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SPD Poster for Bundestag Elections: Hans-Jochen Vogel (1983)
The Dortmund Election Party Congress of the SPD was held on January 21, 1983. There, Lord Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel was nominated as the party’s top candidate for chancellor in the snap elections in March of that year. In an election commercial, Vogel expressed a belief in his ability to preserve and advance the legacy of Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt. Given the emphasis then being placed on negotiations on intermediate-range missiles and on the SPD’s demand, as put forth in their election program, for a moratorium on the stationing of missile systems, Vogel’s statement was supposed to stress continuity with Helmut Schmidt’s approach to foreign and security policy. Along with the debate about NATO’s Dual-Track Decision, the economic situation in the Federal Republic was a key election theme. The ongoing recession, however, prevented the SPD from convincing enough voters of their capacity to govern. The following SPD campaign poster consists of a simple statement by Vogel; it reads: “I ask voters for the authority, indeed, for the assignment, of doing everything possible, in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany, to make the stationing of missiles redundant.”