CALL TO ACTION
For the sixth time we announced the art competition in three different categories – photography, film and collage. This year´s motto was:
„Modern means of communication give power.“
This sentence by H.G. Wells is quoted by Edward Bernays book „Propaganda“, published in 1928. He is considered as the founder of modern public relations in political and corporate communication. At that time, the author have already had a career as a propagandist for the entry of the U.S. into the I. World War and used his experience for the election of an American president and increasing cigarette, book or truck sales for politics and advertising. „Propaganda“ became the standard work of PR.
In the year the book was published, the Workers International Relief (WIR) and the magazine „ArbeiterIllustrierteZeitung“ (AIZ), both founded by Willi Münzenberg, had existed for seven years. In the struggle for solidarity, education, mass mobilization and self-empowerment, both rely on the use of modern means of advertising. Important in this was the conquest of modern means of communication such as photographs, collages, reportages, films, plays, belletristic texts, drawings, etc.. They consistently follow the rules of PR campaign development listed by Bernays.
At the same time, the Nazi-Party (NSDAP), especially in the person of Joseph Goebbels, appropriated the same instruments, approved the means and symbols of left-wing mobilization and put them at the service of its reactionary ideology. Willi Münzenberg will analyze and expose these mechanisms of fascist propaganda in his 1937 writing „Propaganda as a Weapon“ in Paris exile. He calls for an offensive of counter-propaganda. His call comes too late.
THE RESULTS
We document here an overview of the winners and the jury. The supplement can be downloaded here. Video and photo impressions of the award ceremony can be found here.
THE 2022 COMPETITION
The art competition will take place again next year. We will publish the motto and call in the spring 2022. All interested can contact us: info@muenzenbergforum.de