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Documents - "America" in East and West German Eyes
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1.   Neues Deutschland: Nihilism and Boogie Woogie at the "Badewanne" (1949)
After the war, the jazz club “Die Badewanne” [“The Bathtub”] in Berlin-Wilmersdorf hosted cabaret....
2.   Neues Deutschland: "American Cultural Barbarism Threatens our Youth" (1950)
In the GDR, American popular culture was repeatedly rejected. In the spring of 1950, Neues Deutschland, the central organ of the SED, described “crime romanticism” in American movies and novels....
3.   Article from Die Zeit about the Hamburg "Existenzialistenkellerchen" ["Existentialists' Cellar"] (1952)
In West Germany, new cultural forms found a home not only in Berlin, but also in other cities as well. In this article, journalist Wolfgang Menge reports in an ironic tone on the staid atmosphere....
4.   Neues Deutschland: "This is the Face of the Fascist Spawn of Adenauer, Ollenhauer, Kaiser, and Reuter!" (June 21, 1953)
From the outset, the East German government blamed Western “provocateurs” for the workers’ uprising on June 17, 1953. This article, published a few days later in Neues Deutschland, listed....
5.   Pro and contra Jazz: Joachim-Ernst Behrendt and Theodor W. Adorno (1953)
In the fall of 1953, the cultural philosopher and music theorist Theodor W. Adorno, who had emigrated to the U.S. in 1938 and had returned to Frankfurt to join the Institute for Social Research in....
6.   Jazz Discussion in the GDR (1955)
This protocol of a discussion between Reginald Rudorf and officials of the Ministry of Culture and the Association of German Composers of the GDR [Verband deutscher Komponisten or VdK] on....
7.   Interview with Louis Armstrong: "They Cross the Iron Curtain to Hear American Jazz" (December 1955)
In this interview with U.S. News & World Report, American jazz musician Louis Armstrong talks about jazz and its reception in Europe, even behind the Iron Curtain. Armstrong, who was then....
8.   Die Zeit: "The Great Head-wagging about Young People" (1956)
In the 1950s, the question of how to deal with young people became an important topic of social policy in West Germany. The so-called Halbstarke (hooligans), a term used partly in irony and....
9.   Neues Deutschland: "Bill Haley and NATO" (October 31, 1958)
In late October 1958, rowdy fans at concerts in Berlin and Hamburg created problems during American rock ’n’ roll singer Bill....
10.   Rhapsody in Blue Jeans (1959)
This brief and whimsical article in praise of blue jeans appeared in the first edition of the influential teen magazine Twen, which was published in the Federal Republic from 1959 until 1971.....
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