How Laos was Represented in the East German Newspaper Neues Deutschland, 1946–1990

Abstract

Even though the East German communist party newspaper Neues Deutschland, or
ND, can be called a controversial propaganda instrument, it may still help provide a
fuller picture of Second World–Third World relations during the Cold War. In its pursuit
of greater international recognition in the Cold War rivalry with West Germany, the
East German government established relations with as many countries as possible.
This included Third World countries such as Laos and ND reported on this, usually in
an ideologically biased way and sometimes with Orientalist characteristics.
Nonetheless, ND can be useful for historical research on Laos as the newspaper had
connections that Western media did not have access to. This paper is based on a
review of 2,984 articles about Laos published by ND from 1946 to 1990.