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American Efforts for Educational Reform in Occupied Germany, 1945–1955—a Reassessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Charles D. Biebel
Charles D. Biebel*
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Extract

In the past few years there has been renewed evaluation of Allied educational policies during the post World War II occupation of Germany. Over the quarter century since the end of occupation, assessments of U.S. educational efforts in Germany have primarily focused on the early years of military occupation and have ranged from highly commendatory to severely critical. By limiting analysis to the earliest period of occupation, however, critics have missed much of the significance of U.S. policy making gained by assuming a broader longitudinal perspective.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , Fall 1982 , pp. 277 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. See the recent volume edited by Heinemann, Manfred, Umerziehung und Wiederaufbau (Stuttgart, 1980). For conventional assessments of the place of U.S. educational policy during the occupation, see Speier, Hans, “‘Reeducation’—The U.S. Policy,” in Social Order and the Risks of War: Papers in Political Sociology (Cambridge, Mass., 1962); Grace, Alonzo, “Education,” in Litchfield, Edward H., ed., Governing Postwar Germany (Ithaca, N.Y., 1953); and Zink, Harold, “American Activities in the Education Field,” in The United States in Germany 1944–1955 (Princeton, N.J., 1957).Google Scholar

2. One notable exception has been the account of cultural exchanges by ex-Department of State officer, Kellerman, Henry J., Cultural Relations as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy (Washington, D.C., 1978).Google Scholar

3. See Tent, James F., America's Mission on the Rhine (Chicago, forthcoming).Google Scholar

4. Knappen, Marshall, And Call It Peace (Chicago, 1947).Google Scholar

5. Grace, , pp. 455–467; Zink, , pp. 193–206; and Tent, James, “Education and Religious Affairs Branch, OMGUS und die Entwicklung amerikanischer Bildingspolitik 1944 bis 1949,” in Heinemann, , Umerziehung und Wiederaufbau, pp. 42–59.Google Scholar

6. Kellermann, Henry J., “Possible Effects of Occupation Statute and Tripartite Fusion on German Information and Reorientation Program,” 13 April 1949; and Grace, Alonzo G., “Regulations Governing the Functions and Operations of the Education and Cultural Relations Divisions,” 8 September 1949, both in U.S. I.C.A. Archives, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

7. “Public Affairs and Cultural Relations—Reorientation Program,” 6 February 1950; and Kellerman, , “Country Paper, Germany, 24 March 1950, in Ibid.Google Scholar

8. Kellerman, , “Country Paper, Germany”; and Pilgert, Henry P., The History and Development of Information Services Through Information Centers and Documentary Films (HICOG, 1951).Google Scholar

9. HICOG, A Guide to Education and Cultural Relations (07. 1950), 27–30; and Pilgert, , The History of the Development of Information Services, pp. 40–60.Google Scholar

10. HICOG, The America Houses, A Study of the U.S. Information Centers in Germany (September, 1953); and Kellerman, , “Country Paper, Germany.”Google Scholar

11. Ibid.; and Kellerman, , Cultural Relations, Chapter IV.Google Scholar

12. Statistics on allocations to Government in Occupied Areas - Germany (GOAG) from 1950 to 1957 were compiled from annual Budget of the United States Government and reports of the annual GOAG appropriations hearings before the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Committees on Appropriations.Google Scholar

13. Kellerman, Henry J., “Revision of the Public Affairs Program and Conclusion of a Cultural Treaty,” 13 March 1951, in I.C.A. Archives, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar

14. Ibid.Google Scholar

15. Ibid.Google Scholar

16. See Endnote 12.Google Scholar

17. New York Times , June 2, 3, 7, 1953; and U.S.I.A., First Report (Washington, D.C., January, 1954), pp. 1–7.Google Scholar

18. Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, 83rd Congress, 1st Session, June 15. 1953, 3–85; and New York Times, April 27, 29, 30, and June 16, 1953.Google Scholar

19. Acheson, Dean, Present at the Creation (New York, 1964), 435–440; and Conant, James B., My Several Lives, Memoirs of a Social Inventor (New York, 1970), p. 534.Google Scholar

20. Conant, , My Several Lives, pp. 67–72, 207–232, 491–495, 507–519; Conant, , Education in a Divided World (Cambridge, Mass., 1948); Conant, , Germany and Freedom (New York, 1958), pp. 42–50, 79–81; Adenauer, Konrad, Memoirs 1945–1953 (Chicago, 1966), 433; and McCloy, John J. to Dulles, John Foster, January 27, 1953, reprinted in Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 83rd Congress, 1st Session, February 2–3, 1953, p. 40.Google Scholar

21. Address over the Bavarian Radio, Munich, March 11, 1953, transcription in Department of State Bulletin, XXVIII (March 30, 1953), 469–470. See also, Conant's assurances to Senator Mike Mansfield in confirmation hearings that he deemed it improper to “preach” at the Germans about their educational practices, Hearings Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 83rd Congress, 1st Session, February 3, 1953, p. 10.Google Scholar

22. For a fuller discussion of Conant's activities as High Commissioner and Ambassador in the Federal Republic, see Biebel, Charles D., “Erziehungs- und Kulturpolitik gegen Ende der Besetzung - James B. Conant in Deutschland, 1953–1957,” in Bildung und Erziehung, 34 (Juni 1981), pp. 181–195.Google Scholar

23. See, for example, Conant's appeals at the budget hearings before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, January 12, 1956, 14–15; and Conant, , “Tenth Anniversary of Amerikahaus in Munich,” Department of State BULLETIN, xxxiv (February 27, 1956), pp. 330–331.Google Scholar

24. HEARINGS BEFORE THE U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, 84th Congress, 2nd Session, January 12. 1956, p. 19.Google Scholar