West Germans Against The West: Anti-Americanism in Media and Public Opinion in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-68 (Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media)

269 Pages·2010·0.8 MB·English

by  Christoph Hendrik Muller

West Germans Against
The West
Anti-Americanism in Media and
Public Opinion in the Federal
Republic of Germany 1949–1968
Christoph Hendrik Müller
9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pagei
PalgraveStudiesintheHistoryoftheMedia
SeriesEditors: DrBillBell(CentrefortheHistoryoftheBook, UniversityofEdinburgh),
Dr Chandrika Kaul (Department of Modern History, University of St Andrews), Professor
Kenneth Osgood (Department of History, Florida Atlantic University), Dr Alexander S.
Wilkinson(CentrefortheHistoryoftheMedia,UniversityCollegeDublin)
PalgraveStudiesintheHistoryoftheMediapublishesoriginal,high-qualityresearchintothe
culturesofcommunicationfromthemiddleagestothepresentday.Theseriesexploresthe
varietyofsubjectsanddisciplinaryapproachesthatcharacterizethisvibrantfieldofenquiry.
Theserieswillhelpshapecurrentinterpretationsnotonlyofthemedia,inallitsforms,but
alsoofthepowerfulrelationshipbetweenthemediaandpolitics,society,andtheeconomy.
AdvisoryBoard:ProfessorCarlosBarrera(UniversityofNavarra,Spain),ProfessorPeterBurke
(Emmanuel College, Cambridge), Professor Denis Cryle (Central Queensland University,
Australia), Professor David Culbert (Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge), Professor
NicholasCull(CenteronPublicDiplomacy, UniversityofSouthernCalifornia), Professor
TomO’Malley(CentreforMediaHistory,UniversityofWales,Aberystwth),ProfessorChester
Pach(OhioUniversity)
Titlesinclude:
ChristophHendrikMüller
WESTGERMANSAGAINSTTHEWEST
Anti-AmericanisminMediaandPublicOpinionintheFederalRepublicofGermany
Forthcomingtitles:
JoelWiener
THEAMERICANIZATIONOFTHEBRITISHPRESS,1830–1914
MichaelKrysko
AMERICANRADIOINCHINA
Technology,CommunicationandCulturalExpansion
JamesMussell&SuzannePaylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURYINTHEDIGITALAGE
Politics,PedagogyandPractice
JaneChapman
EMPIRE,WOMENANDMEDIA
CitizenshipandConsumptioninPressandRadio,1863–1947
MartinConboy&JohnSteel
THELANGUAGEOFNEWSPAPERSINNINETEENTH-CENTURYENGLAND
CommercializingthePopular
PalgraveStudiesintheHistoryoftheMedia
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9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pageiii
West Germans Against
The West
Anti-Americanism in Media and
Public Opinion in the Federal
Republic of Germany 1949–1968
Christoph Hendrik Müller
9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pageiv
©ChristophHendrikMüller2010
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Müller,ChristophHendrik,1970–
WestGermansagainsttheWest:anti-Americanisminmediaandpublic
opinionintheFederalRepublicofGermany/ChristophHendrikMüller.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Summary:“AnexplorationofhowthethemeofAnti-Americanismwas
employedbyinfluentialsectionsoftheWestGermanmediatoopposethe
modernisationoftheFederalRepublicofGermanyduringthelong1950s.
InthepublicbattleoverthefuturedirectionofGermany,Americastood
asasymbolofsocial,politicalandeconomiccorruption’’—Providedby
publisher.
ISBN978–0–230–23155–9(hardback)
1.UnitedStates—Foreignpublicopinion—German. 2. Publicopinion—
Germany(West) 3. Anti-Americanism—Germany(West) 4. Mass
media—Germany—History—20thcentury. 5. UnitedStates—Inmass
media. 6. UnitedStates—Presscoverage—Germany(West)
