Language use in socialist context by the example of description of the 1st May – Labour Day

Abstract

The present paper aims to analyze journalistic texts, that were published in the German GDR-newspaper Neues Deutschland on Labour Day 1st May 1949. The texts serve the political authority as an instrument of legitimation of its own ideology and as an instrument to control and influence the crowd of people. The enhancement of socialist worldview and the denigration of others thinking are processed and conveyed by means of language; the media content and the language use are ordered and controlled by the political authority.