Using Press Photographs in the Construction of Political Life Stories

Abstract

Markus Hulsberg1 was not only the youngest communist member of a West German state parliament in the 1950s, he also had to face one of the longest prison terms imposed on members of communist organizations in the Adenauer era. His sentence, five years of imprisonment for violating the 1951 ban of the Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth; FDJ) in West Germany, was widely publicized, and his case became known far beyond the communist movement. The press in East and West Germany reported on his first arrest in 1953 and on his wider political history, including his activity for the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Communist Party of Germany; KPD) before and after its ban in 1956, which led to further arrests; his escape to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1962; and his work for the newly formed Deutsche Kommunistische Partei (German Communist Party; DKP) after its formation in West Germany in 1968. To this day, Markus Hulsberg has remained a political activist, participating, for instance, in demonstrations and speaking at rallies as a member of the DKP.