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  1. Home
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  3. GIs in Germany
  • Cited by 2
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2013
Print publication year:
2013
Online ISBN:
9781139020695
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139020695
Subjects:
Area Studies, American History after 1945, American Studies, Twentieth Century European History, History, European Studies
Series:
Publications of the German Historical Institute
Information

Book description

The fifteen essays in this volume offer a comprehensive look at the role of American military forces in Germany. The American military forces in the Federal Republic of Germany after WWII played an important role not just in the NATO military alliance but also in German-American relations as a whole. Around twenty-two-million US servicemen and their dependants have been stationed in Germany since WWII, and their presence has contributed to one of the few successful American attempts at democratic nation building in the twentieth century. In the social and cultural realm the GIs helped to Americanize Germany, and their own German experiences influenced the US civil rights movement and soldier radicalism. The US military presence also served as a bellwether for overall relations between the two countries.

Reviews

'… worth a read not just for its account of the cultural, political, and social history that created the relationship between Germany and the United States today, but also to serve as a lesson for the pitfalls that our military is sure to face as it changes how forces are postured in the years to come.'

Source: Military Review

'This is a too-rare moment of genuine collaboration and cooperation between American and German scholars who bring together a range of perspectives on the American military presence in Germany … the editors and contributors who patiently assembled this book should be very proud. Any scholar whose work touches on America's Cold War Army or on postwar German history will benefit from this volume.'

Source: Journal of Military History

'The authors have made valuable contributions to the nation’s military history and to the study of international relations … scholars of American military history, international relations, and international social history will certainly find this volume to be a valuable addition to their reading lists.'

Source: H-Net Reviews

'This diverse collection offers a nuanced assessment of whether and how the massive US military presence contributed to Americanization from above and below as well as to Americanism. It will be of interest to students of American military history, the Cold War, postwar West Germany, and the 1970s.'

Mary Nolan Source: The Journal of American History

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Contents

Page 1 of 2

Contents
  • 7 - American Military Families in West Germany
    pp 161-186
  • Social, Cultural, and Foreign Relations, 1946–1965
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The presence of American, British, and French military forces in West Germany was the vital pledge of allied politics for more than forty years. These troops created security in Germany by re-establishing public order. On October 1, 1945, the agencies of the U.S. military government in Germany was restructured and the U.S. Group Control Council (USGCC) was renamed Office of Military Government for Germany, United States (OMGUS). Army divisions would be stationed in Germany on a permanent basis, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower would be appointed as the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). This was the beginning of the reinforcement of U.S. forces in peacetime. To make West German participation in NATO more acceptable to a skeptical West European public, it was argued that U.S. forces would be able to intervene to check any renewed threat to peace in Europe from the Germans.
  • 8 - Insolent Occupiers, Aggressive Protectors
    pp 189-211
  • Policing GI Delinquency in Early 1950s West Germany
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR rendered irrelevant a half-century of planning between two significantly different military systems to fight a war that never took place. The U.S. Armed Forces and the German Bundeswehr have gone predictably separate ways. The U.S. Army and the Bundeswehr were separate entities. The policy demands of their respective governments required significantly different force structures and doctrines. Yet parallel evolution in a common environment eventually produced a deterrent no less effective in its way than the nuclear missiles of America's strategic triad, or the growing economic interaction between the Federal Republic and the states of the Warsaw Pact. That the NATO central front could hold and counterattack without exhausting itself, without becoming pinned in place, and without resorting immediately to nuclear weapons, contributed significantly to shaping Soviet strategy and deterring Soviet adventurism.
  • 9 - Protection from the Protector
    pp 212-234
  • Court-Martial Cases and the Lawlessness of Occupation in American-Controlled Berlin, 1945–1948
  • View abstract