7. Germany(West)—Civilization—Americaninfluences. I. Title.
E183.8.G3M8482010
303.48’243073—dc22 2009044929
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainby
CPIAntonyRowe,ChippenhamandEastbourne
9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pagev
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
ListofAbbreviations ix
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Generalintroduction 1
1.2 EarlyvisitstotheUSA 17
2 Vergangenheitsbewältigung attheExpenseofthe
UnitedStates 22
2.1 TheAmericanoccupationofGermany 28
2.2 USwarcrimes?Atomicbombsandthe
MorgenthauPlan 44
2.3 Indianer andNeger andotherdarkchaptersin
UShistoryorpolitics 54
3 RejectionoftheRepublic–DemocracyandCapitalism 62
3.1 TheRejectionofAmerican-styledemocracy 63
3.1.1 ‘DieErsteLegion’ 66
3.1.2 Anti-liberalthought:CarlSchmittandthe
WeimarRepublic 74
3.1.3 Anti-liberalthought:CarlSchmittandhis
followersintheFRG 80
3.2 Thereactionagainsttheallegedeconomic
Americanisation 89
3.2.1 Theinternationalisationoftradeanditsenemies 92
3.2.2 ShoppinginAmerica:distastefortheconsumer
society(orFordismonshelves) 98
3.3 ‘NeitherMoscownorWallStreet’–Germanybetween
EastandWest 104
4 HedonismandEquality 120
4.1 Thepost-warlegacy:Ami-MädelsandVeronicas 122
4.2 HollywoodandHeimatfilme 126
4.2.1 Cinema,sexualityandcrime 129
4.2.2 Heimatfilmasthecounter-imageto‘America’ 134
4.3 Television,badtasteandculturalsuperficiality 137
v
9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pagevi
vi Contents
4.4 Jazz,rockandrollandHalbstarke 147
4.5 ‘Themostspoiledwomenintheworld’ 158
4.5.1 ‘FromDixielandtoKinseyland’ 161
4.5.2 ‘FrauenstaatAmerika’ 168
5 ‘Americanisation’Revisited 172
Epilogue:‘1968’and‘America’ 179
Notes 183
Bibliography:PrimarySourcesandSecondaryLiterature 230
1. Unpublishedsources 230
2. Publishedsources:autobiographiesandreminiscences 235
3. Publishedsources:contemporaryfiction 236
4. Publishedsources:pre-1970academicliteratureand
non-fiction 236
5. Publishedsources:newspapersandmagazines 238
6. Secondaryliterature 238
Index 256
9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pagevii
Acknowledgements
There are a number of people and institutions without whose support
thismonographwouldhavebeenimpossibletowrite.Firstofall,there
are those who provided me with accommodation and other assistance
duringthemanyresearchtripsImadetoGermanyandtheUSA.Iwould
like to thank Marc Gawron (Bonn), Andreas ‘Harry’ Fuchs (Munich),
VerenaHanf(Essen), OlliverGroßandAndreaHerdegen(Bonn), Wolf-
gang Büchner, Anneke Hoppensack, Antonie Nord, and Björn Jettka
(Hamburg), Ute Würtz and Hans Kania (Dortmund), Ben Walsh (San
Francisco), Ciaran Power and Nicole Harper (Stanford/California), and
Christine Haughney (New York). Some of them have moved since, but
theirhospitalityintheplacesmentionedwasfantastic.Whenattending
business in London, Carina Gardner (née Montgomery), Karl Golden,
andrecentlyalsoMartinBrinklertookturnsinhousingme.
Forthefinancialsupportofthemanyresearchtrips,Iammostgrate-
ful to the Raymond Carr Fund, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, the Stahl
Fund, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, the Committee for Graduate Stud-
ies,Oxford,theArnold,Bryce,andReadModernHistoryFunds,Modern
HistoryFaculty,Oxford,theAlastairBuchanSubsidiaryFund,Centrefor
InternationalStudies, Oxford, andthePostgraduateBursarySchemeof
theGermanHistorySociety(GHS).IaminparticulardebttotheGerman
HistoricalInstituteinLondonforfinancingalongsummerofresearch
in many German archives. Last, but most certainly not least, I would
havetoexpressmygratitudetothefinanciersoftheScatcherdEuropean
Scholarship,Oxford:withoutthatthree-yearbursary,coveringfeesand
maintenance, I would not even have started the endeavour of writing
thedoctoralthesisthateventuallyledtothisbook.
