Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Politics, Security, Economics, Culture, and Society - Dimensions of Transatlantic Relations
- POLITICS
- “No Harder Enterprise” - Politics and Policies in the German-American Relationship, 1945-1968
- 1 The Allied Council of Foreign Ministers Conferences and the German Question, 1945-1947
- 2 The United States in the Allied Control Council - From Dualism to Temporary Division
- 3 Supervised Democratization: American Occupation and German Politics
- 4 Life Rewarded the Latecomers - Denazification During the Cold War
- 5 The Marshall Plan and the Origins of the Cold War
- 6 Winning the Peace - The United States, Western Germany, and the Ambiguities of “Dual Containment” 1945-1950
- 7 The United States and the Founding of the Federal Republic, 1948-1949
- 8 From Occupation to Alliance - German-American Relations, 1949-1955
- 9 Rollback - An Offensive Strategy for the Cold War
- 10 From Supreme Authority to Reserved Rights and Responsibilities - The International Legal Basis of German-American Relations
- 11 Germany Between the Superpowers, 1948-1968
- 12 The United States and the German Question, 1949-1968
- 13 Divided Loyalties in Transatlantic Policy Toward Europe
- 14 The U.S. Congress and German-American Relations
- 15 Political Parties and German-American Relations - Politics Beyond the Water’s Edge
- 16 Personalities and Politics - The American Ambassadors to the Federal Republic
- 17 The Ambassadors of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, 1955-1968
- 18 Berlin - Catalyst and Fault Line of German-American Relations in the Cold War
- 19 “Little Room for Maneuver” - Relations Between the United States and the GDR
- SECURITY
- Security Through Deterrence? German-American Security Relations, 1945-1968 - The Primacy of Security Policy
- 1 Overcast, Paperclip, Osoaviakhim - Looting and the Transfer of German Military Technology
- 2 The Dilemmas of Dual Containment - Germany as a Security Problem, 1945-1950
- 3 Partners in Defense - America, West Germany, and the Security of Europe, 1950-1968
- 4 Variable Architectures for War and Peace - U.S. Force Structure and Basing in Germany, 1945-1990
- 5 The Shifting Military Balance in Central Europe
- 6 NATO Strategy and the German-American Relationship
- 7 German-American Disagreements over Arms-Control Policy
- 8 The Origins of Intelligence Cooperation Between the United States and West Germany
- ECONOMICS
- From Enlightened Hegemony to Partnership - The United States and West Germany in the World Economy, 1945-1968
- 1 From Weakening an Enemy to Strengthening an Ally: The United States and German Reparations
- 2 Restructuring and Support - Beginnings of American Economic Policy in Occupied Germany
- 3 From Decartelization to Reconcentration - The Mixed Legacy of American-Led Corporate Reconstruction in Germany
- 4 Opting for the Structural Break: The West German Currency Reform and Its Consequences
- 5 The Marshall Plan
- 6 Protégé and Partner - The United States and the Return of West Germany to the Liberal World Economic System
- 7 American and German Trade Relations
- 8 Technology and the Construction of the Alliance - Technology Transfer, the Cold War, and German-American Relations
- 9 Occupation Costs, Stationing Costs, Offset Payments - The Conflict over the Burdens of the Cold War
- 10 From Reconstruction Aid to Capital Interlocking: Direct and Portfolio Investments
- 11 German and American Economic and Monetary Policy
- 12 The Influence of the United States on German Economic Thought
- CULTURE
- A New Start and Old Prejudices: The Cold War and German-American Cultural Relations, 1945-1968
- 1 U.S. Cultural Policy and German Culture During the American Occupation
- 2 American Influences on the German Educational System
- 3 American Cultural Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-1968
- 4 Between Elitism and Educational Reform - German-American Exchange Programs, 1945-1970
- 5 Science and Scientific Exchange in the German-American Relationship
- 6 American Literature in Germany and Its Reception in the Political Context of the Postwar Years
- 7 The American Reception of Contemporary German Literature
- 8 Cold War Politics and American Popular Culture in Germany
- 9 Popular Music in Germany - The Genesis of a New Field of Discourse
- 10 German Musical Influences in the United States
- 11 Side by Side - Hollywood and German Film Culture
- 12 From Reeducation to Alternative Theater - German-American Theater Relations
- 13 Fascination, Ignorance, and Rejection - Changing Transatlantic Perspectives in the Visual Arts, 1945-1968
- 14 Architecture as Political Medium
- 15 The Legacy of the Holocaust in Germany and the United States
- SOCIETY
- America and Social Change in Germany
