CULTURE: Culture as an Arena of Transatlantic Conflict

Summary

Translated by Tradukas

CULTURE AND CULTURAL POLICY DURING THE COLD WAR

The collapse of communist rule in Eastern and Central Europe and the globalization energetically pursued by the United States have revealed clearly how strongly the Cold War influenced and, to a certain degree, privileged the cultural sphere. The unquestioning way in which over several decades cultural activity had not only been considered, but also supported financially and politically, was praised retrospectively in the 1990s, often with nostalgic undertones. West German debates about public cultural institutions had already begun to entertain the possibility of introducing privatization and market forces in the 1980s, but a real transformation only came about after Germany's political unification in 1990. The decline in political backing for subsidizing cultural activities became especially apparent in Berlin despite expectations about its responsibilities as the new capital city. The Cold War had created conditions under which art and culture enjoyed considerable public support and monies not only in the communist countries, but also in the West.

The Cold War took on its most ominous expression with the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Paradoxically, intellectual interest in the Cold War declined with this event, for the negative symbolism of the Wall took away the urgency of ideological competition between East and West. The fear of long-term threat to the Western way of life prompted by the Sputnik shock persisted, however, through the period of détente in the 1960s and 1970s. The Moscow and Warsaw treaties, which gave the West German government greater room for maneuver within the Western alliance, underscored the strength of communist power.