Red Power: Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich and Indian Activist Networks in East and West Germany

In: Central European history, Band 41, Heft 3, S. 447-476

Abstract

Acuriousphotograph appeared in 1976 in the East-German newspaperJunge Welt(Fig. 1). Two well-known members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), Dennis Banks and Vernon Bellecourt, were shown together with an elderly German woman, Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, at her home in East Berlin. This photo, like so many of the photos of Indians in unexpected places, always seems to amuse people, leading them to ask with a snigger why the Indians were there. The Indians' presence in such places, however, is seldom a laughing matter, and in this case, scholars of the post-war era might find the answer to the simple question of the Indians' presence somewhat disconcerting.