Theaters of occupation : Hollywood and the reeducation of postwar Germany

In the aftermath of total war and unconditional surrender, Germans found themselves receiving instruction from their American occupiers. It was not a conventional education. In their effort to transform German national identity and convert a Nazi past into a democratic future, the Americans deployed what they perceived as the most powerful and convincing weapon-movies. In a rigorous analysis of the American occupation of postwar Germany and the military’s use of “soft power,” Jennifer Fay considers how Hollywood films, including Ninotchka, Gaslight, and Stagecoach, influenced German culture and cinema. In this cinematic pedagogy, dark fantasies of American democracy and its history were unwittingly played out on-screen. Theaters of Occupation reveals how Germans responded to these education efforts and offers new insights about American exceptionalism and virtual democracy at the dawn of the cold war. Fay’s innovative approach examines the culture of occupation not only as a phase in U.S.-German relations but as a distinct space with its own discrete cultural practices. As the American occupation of Germany has become a paradigm for more recent military operations, Fay argues that we must question its efficacy as a mechanism of cultural and political change. Jennifer Fay is associate professor and codirector of film studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University. In the aftermath of World War II, American occupiers used the movies to try to transform German national identity and convert a Nazi past into a democratic future. The author considers how Hollywood films, including Ninotchka, Gaslight, and Stagecoach, influenced German culture and cinema. In this cinematic pedagogy, dark fantasies of American democracy and its history were unwittingly played out on-screen. The book reveals how Germans responded to these education efforts and offers insights about American exceptionalism and virtual democracy at the dawn of the cold war. The author examines the culture of occupation not only as a phase in U.S.-German relations but as a distinct space with its own discrete cultural practices. As the American occupation of Germany has become a paradigm for more recent military operations, she argues that we must question its efficacy as a mechanism of cultural and political change Contents......Page 8 Introduction: Theaters of Occupation......Page 10 1. Germany Is a Boy in Trouble......Page 32 2. Hollywood’s Democratic Unconscious......Page 70 3. Garbo Laughs and Germans Eat......Page 114 4. That’s Jazz Made in Germany......Page 145 5. A Gothic Occupation......Page 173 Epilogue: Berlin, Fifty Years Later......Page 204 Acknowledgments......Page 216 Notes......Page 220 B......Page 254 E......Page 255 H......Page 256 M......Page 257 R......Page 258 Z......Page 259 Jennifer Fay. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 189-222) And Index.