Polish poster art in post-war Germany

The fact that the circle of exhibition initiators and organisers expanded from the mid-1950s onwards and the fact that more and more 'politically harmless' activists were engaged in Polish-Western German cultural exchanges was highly welcome in Bonn, where it was vital to counter the quasi-monopoly status of the German Society for Cultural and Economic Exchange with Poland.[27] Hence, exhibitions were not only allowed permitted after it was sure that the Society was not involved.[28] The Foreign Office also attempted to deliberately aid such alternative promoters in order to create a counterweight to the Society. However they had to accept the fact that the diversification of actors and networks behind the exhibitions was also highly welcome amongst the authorities in Warsaw. In the fight for public opinion, its aim was to expand its spheres of influence and reach the widest possible audience in Germany with Polish cultural exports.

But politically suspect organisers were not the only ones to turn Polish poster exhibitions into a stumbling block in the 1950s and early 1960s. At a time when Bonn was still a long way off from its "New Eastern Policy" and the recognition of the Oder-Neisse border, sensitive border issues did not stop at Polish poster art. In 1962, for example, the organisers of an exhibition of Polish theatre posters and stage designs in Schleswig were asked to reconsider their choice of exhibits after it became known that they would also be documenting Polish "theatre life in the Oder-Neisse areas". [29] In another case, the Foreign Office only agreed to a tour of Germany by the Wroclaw Pantomime Theatre on condition that the name of the city did not appear on posters and other announcements. The Foreign Office therefore suggested that the ensemble be renamed the "Henry Tomaszewski Pantomime Theatre" – after the founder and director of the theatre Henry Tomaszewski, not to be confused with the poster artist of the same name – instead of the "Wroclaw Pantomime Theatre". Correspondingly the fact that one of the posters was then printed with the ensemble name "Pantomime Theater Breslau" caused considerable annoyance in the Federal Foreign Office.[30]

As these examples show, even supposedly non-political and harmless cultural posters were political dynamite if they touched on political taboos. However, the growing popularity of Polish poster art in Germany was hardly affected by official concerns, reservations and safety precautions.