Flora and Jolanthe
Flora and Jolanthe were two fictional animals that were created and used for propaganda purposes in the GDR from 1959 to 1961 , especially in the newspaper Neues Deutschland .
Origin and history
The cow Flora and the pig Jolanthe were mentioned for the first time in an article in Neues Deutschland , at that time the central organ of the SED , from October 31, 1959. There you can read:
“We are called Flora and Jolanthe and are the selected stakeholders of our species. We want to do what we can to ensure that our cribs and troughs are filled as well as possible despite the drought. That is why we drive all over our republic and visit all those who can help us and our fellow species. We want to examine how, for example, the councils of the districts ... or the municipal councils work to alleviate our feed worries, which cooperative, which farm is particularly helpful and provides feed for the areas that lack it, and who has their full reservoirs out of selfishness closed and does not think about the neighbors "
In the following time, the two were reported in a separate section "Flora and Jolanthe" in Neues Deutschland. The reports wrote about efforts to organize sufficient fodder to feed the animals. Individual functionaries were also criticized by name and, in particular, LPG members who over-fulfilled the plan were praised. The figures were developed by Arnolf Kriner in collaboration with the graphic artist Klaus Arndt.
Walter Ulbricht wrote a letter to Flora and Jolanthe in an appeal published on November 28, 1959. In this he described "results of nutritional science", which say that more butter is consumed than "would be optimal for health".
Several films have been made with the two actors. In 1960, VEB Plüschwarenfabrik Gehren von Flora and Jolanthe produced dolls as campaign figures to advertise improved agricultural production. Films for the DFF were shot several times with the two of them during prime time. At the fifth festival of German folk dance in Rudolstadt in July 1960 , they gave their name to the mass choreography with 800 dancers from eight districts of the GDR .
Flora and Jolanthe were used for posters on various occasions. Among other things in “FDJ - Flora and Jolanthe are happy! - Schoolchildren from the district of Güstrow go to the - Workers and Farmers Festival in Schwerin. ”Or on the poster created by Arno Fleischer Build stables / Every 20 hours in NAW for Flora and Jolanthe . From the DEWAG a series of posters with the two figures was published under the motto "No one wins without the other," which has been widely used especially in districts with many employed in agriculture.
In the district of Neubrandenburg , the LPG type 1 in Bobbin / Friedrichshof was called "LPG Flora und Jolanthe".
The campaign ran for almost two years. In a report of the New Germany published a few years later (1966) it was said: “They rattled stable doors, made life angry for bureaucratism. So these two became friends of the farmers and farm workers. [...] that the cribs and troughs of their conspecifics were always well filled, if our agriculture today can cover 98 percent of the slaughter cattle, 92 percent of the butter and the entire milk requirement from its own resources, then Flora and Jolanthe certainly have their share in it . "
background
Even if the drought in the summer of 1959 made it even more difficult for the government to supply the population with food, the real causes of the supply crisis lay more in the general mismanagement under the conditions of the planned economy . Walter Ulbricht admitted this himself and wrote on November 28, 1959 in Neues Deutschland that in some areas the forage was not harvested and in others it was spoiled due to improper storage or incorrectly applied did not lead to the optimal yield in kind on the farms.
The situation was exacerbated by the increased consumption of previously rationed food after food stamps had also been abolished in the GDR in 1958 . In the second half of 1958 there was between 10 and 20 percent higher sales of all major foods. Agricultural production was unable to meet demand.
The increased collectivization also led to massive yield losses because successful farmers in particular refused and preferred to flee to the Federal Republic. Another problem for the GDR leadership was that under the rigid planned economy it was difficult to compensate for the shortage through imports. On the contrary, the Soviet Union massively cut its exports to the GDR from 1957 and at the same time stipulated that more meat must be exported from the GDR.
