Picture 32: Berlin, May 1960. This slogan refers to Krushchev's so-called "Berlin memorandum" from 1958. In it, he demanded that the Western allies give up their military presence in West Berlin within six months and leave West Berlin as a "Free and de-militarized city". Otherwise, he threatened to conclude a separate peace treaty with the GDR which would have given the East German leadership sovereign control over access routes to West Berlin, regardless of Allied agreements. The memorandum led to the so-called "Second Berlin crisis", which went on for a few years and culminated in the erection of the Wall in 1961 (see also „The Wall“). The East German leadership was keen to support the Soviet initiative, as any chance for increased state sovereignty was welcome to them. The slogan reads: "West Berlin will be a free city".
Obviously, definitions of freedom used in Cold War propaganda varied strongly.