Many people have given me invaluable advice along the rocky road
to completion. In no particular order, I would like to thank Alan
Kramer, Margit Szöllösi-Janze, Robert Service, Arthur Hanhardt, James
Byrne, Christoph Kleßmann, John Horne, Michael Hochgeschwender,
Jim Livesey, Ilaria Favretto, Carina Gardner (née Montgomery), Filipe
RibeirodeMeneses, KlausLarres, MarkLyttle, SabineWichert, Andreas
Hess, Anselm Heinrich, and the late Mikael af Malmborg, who spent
many an Oxford evening talking me through the very early stages of
my research. Stefan Berger and Jonathan Wright examined the doc-
toralthesisearlyin2004. Theirsuggestionssignificantlyimprovedthis
vii
9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pageviii
viii Acknowledgements
book. Judith Devlin and Michael Laffan at University College Dublin
keptkickingmeupthebacksidetoturnthedoctoralthesisintoabook
ratherquickly,andIamthankfulforthat.Michael,togetherwithBryan
Fanning, isalsoco-responsibleforthetitleofthisbook, conceivedone
late night in the UCD common room. Obviously, I am grateful to the
membersofstaffatthemanylibrariesandarchivesIvisited(andlisted
elsewhere),butinparticularIwouldliketothankthestaffoftheNews-
paper Archive in Dortmund, as they are only represented in spirit, not
in footnotes, since the footnotes only refer to the newspaper articles I
found there. Dorothea Breitenfeldt of the Bremen State Archive (StAB)
also deserves special thanks, since she alerted me to the importance of
travelreportsonmyveryfirstarchivalvisit.
Manyotherpeoplehavecommenteduponmyworkatvariousstages,
and thus given me important advice. It is impossible to name them
all. I would however, like to thank all members of the German His-
torical Institute in London for their continuous moral and intellectual
support. HenrikeMüller(neitherrelativenorin-law)haslookedatand
commenteduponimportantsectionsoftheinitialthesis. Mygratitude
alsogoestoAlexanderWilkinsonandKenOsgood,serieseditorsofthe
PalgraveStudiesintheHistoryoftheMedia, whotookaparticularlykeen
look at the manuscript, Ruth Ireland and Michael Strang at Palgrave
Macmillan, and Ruth Willats, for supervising the editorial progress so
superbly, andtheanonymousreaderappointedbyPalgraveMacmillan
forprovidinginvaluablesuggestions.
MyparentsHelgaandKlauscontinuedtosupportmeineverypossible
way.BrittaMischekhadtoendure,attheshortestdistancepossible,my
moods and the occasional absent-mindedness. She was also a constant
source of encouragement and, as a fellow researcher of the European
view of America, a provider of new ideas. All of them, I would like
to thank. Finally, my thesis supervisor Tony Nicholls at St. Antony’s
College,Oxforddeservesthelastlineoftheseacknowledgements:with-
out his constant critical advice, his repeated reading and re-reading of
thevariouspiecesofwork-in-progress,andthepatienceandcompassion
hehasshowninmanydiscussions,thisbookwouldbeinnowaylikeit
istoday.
AmmanandDublin,June2009
9780230_231559_01_prex.tex 15/2/2010 17:47 Pageix
List of Abbreviations
GeneralAbbreviations
AA AuswärtigesAmt(GermanForeignOffice)
AG Aktiengesellschaft(joint-stockcompany)
ARD Arbeitsgemeinschaftderöffentlich-rechtlichen
RundfunkanstaltenderBundesrepublikDeutschland
(publicGermanTVandradiostations)
BHE BundderHeimatvertriebenenundEntrechteten(1950s
refugeeparty)
BRD BundesrepublikDeutschland(seeFRG)
CDU Christlich-DemokratischeUnionDeutschlands
(Christian-DemocraticParty)
CSU Christlich-SozialeUnion(BavariansisterpartyoftheCDU)
DAF DeutscheArbeitsfront(Nazilabourorganisation)
DDR DeutscheDemokratischeRepublik(seeGDR)
DKP DeutscheKommunistischePartei(GermanCommunist
Party,foundedin1968)
DP DeutschePartei(GermanParty)
DVP DeutscheVolkspartei(WeimarGermannational-liberal
party)
FAZ FrankfurterAllgemeineZeitung
FDP FreieDemokratischeParteiDeutschlands(Liberalparty)
FRG FederalRepublicofGermany
GDR GermanDemocraticRepublic
GI enlistedsoldieroftheUSArmy,abbreviationof“government
issue”
GVP GesamtdeutscheVolkspartei(Pan-GermanPeople’sParty)
HICOG HighCommissionofGermany
JCS JointChiefsofStaff
KPD KommunistischeParteiDeutschlands(CommunistPartyof
Germany,bannedbytheConstitutionalCourtin1956)
NL Nachlass(privatepapers)
NPD NationaldemokratischeParteiDeutschlands(1960s
neo-Fascistparty)
NSDAP NationalsozialistischeDeutscheArbeiterpartei(NaziParty)
OMGUS OfficeofMilitaryGovernmentforGermany(U.S.)
ix