Rock'n'Roll vs. Lipsi - the Influence of American Popular Culture on the GDR

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Department of English and American Studies), course: HS Europe's Dream of America/America's Dream of Europe, language: English, abstract: 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 officials 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 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 officials tried throughout their whole history to oppress and abolish these influences. I will therefore try to show the efforts that were made to restrict these foreign 'infiltrations' in East Germany. As this thesis can only give a minor glimpse, I will concentrate on American popular culture in the fields of music and film, 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 inflictions; 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-confidence, 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 film.