Search

The American Forces who occupied Germany in 1945-46 had hoped that popularising jazz music might assist in the redemocratisation of Germans under the age of thirty. The Amerika-Hauser established by the US State Department to build a cultural foundation for democracy amongst younger Germans, and American Forces Network radio each contributed to the gradual emergence of a West German jazz culture which was marked by a series of jazz festivals and the development of a viable recording industry. However most strata of German society neither understood nor cared about jazz. Jazz became confused with--and diluted by--rock'n'roll. Both were rejected as unwanted 'Americanization'. Fewer than ten percent of teenagers acquired any taste for jazz. Its appeal was confined to the more privileged and educated. Hence the jazz culture which did recruit itself from the surviving remnants of the Third Reich did not provide an impetus toward democracy.

German historians discuss the changes that have occurred in Germany since the collapse of the nazi regime of the 1940s. The 1960s and 1970s are analyzed as phases of socio-economic unrest and change. The status of the ethnological rights of West Germans in New Germany is explored. A history of West Germans is traced along with the history of communism in the country.

German reunification did not mark the end of the Cold War for the former citizens of the West German Federal Republic and East German Democratic Republic. Their prejudiced ideological view [...]