18 - Americanization

Summary

The term “Americanization” has circulated in Germany since the turn of the last century and with increasing frequency since the 1920s. In everyday language and the pages of the popular press, it refers to a process of cultural and social cultural adaptation to the standards set by the society of the United States. According to the simple monolinear model of cultural transmission behind this notion, commodities from the United States and the ideas associated with them have flooded German society and remolded it on the pattern of “the American way of life.” Although this cliché remains suggestive and widely used, it should be carefully differentiated from the debate in contemporary history over the degree of American influence on German society and on West German society since World War II in particular, the subject of the second half of this article.

The popular image of American society, which has offered Germans a misleading vision of their own future, encompasses a collection of enduring clichés: Although the United States leads in technology and entices with many of the comforts of civilization, it is a money-driven society lacking culture or a soul. The principal negative, psychosocial consequences attributed to the ongoing rationalization and homogenization associated with Americanization have been “softness” and “feminization” (the loss of male authority) as well as loss of individuality and a unique identity.