Thread by @artisbrutal2021

President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan welcome Billy Graham to the 1981 National Prayer Breakfast.
billygraham.org/story/billy-gr…

In East Berlin Graham was hosted by Walter B. Smith II - officer of the US Foreign Service

In Walter B. Smith II's long career he was in
East Berlin, Germany (1979-1983)

Activities:
DCM
Liberalization of U.S. trade restrictions
Ambassador Bolen
Poland’s Solidarity crisis
Local situation
Ambassador Ridgeway

"In 1977 , President Jimmy Carter named Dave Bolen as the ambassador to East Germany, the first African-American to serve as ambassador to a nation behind the Iron Curtain ...While in that role Bolen helped to lay the groundwork for the destruction of the Berlin Wall" 🤔

A lot of things were happening in 1977.. another #FIFA #Football #soccer #Adidas related story👇

A year later in 1978 the new FIFA HQ was set up in Zurich Switzerland

There were a lot of interesting characters cruising East Berlin and the Soviet Union in the 1970s

David Bowie reportedly made 2 trips : in 1973 then 1976 with Iggy Pop

This was written into the public imagination by such groups as Kraftwerk and a famous music studio Hansa not far from the Berlin Wall itself, to which many famous Western music bands began to visit through Bowie's influence

"Ich bin ein Berliner !"

Bowie is even said to have written Heroes at a window of the Hansa studio

David Bowie's career really started taking off in "spook_y" London when he met Freddi Burretti at the Swiss owned cafe called El Sombrero . Burretti designed his Ziggy Stardust outfits

Not many people who frequented El Sombrero realized that the guy who ran it Harry Laubscher actually owned it.. with typical Swiss discretion and, from a banking family, he kept his background on the down-low..

"For a time Derek Jarman, Ossie Clarke, Angie and David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Bianca, Long John Baldry and Dusty Springfield could be found there every week, and even Francis Bacon sometimes peeped in. .

..It was the first disco in London to have coloured underfloor neon lighting beneath its flashing, star-shaped, glass dance floor."

Laubscher had it made in and imported from Switzerland

El Sombrero was later renamed "Yours or Mine"

5 WAYS THE BERLIN WALL INFLUENCED POPULAR CULTURE
gale.com/intl/archives-…

Graffitti painting on East side of the wall based on a photograph of Leonid Brezhnev & Erich Honecker's Bruderkuss in 1979 - anniversary celebration of the formation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR)

At the 25th Party Congress in Moscow in February 1976, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev emphasized the importance of establishing close relations with the social democratic parties of the West.. w/ Jimmy Carter

President Brezhnev Kissing Jimmy Carter after signing the SALT II treaty in 1979 , Vienna

When the 1980 Presidential Election came,the Reagan campaign made devastating use of the photograph of Carter embracing Brezhnev at the summit meeting where the arms pact was signed

"The irony was that when the pact was signed inside the ornate Hofburg Palace in Austria, the hearty embrace between two leaders symbolized a new Soviet-Western rapprochement for millions of television viewers around the globe.."..

> Hofburg > Habsburg

wheaton.edu/media/billy-gr…
During his “Euro 1970 Campaign,” Billy Graham
used a public viewing system that allowed him to preach to European Christians in 39 different
European cities simultaneously for the first time..

n the 1980s, Graham first preached in the
German Democratic Republic, the separated part of the country often called “East Germany.”
And finally, he returned to West Germany in 1990 and 1993..

" in the'50s,' 60s & '70s,Graham provoked
fierydiscussions among German Protestants about appropriate methods for spreading the Gospel&about his message. He also encountered a strong cultural anti-Americanism that inspired the
German press to invent the “God & Coca Cola” metaphor

"On the other hand, Graham,personifying “the American savior,” gave the German population hope. In addition, he became an icon of American popular culture and the Cold War through whom Germans could relate to the Western world.."
Dr Uta Balbier

Balbier's thesis is that"Graham’s campaign in the '50s & '60s helped to integrate Germany into the Western world. In the '70s & '80s, his campaigns overcame the
concepts of Cold War politics &formed a global, media-based religious community that even
crossed political boundaries"

1967 NYT article
nytimes.com/1967/03/25/arc…

SAN JUAN, P.R., March 24 --The Rev. Billy Graham, whose week-long religious crusade closes here Easter Sunday, denied knowledge yesterday of Central Intelligence Agency financial support for his recent trip to Latin America. 👀

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wa…
After the end of World War II in Europe, what remained of pre-war Germany west of the Oder-Neisse line was divided into four occupation zones (as per the Potsdam Agreement)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_A…
"The Potsdam Agreement concerned the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its border, and the entire European THEATRE of War territory."

Let's stop here for a mo to meditate on that expression "theatre of war" ..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_(…
Carl von Clausewitz defines the term Kriegstheater (translating the older, 17thC Latin term theatrum belli) :

Denotes properly such a portion of the space over which war prevails as has its boundaries protected, and thus possesses a kind of independence.

Or to be more specific:

The word theatre comes from the Latin theatrum, and this from the Greek ϑέατρον, which indicated the building for dramatic performances but also that for assemblies & political life. The Greek noun comes from ϑεάομαι 'to watch, to be a spectator'.

War theatre is also, therefore, a spectacle.. as CNN demonstrated so well during the 2003 Iraq War

Even describing the missiles and detonating bombs lighting the night sky as 'beautiful' at one point

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o…
There is no conclusive evidence that theater evolved from ritual, despite the similarities between the performance of ritual actions and theatre and the significance of this relationship..

This similarity of early theatre to ritual is negatively attested by Aristotle, who in his Poetics defined theatre in contrast to the performances of sacred mysteries ..

According to the historians Oscar Brockett and Franklin Hildy, rituals typically include elements that entertain or give pleasure, such as costumes and masks..

This understanding from the mystery schools principles of ritual, costume/uniform and masks can also be seen in the theatre of war and was used to great effect in WW2

Theatre of the Absurd came about as a reaction of the Second World War. The existential philosophy was taken as its root and was combined with dramatic elements to create a style of theatre which presented a world which could not be logically explained.

Absurdism is also frequently compared to Surrealism's predecessor, Dadaism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_o…

an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire

Developed in reaction to World War I