Editing Potsdamer Platz (section)

=== The free Berlin press versus the wise Berliner ===
Remembering the [[Nazi propaganda|effective use of propaganda in the leadup to the second World War]], the opposing camps later began berating one another with enormous signs displaying loud political slogans, facing each other across the border zone. That on the western side was erected first, in direct response to the ban on sales of Western newspapers in East Berlin, and comprised an illuminated display board 30 m wide and 1.5 m deep, facing east, supported on three steel lattice towers 25 m high and topped by the words ''DIE FREIE BERLINER PRESSE MELDET'' (The Free Berlin Press Announces). Important messages were spelt out on the display board using up to 2,000 bulbs. The sign was switched on for the first time on 10 October 1950, watched by a large crowd. On 18 November, the Communist authorities in the east ordered its destruction using a catapult made from a compressed air hose loaded with pebbles and small pieces of metal. However, the order was not executed and the sign lasted until 1974, an eventual victim of its own high maintenance costs.

Not to be outdone, East Berlin had meanwhile erected a sign of its own. This was up and running by 25 November 1950, less than seven weeks after its western counterpart, albeit for a much shorter time period. (It was demolished on 29 January 1953.{{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}) Facing towards West Berlin was the proclamation ''DER KLUGE BERLINER KAUFT BEI DER H.O.'' (The Wise Berliner Buys With The [[Handelsorganisation|HO]]) Underneath were the words ''NÄCHSTE VERKAUFSSTELLEN'' (Next Sales Premises), between two arrows pointing left and right, suggesting that large shopping developments were forthcoming in the immediate vicinity, although these never appeared.

What was not apparent from the western side however, was that East Berlin's construction boasted its own illuminated display board facing east, whose messages comprised the version of the news that the Communist authorities in the east wanted their citizens to believe. In addition, the East Berlin sign was carefully placed so that, when viewed from further away down Leipziger Strasse, its display board obscured the West Berlin sign standing beyond it. Over the next two years, West Berlin would regularly raise or lower its sign to make it more easily visible from the East again&nbsp;– and then East Berlin would raise or lower its own construction to obscure it once more.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.potsdamer-platz.org:| title = Leuchtschriftanlange – "Die Freie Berliner Presse Meldet" (in German, click on the link)}}</ref> Furthermore, the East German Government also exploited the huge facade of the nearby [[Columbushaus]] as a further propaganda tool.{{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}