- 1 Gentle Conquest in the West: Americans and Germans, 1944-1945
- 2 Gender, Race, and Power - American Soldiers and the German Population
- 3 CARE Packages - Gifts from Overseas to a Defeated and Debilitated Nation
- 4 Remigrants and Reconstruction
- 5 Immigration and Emigration Before 1968
- 6 The German Churches and the Specter of Americanization
- 7 From Negation to First Dialogues - American Jewry and Germany in the First Postwar Decades
- 8 German and American Women Between Domesticity and the Workplace
- 9 Support and Dissent - German and American Labor’s Transnational Ties
- 10 Study Tours, Trade Fairs, Publicity Campaigns - German-American Business Encounters and Cold War Anxieties
- 11 Producing to Consume Becomes Consuming to Produce - Advertising and Consumerism in German-American Relations
- 12 American Influences on Urban Developments in West Germany
- 13 Blurred Sovereignty - The German-American Media Relationship in the Postwar Era
- 14 In Hitler’s Shadow
- 15 Old Stereotypes and New Realities - The West German Image of the United States
- 16 The Good and the Bad America - Perceptions of the United States in the GDR
- 17 Neither East Nor West - Anti-Americanism in West Germany, 1945-1968
- 18 Americanization
- 19 Westernization - The Transition in Political Culture
- Index
12 - From Reeducation to Alternative Theater - German-American Theater Relations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Politics, Security, Economics, Culture, and Society - Dimensions of Transatlantic Relations
- POLITICS
- “No Harder Enterprise” - Politics and Policies in the German-American Relationship, 1945-1968
- 1 The Allied Council of Foreign Ministers Conferences and the German Question, 1945-1947
- 2 The United States in the Allied Control Council - From Dualism to Temporary Division
- 3 Supervised Democratization: American Occupation and German Politics
- 4 Life Rewarded the Latecomers - Denazification During the Cold War
- 5 The Marshall Plan and the Origins of the Cold War
- 6 Winning the Peace - The United States, Western Germany, and the Ambiguities of “Dual Containment” 1945-1950
- 7 The United States and the Founding of the Federal Republic, 1948-1949
- 8 From Occupation to Alliance - German-American Relations, 1949-1955
- 9 Rollback - An Offensive Strategy for the Cold War
- 10 From Supreme Authority to Reserved Rights and Responsibilities - The International Legal Basis of German-American Relations
- 11 Germany Between the Superpowers, 1948-1968
- 12 The United States and the German Question, 1949-1968
- 13 Divided Loyalties in Transatlantic Policy Toward Europe
- 14 The U.S. Congress and German-American Relations
- 15 Political Parties and German-American Relations - Politics Beyond the Water’s Edge
- 16 Personalities and Politics - The American Ambassadors to the Federal Republic
- 17 The Ambassadors of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, 1955-1968
- 18 Berlin - Catalyst and Fault Line of German-American Relations in the Cold War
- 19 “Little Room for Maneuver” - Relations Between the United States and the GDR
- SECURITY
- Security Through Deterrence? German-American Security Relations, 1945-1968 - The Primacy of Security Policy
- 1 Overcast, Paperclip, Osoaviakhim - Looting and the Transfer of German Military Technology
- 2 The Dilemmas of Dual Containment - Germany as a Security Problem, 1945-1950
- 3 Partners in Defense - America, West Germany, and the Security of Europe, 1950-1968
- 4 Variable Architectures for War and Peace - U.S. Force Structure and Basing in Germany, 1945-1990
- 5 The Shifting Military Balance in Central Europe
- 6 NATO Strategy and the German-American Relationship
- 7 German-American Disagreements over Arms-Control Policy
- 8 The Origins of Intelligence Cooperation Between the United States and West Germany
- ECONOMICS
- From Enlightened Hegemony to Partnership - The United States and West Germany in the World Economy, 1945-1968
- 1 From Weakening an Enemy to Strengthening an Ally: The United States and German Reparations
- 2 Restructuring and Support - Beginnings of American Economic Policy in Occupied Germany
- 3 From Decartelization to Reconcentration - The Mixed Legacy of American-Led Corporate Reconstruction in Germany
- 4 Opting for the Structural Break: The West German Currency Reform and Its Consequences
- 5 The Marshall Plan
- 6 Protégé and Partner - The United States and the Return of West Germany to the Liberal World Economic System
- 7 American and German Trade Relations
- 8 Technology and the Construction of the Alliance - Technology Transfer, the Cold War, and German-American Relations
- 9 Occupation Costs, Stationing Costs, Offset Payments - The Conflict over the Burdens of the Cold War
- 10 From Reconstruction Aid to Capital Interlocking: Direct and Portfolio Investments
