West Germans Against The West Anti-Americanism in Media and Public Opinion in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-68

by Muller, Christoph Hendrik

• ISBN13: 9780230231559
• ISBN10: 0230231551
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

An exploration of how the theme of Anti-Americanism was employed by influential sections of the West German media to oppose the modernisation of the Federal Republic of Germany during the long 1950s. In the public battle over the future direction of Germany, America stood as a symbol of social, political and economic corruption.

Author Biography

CHRISTOPH HENDRIK MLLER has been a lecturer at University College Dublin, Ireland, and has taught at Queens University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin. He has worked for Reuters, the Financial Times Deutschland and SPIEGEL online. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Oxford and a BA from Trinity College Dublin. He currently lives in Amman, Jordan.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
List of Abbreviations	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
General introduction	p. 1
Early visits to the USA	p. 17
Vergangenheitsbewältigung at the Expense of the United States	p. 22
The American occupation of Germany	p. 28
US war crimes? Atomic bombs and the Morgenthau Plan	p. 44
Indianer and Neger and other dark chapters in US history or politics	p. 54
Rejection of the Republic - Democracy and Capitalism	p. 62
The Rejection of American-style democracy	p. 63
'Die Erste Legion'	p. 66
Anti-liberal thought: Carl Schmitt and the Weimar Republic	p. 74
Anti-liberal thought: Carl Schmitt and his followers in the FRG	p. 80
The reaction against the alleged economic Americanisation	p. 89
The internationalisation of trade and its enemies	p. 92
Shopping in America: distaste for the consumer society (or Fordism on shelves)	p. 98
'Neither Moscow nor Wall Street' - Germany between East and West	p. 104
Hedonism and Equality	p. 120
The post-war legacy: Ami-Mädels and Veronicas	p. 122
Hollywood and Heimatfilme	p. 126
Cinema, sexuality and crime	p. 129
Heimatfilm as the counter-image to 'America'	p. 134
Television, bad taste and cultural superficiality	p. 137
Jazz, rock and roll and Halbstarke	p. 147
'The most spoiled women in the world'	p. 158
'From Dixieland to Kinseyland'	p. 161
'Frauenstaat Amerika'	p. 168
'Americanisation' Revisited	p. 172
Epilogue: '1968' and 'America'	p. 179
Notes	p. 183
Bibliography: Primary Sources and Secondary Literature	p. 230
Unpublished sources	p. 230
Published sources: autobiographies and reminiscences	p. 235
Published sources: contemporary fiction	p. 236
Published sources: pre-1970 academic literature and non-fiction	p. 236
Published sources: newspapers and magazines	p. 238
Secondary literature	p. 238
Index	p. 256
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