Book contents
- Frontmatter
- POLITICS: Détente and Multipolarity: The Cold War and German-American Relations, 1968-1990
- SECURITY: German-American Security Relations, 1968-1990
- ECONOMICS: Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict: Economic Relations Between the United States and Germany, 1968-1990
- CULTURE: Culture as an Arena of Transatlantic Conflict
- SOCIETY: German-American Societal Relations in Three Dimensions, 1968-1990
- 1 “1968”: A Transatlantic Event and Its Consequences
- 2 Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
- 3 Women and the New Women’s Movement
- 4 Transatlantic Networks: Elites in German-American Relations
- 5 Bridging Constituencies: German Political Foundations in German-American Relations
- 6 Normalizing German-American Labor Relationships in a Changing International Environment
- 7 German and American Churches: Changes in Actors, Priorities, and Power Relations
- 8 The Twisted Road Toward Rapprochement: American Jewry and Germany Until Reunification
- 9 Difference and Convergence: Immigration Policy in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
- 10 Urban Planning, Transportation, and Suburban Development: Striking a Balance
- 11 Relations Between Right-Wing Extremists in Germany and the United States, 1945-1990
- 12 With America Against America: Anti-Americanism in West Germany
- 13 The Maturation of a Relationship: The Image of America in West German Public Opinion
- 14 Between Private Opinion and Official Pronouncement: Images of America in the German Democratic Republic, 1971-1990
- 15 The American Image of Germany, 1968-1991
- OUTLOOK: America, Germany, and the Atlantic Community After the Cold War
- Index
13 - The Maturation of a Relationship: The Image of America in West German Public Opinion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- POLITICS: Détente and Multipolarity: The Cold War and German-American Relations, 1968-1990
- SECURITY: German-American Security Relations, 1968-1990
- ECONOMICS: Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict: Economic Relations Between the United States and Germany, 1968-1990
- CULTURE: Culture as an Arena of Transatlantic Conflict
- SOCIETY: German-American Societal Relations in Three Dimensions, 1968-1990
- 1 “1968”: A Transatlantic Event and Its Consequences
- 2 Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
- 3 Women and the New Women’s Movement
- 4 Transatlantic Networks: Elites in German-American Relations
- 5 Bridging Constituencies: German Political Foundations in German-American Relations
- 6 Normalizing German-American Labor Relationships in a Changing International Environment
- 7 German and American Churches: Changes in Actors, Priorities, and Power Relations
- 8 The Twisted Road Toward Rapprochement: American Jewry and Germany Until Reunification
- 9 Difference and Convergence: Immigration Policy in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
- 10 Urban Planning, Transportation, and Suburban Development: Striking a Balance
- 11 Relations Between Right-Wing Extremists in Germany and the United States, 1945-1990
- 12 With America Against America: Anti-Americanism in West Germany
- 13 The Maturation of a Relationship: The Image of America in West German Public Opinion
- 14 Between Private Opinion and Official Pronouncement: Images of America in the German Democratic Republic, 1971-1990
- 15 The American Image of Germany, 1968-1991
- OUTLOOK: America, Germany, and the Atlantic Community After the Cold War
- Index
Summary
As the term implies, “images” of another country are subjective interpretations of reality. They are based not on intimate acquaintance with the country but on indirect communication from a variety of other sources. Since Walter Lippmann's seminal study in 1922, such images have been termed stereotypes. These need not be negative images; they derive from the need to make sense of one's world amidst plentiful but imperfect information. Their defining characteristic is therefore abbreviation, not bias. Although impressionistic, these images carry political weight: The closer the relationship between two countries, the more importance attached to the images they have of one another.
This was certainly true for Germany and America during the Cold War, which affected virtually all aspects of people's lives. The ideological conflict assigned a crucial importance to the image other members of the West had of the state that led them in it: the United States. By the same token, Germany's image of America was more important and had greater political implications than that of any other member of the Western alliance. The Federal Republic's acceptance in the Western community was based on its fundamental break with the antidemocratic and anti-Western traditions that had led to World War II and the ensuing Cold War in the first place. An Allied occupation regime led by the United States had refashioned Western Germany's political system, economy, and society. In the Cold War, the Federal Republic's unique vulnerability as a frontline state made it uniquely reliant on the United States for its own security.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990A Handbook, pp. 510 - 518Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004