- 11 German and American Economic and Monetary Policy
- 12 The Influence of the United States on German Economic Thought
- CULTURE
- A New Start and Old Prejudices: The Cold War and German-American Cultural Relations, 1945-1968
- 1 U.S. Cultural Policy and German Culture During the American Occupation
- 2 American Influences on the German Educational System
- 3 American Cultural Policy in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-1968
- 4 Between Elitism and Educational Reform - German-American Exchange Programs, 1945-1970
- 5 Science and Scientific Exchange in the German-American Relationship
- 6 American Literature in Germany and Its Reception in the Political Context of the Postwar Years
- 7 The American Reception of Contemporary German Literature
- 8 Cold War Politics and American Popular Culture in Germany
- 9 Popular Music in Germany - The Genesis of a New Field of Discourse
- 10 German Musical Influences in the United States
- 11 Side by Side - Hollywood and German Film Culture
- 12 From Reeducation to Alternative Theater - German-American Theater Relations
- 13 Fascination, Ignorance, and Rejection - Changing Transatlantic Perspectives in the Visual Arts, 1945-1968
- 14 Architecture as Political Medium
- 15 The Legacy of the Holocaust in Germany and the United States
- SOCIETY
- America and Social Change in Germany
- 1 Gentle Conquest in the West: Americans and Germans, 1944-1945
- 2 Gender, Race, and Power - American Soldiers and the German Population
- 3 CARE Packages - Gifts from Overseas to a Defeated and Debilitated Nation
- 4 Remigrants and Reconstruction
- 5 Immigration and Emigration Before 1968
- 6 The German Churches and the Specter of Americanization
- 7 From Negation to First Dialogues - American Jewry and Germany in the First Postwar Decades
- 8 German and American Women Between Domesticity and the Workplace
- 9 Support and Dissent - German and American Labor’s Transnational Ties
- 10 Study Tours, Trade Fairs, Publicity Campaigns - German-American Business Encounters and Cold War Anxieties
- 11 Producing to Consume Becomes Consuming to Produce - Advertising and Consumerism in German-American Relations
- 12 American Influences on Urban Developments in West Germany
- 13 Blurred Sovereignty - The German-American Media Relationship in the Postwar Era
- 14 In Hitler’s Shadow
- 15 Old Stereotypes and New Realities - The West German Image of the United States
- 16 The Good and the Bad America - Perceptions of the United States in the GDR
- 17 Neither East Nor West - Anti-Americanism in West Germany, 1945-1968
- 18 Americanization
- 19 Westernization - The Transition in Political Culture
- Index
Summary
If you had opened the thin, six-page Saturday edition of the Rhein-Neckar Zeitung on July 27, 1946, you would have first seen a full page reprint of the closing statement made by the chief American prosecutor at Nuremberg, Robert H. Jackson: “The Prosecution Rests Its Case.” The second page offered articles on a variety of current affairs: “Where Will We Put Refugees from the East?”; “Bread Ration Increased in French Zone”; and, in the feuilleton, a report on a “German Premiere in Esslingen am Neckar.” The play under review was Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness!
Nothing could more clearly illustrate the atmosphere of that time than this paradoxical - and entirely matter of fact - juxtaposition. Genocide, the crime to end all crimes, brushes up against the peaceful normalcy of an evening of theater in Esslingen am Neckar. One page announces that nothing will ever be the same. The other declares that life goes on; we've made it through again. The inconceivability of a return to normalcy is contradicted by indications that normalcy had already returned. It could be found in the theater in Esslingen, for example, where the paper's reviewer saw “a piece of popular theater with mildly ironic touches”:
A benign wilderness infused with humanity, in which each person can prosper according to his own abilities and personality, as long as he respects his fellow human beings and is just as respectful of their freedoms and choices as he is of his own. These themes are laid out by the case of the young Richard Miller, whose love life creates various complications that bring him into conflict with God, humanity, and his family. . . . But, in the end, he stages a reconciliation and finds a place for himself in that inestimably happy 'wilderness' . . . [H]e will become a new citizen with new horizons stretching before him.
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- The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990A Handbook, pp. 464 - 471Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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