The well-known peace slogan first attracted attention after I sprayed it on the wall of the Feldstraße bunker in Hamburg in February 1981 (see above). It was quickly discovered by a press photographer, photographed and ended up in the daily press the next day. It became really famous a little later with the Wall graphic that I drew and circulated as a poster.
The slogan and the wall graphic struck a nerve and spread like wildfire – today we would call it ‘viral’. The peace slogan was meaningful for many people. During the Cold War, the slogan made an important contribution to social discourse. It adorned the walls of many shared flats, was copied many times and travelled around Germany as a bumper sticker.
There has been much debate about the origin of the saying. The German Language Society established in 1983 that it has an eventful history. In variations, it can be traced back to Harpo Marx (of the Marx Brothers), Thornton Wilder and Carl Sandburg. See: Der Sprachdienst. The author and journalist Martin Rasper came to the conclusion in his booklet published in 2017, which is well worth reading: ‚»NO SPORTS« hat Churchill nie gesagt‘, that the authorship of the German-language phrase ‘Imagine it’s war and nobody goes there’ can be attributed to me.
How I came up with the slogan and how the graffiti came about is explained in more detail here and in SPIEGEL Geschichte.
The graphic from 1981 is now a cultural and historical document. It is still in my possession. I would like to donate it to a suitable environment, a museum or a collection, so that it can continue to be available for public discourse.
Above:
The historical photo from 1981.
• Outside format: 140 x 100 cm
• Image format: 120 x 80 cm
• Photo print on Ilford b/w paper behind acrylic glass
• Shadow gap framing
• Edition of 10
• certified and signed by hand
Only a few copies of the small series are still available. They are offered for sale and for rent.
Purchase price per copy:
EURO 3.500,00
Rent: please enquire
plus transport costs
Please enquire by email or telephone.
With Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, war has arrived in our immediate European neighbourhood. And the Middle East conflict confronts us Germans in particular with the question of how conflicts can arise and be resolved.
The saying that gave rise to hope in 1981 once again offers a good opportunity today to address the question of how we personally feel about issues of self-defence and the Bundeswehr.
Incidentally, a WDR documentary on the latter question appeared in 2023, in which the saying ‘Imagine there’s a war and nobody goes.’ is thematised. The award-winning documentary is available in the WDR Mediathek: here.
As far as the war against Ukraine is concerned, I asked myself how Russian civil society could be supported on the subject of conscientious objection and in 2022 I launched the participatory campaign ‘Imagine they get mail in Russia…’.
Meine Graffitiparole »Stell Dir vor, es ist Krieg, und Keiner geht hin.« wurde durch den Angriffs auf die Ukraine von der Realität überholt. Der Krieg ist nun in unmittelbarer europäischer Nachbarschaft angekommen.
Ihre Formulierung weckte 1981 während des Kalten Krieges Hoffnung. Heute weckt sie Zweifel. Letztlich wird allein die russische Zivilgesellschaft Putin stoppen können. Doch seinen Destabilisierungsbemühungen, die in letzten Jahren bei uns Früchte trugen, die zu Hetze und Polarisierungen geführt haben, können wir nur selbst zurückdrängen.
Die Grafik aus dem Jahr 1981 wurde zum Zeitdokument. Wie es dazu kam und wie der Spruch selbst entstand, all dies habe ich hier sowie bei SPIEGEL Geschichte erzählt.
Weniger bekannt sein dürfte, dass die Orignalzeichung immer noch existiert und sich in meinem Besitz befindet. Mein Wunsch ist es, ihr in einer passenden zeitgeschichtlichen Umgebung ein neues Zuhause zu verschaffen.