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Poland’s path to freedom on SPIEGEL covers 1980 to 1990

DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 34/1980

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  • Fig. 1: TIME cover, issue dated 11 july 1931 - TIME cover, issue dated 11 july 1931
  • Fig. 2: NEWS REVIEW cover, issue 19/1939 - NEWS REVIEW cover, issue 19/1939
  • Fig. 3: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 1/1947 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 1/1947
  • Fig. 4: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 1/1955 -  DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 1/1955
  • Fig. 5: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 51/1970 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 51/1970
  • Fig. 6: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 43/1978 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 43/19
  • Fig. 7: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 23/1979 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 23/1979
  • Fig. 8: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 34/1980 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 34/1980
  • Fig. 9: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 35/1980 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 35/1980
  • Fig. 10: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 36/1980 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 36/1980
  • Fig. 11: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 45/1980 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 45/1980
  • Fig. 12: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 46/1980 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 46/1980
  • Fig. 13: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 50/1980 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 50/1980
  • Fig. 14: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 41/1981 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 41/1981
  • Fig. 15: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 52/1981 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 52/1981
  • Fig. 16: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 2/1982 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 2/1982
  • Fig. 17: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 10/1982 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 10/1982
  • Fig. 18: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 51/1983 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 51/1983
  • Fig. 19: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 5/1985 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 5/1985
  • Fig. 20: DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 52/1990 - DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 52/1990
DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 34/1980
DER SPIEGEL cover, issue 34/1980

In the last few weeks of the 1980s, a series of five extensive articles were published offering a detailed introduction to the Polish issue. To some extent, the articles constitute an historical philosophical filter through which the editors saw the situation in Poland at that time. From today’s perspective, the series of articles, which was published in five consecutive issues under the general heading “Wie Polen verraten wurde” (“How Poland was betrayed”)[14], seems to be an almost prophetic anticipation of the explosiveness of the change processes which started with the events in Gdańsk in August 1980. The magazine offered a comprehensive analysis of the Polish political system in the recent history of the country, from regaining its independence in 1918 to the invasion by Hitler in 1939 right up to the restructuring which evolved during the meetings of the “Big Three” [victorious allies – Translator’s comment]. Apart from this reconstruction of the history of the Polish state after the First World War up to the outbreak of the Second World War, the articles also offer an equally apt geopolitical summary in which the tragic fate of the Polish state emerges as a consequence of the conflicting interests of the superpowers. The meta level of the historical process and of the geopolitical conditions, which are made accessible to the reader in this series of articles, set the interpretative framework for the current, almost weekly reporting from Poland. The causes and consequence of the events of the time could no longer be reduced to internal crises in society, in the party machine or in the political opposition, instead it was caught up in a greater superstructure of political interdependences of the superpowers. But the editors’ interest in Polish issues was also a consequence of the magazine’s structure. The SPIEGEL did not have any permanent columns that dealt with Poland. This meant that the frequency of reporting took its cue from the relevance of sociopolitical events. Naturally, the inclusion of Polish issues was also dependent on the competition for good news so that in times of tension and unrest there was a lot to be read about Poland and less when nothing out of the ordinary was happening. This trend applied to both editorial considerations and the cover pages.

Against this background, a search for articles and covers dealing directly and only with Polish issues in the twenty years since the magazine was founded is futile. In the collective memory of the Germans, one cover in particular lives on – that of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic symbolically on bended knee. The black and white photograph of Willy Brandt’s grand gesture in Warsaw in 1970 is one of the most printed press photographs of all time and to this day is one of the most well known images of the German Chancellor. (Fig. 5) The SPIEGEL also acknowledged the election of a Pole to the office of Pope on their cover. The portrait of Karol Wojtyła on the cover of the 43/1978 issue introduced the cardinal to German readers directly after his election as the head of the Catholic Church. The heading chosen at the time: “Der Papst aus Polen – die Kommunisten herausgefordert” (“The Pope from Poland – communists challenged”) left readers in no doubt that the magazine’s editors recognised the political significance of the conclave’s outcome for Poland and the whole of the Eastern Bloc. (Fig. 6) Several covers were devoted to the Polish Pope. Another opportunity presented itself on the occasion of John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Poland from 2 to 10 June 1979. This was the first time in the history of the Holy See that its guardian had entered a communist country. The Hamburg magazine did not miss the symbolic religious aspect and the political dimension of the visit and this was reflected on the cover of issue 23/1979 of 4 June. (Fig. 7)

At the beginning of the 1980s, the interest in Polish issues grew. Between 1980 and 1990, the magazine devoted almost thirteen covers to the sociopolitical situation in Poland or to Polish personalities. In 1980 alone, the SPIEGEL referred to Polish issues on its covers around five times. The events on the Polish coast in August 1980 meant that the Western press and the Western media started to direct their attention to the striking workers in the state-owned enterprises in the north of the country, in particular at the Lenin shipyard in Danzig (Stocznia im. Lenina w Gdańsku). The cover story in the 34/1980 issue was a rapid reaction of the magazine to the striking Danzig shipyard workers and to the social crisis in Poland, which was intensifying from day to day. The cover image showed a section of a photo of the shipyard workers at a demonstration. Above the image was printed in bold lettering the proclamation of the issue’s cover story: “Gierek in Not – Polens Arbeiter rebellieren“ (Gierik in crisis – Poland’s worker’s rebel”) with “Gierek in crisis” being underlined in red to stand out even more. (Fig. 8)

 

[14] Wie Polen verraten wurde, (How Poland was betrayed) five-part series, [in:] DER SPIEGEL, 48-52/1980.