The postwar journal 'Die Wandlung': Debates about humanism and effects on democratization between 1945 and 1949.
Final Report Abstract
The project examined the societal and political, theoretical and practical opportunities and limits of the medium ‘journal’ after the end of World War II in the American occupation zone on the basis of a specifically selected post-war journal – and this even before the official re-education measures took effect. The focus was on the design and thematic setting of the journal Die Wandlung as well as on the potential impact of the journal on the advancement of democracy among the German population. As a result, it should be noted that the post-war periodical landscape as a differentiated and broad field of research still opens up numerous new insights regarding the production, licensing, design and distribution of periodicals, especially with regard to the different practices of the occupying powers as well as the composition of the responsible publishers, editors and contributors. The field of translations in and for the journal proved to be a fruitful research focus, as did the role of female protagonists around Die Wandlung – including, for example, Marie Luise Kaschnitz as an early contributor and, from 1947, as editor. Furthermore, selected forms such as surveys and letters to the editor could be identified as fostering democratic thinking. Furthermore, it should be noted that the journal functioned as a ‘cultural broker’ and that manuscripts, thoughts as well as the issues themselves circulated between Europe and the United States in transatlantic exchange, thus contributing to mutual understanding. As a sample object, the journal Die Wandlung was able to show that the special form of post-war journals, considered as such, can contribute considerable knowledge both to journal research and to the historical understanding of the period 1945–1949.
Publications
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Transatlantic Intellectual Exchange in the Postwar Era. Blogbeitrag
Anna Axtner-Borsutzky
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Journale als Cultural Broker. Journalforschung (2025, 1, 13), 179-200. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Axtner-Borsutzky, Anna
