8 - Cold War Politics and American Popular Culture in Germany

Summary

In the aftermath of National Socialism and in the face of the Cold War, debates over American popular culture were central to (re)constructions of German identities on both sides of the Iron Curtain. American imports such as Hollywood movies, jazz, rock 'n' roll, and jeans were quite popular with German adolescents; as a result, they constituted some of the most controversial aspects of consumer culture in the two German states. In the 1950s and 1960s, East German authorities were more or less consistently hostile toward American imports. Many West German church leaders, politicians, and educators likewise attacked what they saw as cultural Americanization. By the late 1950s, however, an emerging Cold War liberal consensus made consumption, including the consumption of American popular culture, increasingly part of a new, liberal West German identity.

After 1945, with the Allied occupation and the opening of its market, West Germany experienced an unprecedented influx of American products, from nylon stockings to popular music. The impact of these imports was by no means restricted to West Germany; it reached well beyond the Iron Curtain, especially via Berlin. East German authorities severely restricted American imports into their own territory and tried to prevent their population from consuming American movies, music, and fashions, but they could not control access.