Capitulation in the Cinema. On the Culture of the Occupation Forces in 1945

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ina Merkel
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2014 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260244844

This project aims to tell the history of the postwar period from a trans- and cross-cultural perspective, in order to gain new insights into reciprocal cultural appropriations and permeation of the cultures involved (Allied Forces and Germany) beyond the dominant East-West contrarities. The study assumes that the occupation of Germany created a special geographic and social space, a trans- and >cross-cultural< field (Schmitz 2007), and a >contact zone< (Pratt 1992), in which disparate cultures confronted each other and, under the asymmetrical relations of dominance and subordination, negotiated >consensual cultural values< (Uricchio and Pearson 1993) that continue today to have crucial significance for our self-conception. The cinema is the site where these negotiations will be examined. It was not only a cultural signifier of the defeat and the occupation, it was one of the genuine trans- and cross-cultural sites of the postwar period. The Allied occupation forces in Germany appropriated the cinema to present their values, lifestyles, and culture, with the goal of reeducating the Germans, but also in order to open up new life perspectives to them. A comparative study of the Soviet, American, British, French, and German films shown in German cinemas as >social subsystems< (Lindenberger 2011) should provide insights about consensual and controversial, traditionally rooted and newly implemented ideas of community, culture, and lifestyles. The plan is to examine how these cultural representations confronted each other and a German audience, and what interpretative and negotiating processes were set in motion.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants