Rock′n′Roll vs. Lipsi

The Inuence of American Popular

Culture on the GDR

Term paper in American Studies

February 21, 2008

Contents

1 Foreword

3

2 American Cultural Hegemony in Germany

6

3 American Culture in East Germany

10

3.1 The Wild Ones: American Movies and Halbstarke in East and West . . 14

3.2 Rock′n′Roll vs. Lipsi: American Music in the G DR 16

4 Conclusion

21

Bibliography

24

2

1 Foreword

The total defeat and collapse of the Third Reich was the major and most distinctive

feature in German history during the 20th century. The conditions now to be faced

were horrible, large areas of Germany were wasted and the population dazed in des-

peration at a devastated European continent, which Nazi Germany had sought to

dominate by conquest, terror, and exploitation . (Ermarth, 1993, 4) About seven mil-

lion German people, nearly half of it civilians, had died; about one-quarter to one-half

of housing and transport facilities were destroyed; around ten million refugees ed

from the lost eastern territories, accumulating to a total of twenty million homeless

people. (vgl. Pommerin, 1995, 83)

While the German and European population had to face not only enormous devasta-

tions, but also hunger, death and spreading diseases, the United States stood alone as

the world′s most powerful nation. Its armies had been victorious, its cities were unlike

those in Europe not a scenery of destruction, its economy was as strong as ever.

Some historians and contemporaries, however, understood the end of war in1945, with

all its shocking elements, as a Zero-Hour, a liberating moment, a social and cultural

vacuum, when Germany could made a completely new beginning, and start an era of

reconstruction, both economically but also with changed and denazied values. This

era of reconstruction, could nevertheless only be possible with the help of a strong

partner. Therefore,

Europe′s very survival now depended on America′s economic resources,

political leadership, and military protection. [...] In return for America′s

liberation of (Western) Europe, and its promise of assistance and guidance

in the postwar era, the United States asked of Europeans only that they be

grateful and properly deferential. (Pells, 1997, 38)

Being grateful meant, that the United States would decide on their own, which major

issues needed to be solved rst, and how. The United States intended to stay in Ger-

many as a barrier to a Soviet invasion. Thus the building of a strong democratic and

3

1 Foreword

economically independent West Germany was the most essential goal to the defense

of Western Europe. Critics liked to call this American dominance a Demokratur ; a

mixture between the term Demokratie and Diktatur.

America′s political, economic and military supremacy was, however, always closely

connected with American culture. The European population had now not only to

familiarize themselves with America′s politics and social thoughts, but also with the

American way of life in art and music, manner and believe. While Europe once thought

of itself as the leading nation in culture and civilization, the devastations of both World

Wars made them face America as the heartland of modernism and the embodiment of

the cosmopolitan ideal. The American inuence and apparent superiority extended to

all levels of culture and into many aspects of daily life and mass consumption. It left

its mark on postwar literature, theater, and architecture as well as on music, lms and

consumer attitudes. Western Europe soon began to live under a Pax Americana, just

as Eastern Europe came to exist under the Pax Sovietica. (Berghahn, 1995, 68)

It was at that time, too, that Anti-Americanism began to grow bigger. This is, how-

ever, not a phenomenon of the 1950s only. It was, and still is, a reaction to the position

of the United States in world politics, and has followed its rise from the early 19th

century to their leading position in military, political, economical and cultural elds

of today. At the same time, Anti-Americanism is as well

eine besondere Form der Kritik am ′Westen′, das heiÿt am liberal-kapitalistischen

System beziehungsweise an der modernen Konsumgesellschaft, die die USA

im Zeitalter des Kalten Krieges in den Augen vieler Deutscher mit noch

gröÿerer Berechtigung als vor 1945 verkörperten, sowie der Versuch, der

vermeintlichen oder tatsächlichen Verwestlichung (oder ′Amerikanisierung′)

Deutschlands entgegenzuwirken. (Gassert, 2001, 945)

Besides, Anti-Americanism can be found as well in personal attitudes and experiences

of just anybody, and thus, it can nally cumulate in the political opinion of a whole

country.

Within the scope of my thesis, I would like to examine the impact of American popular

culture on the German Sector and the later German Democratic Republic, as well

as its reception by ocials and the civilian population. As America′s impact was

felt in both Germanies, my research will start with a description of the American

cultural hegemony in both East and West Germany shortly after the Second World

4

1 Foreword

War. While West German authorities, even though concerned about the impact of

American popular culture on their society, soon decided to let the cultural mixing

regulate itself; East German ocials tried throughout their whole history to oppress

and abolish these inuences. I will therefore try to show the eorts that were made

to restrict these foreign ′inltrations′ in East Germany. As this thesis can only give a

minor glimpse, I will concentrate on American popular culture in the elds of music and

lm, and the years from 1945 until the late 1960s. I will hereby especially concentrate

on youth culture, as adolescents were most open to Americanization. On them, the

war had made the deepest inictions; they more than others longed for a possibility to

repair the cutbacks they had to endure during the war. Americanization also meant

provocation and self-condence, a possibility to demarcate them from others and from

the state in general. At the same time, young adults found themselves in the focus

of a foreign industry, that saw them as target group for their consumer goods and

cultural exports in music, art, and lm.

5

2 American Cultural Hegemony in

Germany

American culture has long been a part of German culture. In the Weimar Republic,

Germans were already fascinated with America, as it was associated with modernity.

During the Roaring Twenties, American music, movies and style, but also technologies

like the assembly line, became very fashionable and were soon copied. They imported,

however, more than machines, because technology as such can never be transferred

solely from one country to another.

There are always values behind technology that cannot be separated out and

[...] inevitably involves acceptance of doctrines and attitudes, of which the

technology is merely a tangible expression. (Berghahn, 1995, 73)

So, already by the mid-1920s, Americanism was perceived as controversial and widely

discussed. Some considered the inuences as too commercialized, and the United

States themselves as a nation which lacked the same cultural and spiritual tradition as

Europe. Fears spread, that these inuences would destroy ones own cultural heritage.

At the same time, the image of the New Woman, a strong, fashionable character which

cut her hair, dressed in the latest, often daring fashion and seized her freedom and

liberation, was spreading through Hollywood lms and magazines. Women′s changing

role in society was not only not welcome, but a threat to the male world order. All

these concerns were found among all political groups, but grew especially strong among

national conservatives and fascists.

It is therefore no wonder, that the National Socialists later banned much of American

popular culture with a referral to its ′degenerating′ inuence. Americanism became a

negative term, the relationship to American popular culture dicult and ambivalent.

On the one hand, jazz was banned from most clubs and dance halls, but on the other

hand, American movies still were shown in cinemas around the country, and American

6