Every household was called upon to create a crisis reserve with which it could feed its members for 14 days without any external supplies. Above all, this supply should bridge the time until a functioning rationing of food is established.
Despite a considerable amount of advertising (expenditure in the first three years between 1.2 and 1.5 million marks), in which the squirrel played a central role as the eponym and symbol of the campaign, the calls were largely ineffective. The central slogan “Think about it, create stock” failed to have its effect. In 1964, according to the Ministry of Food, only two to three percent of households had supplies that met its specifications.
The Ministry of Food envisaged a system in which canned and other non-perishable foods were numbered and used up and renewed accordingly. This proposal met with little approval from the population. Above all, the costs and expenditure of storage, especially for large families with cramped living space, as well as the need to use up the poorly tasty canned food at regular intervals were criticized.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Action squirrel. Bonn activates private storage. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . April 20, 1961, accessed March 5, 2020 (press release).