Images - "America" in East and West German Eyes

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1.	Searching for Potato Beetles (July 1950) In the summer of 1950, an infestation of potato beetles throughout the GDR threatened to destroy the potato crop. It was not long before official state propaganda used the infestation to its own....
2.	West Berlin U.S.A. Architecture (1952) The ideologically-grounded criticisms leveled by the GDR leadership against Western culture also encompassed the field of architecture. In the eyes of East German functionaries, the architecture....
3.	Singer Ella Fitzgerald (April 1953) The Federal Republic's rapprochement with the U.S. in matters of foreign policy and security was accompanied by a cultural rapprochement: West Germany became "Americanized" at the same time that....
4.	The Hamburg Gasworks Jazz Band Plays at "Captain’s Cabin" in Hamburg (1955) The big bands sponsored by the various state-run radio stations became one of the pillars of jazz in postwar Germany, even though they mostly played swing, dance, and entertainment music. Additionally,....
5.	Rock 'n' Roll at a Berlin Dance Hall (1955) Clothing, dance styles, and musical tastes followed American trends in the 1950s. This photograph shows a dance event at "Die Badewanne" [“The Bathtub”] on Nürnberger Straße in West Berlin. The fact....
6.	"Young Rowdies" in Berlin-Kreuzberg (1956) During the 1950s, the image of the Halbstarke ["rowdies"] dominated debates about the new generation, which was regarded as non-conformist and rebellious. The rowdy or even hooligan role was....
7.	Film Poster for Die Halbstarken [The Rowdies] (1956) Die Halbstarken was one of the greatest commercial successes of postwar West German cinema. Its star, Horst Buchholz, was seen as Germany's answer to James Dean. The film dealt with juvenile....
8.	Public Viewing of an American Spy Tunnel in East Berlin (May 3, 1956) During the Cold War, divided Germany and the GDR, in particular, were important operating areas for Western intelligence agencies. Their goal was to gauge the military strength and technological....
9.	First Public Jazz Event in the GDR (June 11, 1956) In the 1950s, the jazz debate in East Germany shifted and became focused on the difference between “authentic” and “commercial” or “false” jazz. At first, jazz was fundamentally rejected by the GDR....
10.	Poster for a Jazz Concert (1957) In East Germany, too, a debate was carried out in the postwar period over the value of jazz, which, as an American cultural import, was deemed undesirable by government officials. In the 1950s, as....
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