Observance in the Federal Republic of Germany
Die Zeit dedicated an article to the campaign following Ulbricht's letter to the characters. She wrote of two lively little animals that were on the go on the nationally owned estates , the agricultural production cooperatives and also with individual farmers, whereby the latter should no longer exist according to the plan of the SED leadership, to make alarming reports in New Germany. Then the SED leadership took action. They have been doing does not mention the report of the Ministry of Agriculture, was in which read that tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land not harvested and ordered were. In the letter to Flora and Jolanthe, Ulbricht avoided naming the guilty party, just wrote about the fact that the LPGs were too busy with bureaucracy and that they also kept fewer cattle just to have fewer worries about feed, care and disease . Ulbricht's comment on the high butter consumption was mentioned, including the quote: "Do state officials in the Rostock district consider it a worthwhile goal to use all their might to increase the number of hospital inmates with circulatory disorders?" Die Zeit further writes that this question is only rhetorical, since in the GDR, although the GDR offered to supply all of West Berlin with milk and vegetables in 1958, butter and vegetables were rarely offered in shops in 1959.
In 1960, Der Spiegel wrote about the DFF programs with Flora and Jolanthe that these were propagandistic tribulations that show the talkative cow Flora and the pig Jolanthe, modeled on a Disney character , in a "dry steppe" continuous series .
Filmography
Flora, Jolanthe and four thousand chickens
The film Flora, Jolanthe and four thousand chickens , another title poultry intensive farming , is a documentary first published on April 22, 1960 with a running time of sixteen minutes. The LPG "August Bebel" from Wallwitz is presented. It reports on successes in intensive poultry farming.
Flora, Jolanthe and the offspring
Flora, Jolanthe und der Nachwuchs , another title Fully Mechanized Calf Rearing , is a fourteen-minute documentary first published on August 26, 1960. The film reports on rearing calves with milk replacer in order to save whole milk.
Riot in the stable
The film riot in the stable , other titles The pig society and academy in the pigsty , is an animation film with hand puppets first published on July 14, 1961 . It included, among others, Walter Later and The four Brummers . The film has a running length of almost 5½ minutes.
The cow Flora and the pig Jolanthe come in a truck to a village at night. It's quiet everywhere except in the pigsty, where the pigs complain about their accommodation. They do not want to stand in individual pens and demand more cleanliness and sociability with one another and free access to the feed. Flora and Jolanthe explain how the barn needs to be remodeled and they do it together. Automatic feeding will be installed in the new barn. In the converted barn with group pens, pigs from smaller herds can then move into neighboring farms. Now that everyone is satisfied, a sociable pig's life begins. Towards the end of the film, the pig choir sings a song; Jolanthe operates the grinding and mixing plant, which is also new, in a white coat , and Flora drives the truck back into town.
Web links
- Series of images on the website of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk for the film riot in the stable ; Retrieved April 19, 2016
- scan F&J at the "harvest festival"
- Riot in the stable - full film in German on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Stefan Wolle : The big plan - everyday life and rule in the GDR 1949–1961 , Christoph Links Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-738-0 , pp. 378–381
- ↑ Do you like feature sections? In: Berliner Zeitung , August 3, 1962, page 6.
- ^ A b Simone Tippach-Schneider : The large lexicon of GDR advertising , Berlin, 2004, ISBN 3-89602-539-2
- ^ Hanna Walsdorf: Moving Propaganda: Political Instrumentalization of Folk Dance in the German Dictatorships , Königshausen & Neumann, 2010, ISBN 978-3826042591 , p. 166
- ↑ FDJ - Flora and Jolanthe are happy! in the German Digital Library , accessed on April 19, 2016
- ↑ Build stables in the German Digital Library, accessed on April 19, 2016
- ↑ LPG Flora and Jolanthe in the German Digital Library, accessed on April 19, 2016
- ↑ Flora and Jolanthe. In: Neues Deutschland, April 27, 1966, p. 8.
- ↑ Ulbricht writes to Flora and Jolanthe on Zeit-Online; Article of December 4, 1959
- ↑ Cold soup in the Spiegel archive; Article of October 12, 1960
- ↑ Flora, Jolanthe and four thousand chickens on defa.de; Retrieved April 19, 2016
- ↑ Flora, Jolanthe and the offspring on defa.de; Retrieved April 19, 2016
- ↑ a b riot in the stable on defa.de; Retrieved April 19, 2016
- ↑ Riot in the stable ( memento of the original from April 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the MDR; Retrieved April 19, 2016
