6 - American Literature in Germany and Its Reception in the Political Context of the Postwar Years

Summary

cultural rebirth in an atmosphere of tension between east and west

Even before World War II had ended, Americans were preparing to popularize ideas that had been suppressed during National Socialist rule and were to be used after the war, particularly in Germany, to link up with international intellectual developments. They created book programs under the auspices of the Psychological Warfare Branch with the objective of transmitting American ways of thinking. American literature also served this purpose. As early as 1943, American soldiers were outfitted with millions of paperback books, as virtual staples in their kits. These Armed Services Editions (with a print run of 123 million) were followed in early 1945 by Overseas Editions in a similar format (3.6 million printed), which were made specially available to the population in the occupied areas in English and sometimes in the local language. One example is Alfred Kazin's On Native Grounds. Kazin's book on modern American prose, which originally appeared in 1942, came out in 1945 as an Overseas Edition in both the original language and a German translation by Hans Sahl.