    Summary

    On September 9, 1950, President Harry Truman announced that the United States intended to temporarily multiply the number of American troops in Europe. He strongly emphasized that a "basic element" of the decision was the government's expectation that the U.S. commitment would be matched by the Europeans. Chancellor Ludwig Erhard emphasized the great importance the German government attached to the troops and tried to re-assure President Lyndon Johnson with the remark that in his judgment the GIs were quite happy in Germany. Vietnam accelerated the shift in American attitudes on the political situation in Europe. Richard Nixon announced that the United States would "under no circumstances" make a unilateral reduction in its commitment to NATO: Any reduction in NATO forces will only take place on a multilateral basis and on the basis of what those who are lined up against the NATO forces - what they might do.
  • 10 - The Godfathers ofInnere Führung?
    pp 237-251
  • The American Military Model and the Creation of the Bundeswehr
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter examines the political raison d'être behind the U.S. Army's military communities in Germany. It focuses on the political impact of the institutionalized presence of family members and other civilians with the American forces in West Germany during the Cold War. Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), there were as many American civilian personnel and military family members living in West Germany as troops. Bringing American soldiers' families to Europe and establishing military communities was initially intended to address an internal problem, to restore and maintain morale and discipline so that the military mission of the occupation could be achieved. The establishment of the military communities anticipated the new American policy in Germany. The immense value of the presence of army families as a political symbol always outweighed the financial and military arguments for leaving the families behind.
  • 11 - FromBefehlsausgabeto “Briefing”
    pp 252-270
  • The Americanization of the Luftwaffe
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter examines the formative years of the development of German-American relations in the garrison cities. In early 1947, U.S. authorities introduced a new policy that encouraged a friendly attitude toward and association with Germans. The European Command (EUCOM), stationed in Heidelberg since 1947, started to develop its own ideas of what German-American relations should look like. For EUCOM, the "morale, health and efficiency" of the occupation troops and their dependents were of paramount importance. EUCOM started a program to improve relations between the U.S. occupation troops and the German population. This effort was triggered by U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy's policy for re-orientation of the German population. The German-American Women's Club was particularly active in promoting contact between the groups and fostering friendships. The Little America issue led to the physical separation of self-contained American housing settlements from German residential areas meant for German-American relations.
  • 13 - The U.S. Military and Dissenters in the Ranks
    pp 296-310
  • Germany, 1970–1975
  • View abstract

    Summary

    This chapter explains the peculiarities that characterized the relationship between American GIs and West German policemen after World War II. It discusses how GI delinquency and the numerous conflicts with German civilians that occurred influenced German-American relations at the grassroots level. Complaints about the insolent occupiers or aggressive protectors were one sign of the West Germans' growing self-esteem during the early years of their country's economic miracle. Many Germans were no longer willing to accept an occupation-like U.S. military presence. In the second half of the 1950s, other issues began to bother the public even more than GI crimes, notably the so-called occupation damages, that is, property losses or damages arising from real estate requisitioning, troop maneuvers and low-flying military aircraft. GI delinquency led to a veritable crisis for the German police, who had also to grapple with limited jurisdiction, frequent staff changes, and organizational reforms.
  • 14 - The U.S. Armed Forces and the Development of Anti-NATO Protest in West Germany, 1980–1989
    pp 311-329
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Court-martial case files documenting noncapital infractions by U.S. military personnel unveil the stormy casual relationships and tense chance encounters, providing a unique opportunity to witness the many different faces of GIs and Germans in the first three years of Berlin's occupation. To maintain discipline among the troops stationed in the destroyed city, courts-martial were assembled swiftly so that potential infractions involving U.S. Army personnel could be adjudicated according to the dictates of military law. The cases adjudicated in these trials provide a view into German-American relations that looks beyond the much-discussed issue of fraternization. The court-martial system was designed to discipline and punish armed service personnel for infractions committed during tours of duty. Police records, MP reports, and personal accounts testify that Americans were represented in scuffles with the Berlin civilian population: these less than pleasant forms of fraternization punctuated the daily contact between Germans and their postwar protectors.
  • Appendix: - Population Statistics for U.S. Military in Germany, 1945–2000
    pp 347-352
  • View abstract

    Summary

    In a preliminary assessment drafted in early 1954, Wolf Graf Baudissin, the head of the department within the Amt Blank responsible for developing the concept of Innere Führung noted that the Germans were faced with the difficult choice between "becoming Europeanized" or pursuing "reform". The failure of the European Defense Community (EDC) put an end to these worries. The discussions between the Americans and West Germans on the concept of Innere Führung in the years leading up to the creation of the Bundeswehr make clear the complexity of trying to transfer the practices of the American "army within a democracy". The West Germans were concerned about the broad issues of the social integration and legitimation of the armed forces subsumed within the concept of Innere Führung. The Americans took a more narrow approach and viewed the question of civil-military relations as primarily a constitutional issue.
  • Select Bibliography
    pp 353-358
  • View abstract

    Summary

    The West German experts envisioned that the Federal Republic would provide the proposed European Defense Community (EDC) with a modern tactical air force for close air support to German army units. The plan to restrict the air force to providing combat support to ground forces stemmed in part from the dominance of infantry and artillery experts in the West Germans' discussions and the lessons they had drawn from their World War II experiences. It also reflected the scant attention the Jahrbuch der Luftwaffe had given to aerial doctrine and the theory of airpower during the 1930s and 1940s. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) began a program within the framework of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP) in 1953 to train pilots and technicians from NATO member states at air bases in Bavaria. The scale of American materiel and training support reduced their chances to influence German air potential.

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