Within the span of a generation, Nazi Germany’s former capital,
Berlin, found a new role as a symbol of freedom and resilient
democracy in the Cold War. This book unearths how this remarkable
transformation resulted from a network of liberal American occupation
officials, and returned émigrés, or remigrés, of the Marxist Social
Democratic Party (SPD). This network derived from lengthy physical and
political journeys. After fleeing Hitler, German-speaking
self-professed "revolutionary socialists" emphasized
"anti-totalitarianism" in New Deal America and contributed to its
intelligence apparatus. These experiences made these remigrés
especially adept at cultural translation in postwar Berlin against
Stalinism. This book provides a new explanation for the alignment of
Germany’s principal left-wing party with the Western camp. While the
Cold War has traditionally been analyzed from the perspective of
decision makers in Moscow or Washington, this study demonstrates the
agency of hitherto marginalized on the conflict’s first battlefield.
Examining local political culture and social networks underscores how
both Berliners and émigrés understood the East-West competition over
the rubble that the Nazis left behind as a chance to reinvent
themselves as democrats and cultural mediators, respectively. As this
network popularized an anti-Communist, pro-Western Left, this book
identifies how often ostracized émigrés made a crucial contribution
to the Federal Republic of Germany’s democratization.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781351578332
Publisert
2018
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Routledge
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter