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© COPYRIGHT by Robert J. Williams 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED For Nicole, Oliver, and Liam DAS FREIE WORT? THE STRUCTURING OF EAST AND WEST GERMAN PRESS CULTURE DURING THE AMERICAN AND SOVIET OCCUPATIONS BY Robert Williams ABSTRACT This dissertation charts a course that begins with U.S. and Soviet wartime propaganda programs and ends with the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Its focus rests on the interplay between the newspaper policies of the occupation powers, the coverage of news in each zone of occupation, the personalities that coordinated and created newspaper contents, and popular German responses to the postwar press by considering four publications born of the occupation era: the Red Army’s Tägliche Rundschau, the U.S.-run Die Neue Zeitung, the American-licensed Frankfurter Rundschau, and the Socialist Unity Party’s (SED) Neues Deutschland. It assesses the participation of Germans in the reconstruction of their media by considering both those who were active in the postwar press and those who read and interacted with the press. It argues that popular German participation was an inherently political act, one that eventually led to the creation of a shared political life in the West that came not just from above, but also through interaction with the printed word. In addition, this study analyzes the imposition of structures on the development press cultures in the two German republics, including the SED-led sovietization of the press and the reactive and defensive use of information media by the United States during the early cold war. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation, like many before it, owes much to the inherent collegiality of the scholarly community. Over the course of my graduate career and in my early professional life, I have learned from many giving and gifted scholars, archivists, and librarians. Thanks goes first to my dissertation chair, Professor Richard Breitman. Richard’s work inspired me to enter the field of history, and it has been an honor to learn from him over these many years. My debt to Richard has only grown thanks to the patience and guidance he has given me over the course of this dissertation, which in truth took much more time than I ever expected. Likewise, I cannot begin to express adequately my appreciation to Professor Eric Lohr for advising me on this topic and for providing me with the guidance necessary to begin to touch upon the edges of Soviet Studies. So too am I grateful to Professor Max Paul Friedman for his incisive critiques of this dissertation, and for shouldering the burden of being the graduate student advisor to doctoral candidates in the Department of History. Few understand the difficulties of such a task, and his work to bring students through the program is immensely important. Many archivists and librarians guided me through the stacks (occasionally exceeding their authority to do so) as I searched for hidden material. At the National Archives, it was my great honor to have had many fruitful, engaging, and interesting discussions with the late John E. Taylor. John was an archivist at NARA for more than 60 years, and it was his work on the records of the Office of Strategic Services that has made possible so much research that relies on information gleaned by U.S. Intelligence Services. His passing in 2008 came as a great shock, and he is sorely missed. Special thanks as well to Lawrence McDonald and to Robert Wolfe, also of the National Archives. Robert was one of the first DISCC operatives to work in Heidelberg after the war, and helped establish the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung. Our conversations about his experiences proved very helpful as I sought to make sense of the labyrinthine iii bureaucracy of the early U.S. occupation of Germany. Elke Vogel, Robert Luther, Elke Hauschildt, and Sven Schneidereit at the Bundesarchiv gave so much of their time while spent my days and weeks in Lichterfelde. I am very appreciative of their assistance and the thoroughness of their knowledge of their collections. The research I undertook at the Bundesarchiv, the New York Public Library, and the National Archives and Records Administration was possible thanks to generous grants provided by the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences at American University. A special note of gratitude to the Ann Robyn Mathias Fund for making it possible for me to benefit from a Graduate Student Mellon Fund grant in 2005 and 2006. Beyond my dissertation committee and the archivists who aided my research, many scholars gave of their time to offer advice, guidance, and feedback on early drafts of this work and the conference papers that relate to this research. Jeffrey Herf and Rebecca Boehling are the first among these. It is to the benefit of all doctoral students and scholars of German history to reside in Washington, D.C., if only to be in proximity to these two very giving and insightful historians. Jeffrey continues to push the boundaries of our understanding of antisemitism, and he remains in my mind one the most insightful scholars of political culture of his generation. Rebecca’s groundbreaking work on the occupation of Frankfurt proved, as did her constant kindness over several discussions on the phone, by email, and at conferences. Many of the fine scholars referenced in this dissertation always proved willing to give guidance and feedback over the years. Thanks first to Jessica C.E. Gienow-Hecht, Kristen Benning, Jeffrey Brooks, Ivo Banac, Corey Ross, Dominick Boyer, and Karel Berkhoff. Thanks as well to Jost Dülffer for his suggestions on how I might relate the development German press culture to European economic development in a possible future incarnation of this dissertation. iv There is no way by which I can sufficiently thank my friends and colleagues. First, thanks to Vincent Intondi for being a constant supporter and close friend over these many years. Thanks as well to Alexandra Lohse for our discussions on projects and life as a graduate student with a career, and I am deeply appreciative to the support and advice I received from Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Mark Weitzman, and Wesley Fischer. My colleagues in the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have given consistent support, advice, and the prodding necessary for me to complete this dissertation. Paul Shapiro deserves considerable praise, and not just for his important work in maintaining a future for Holocaust studies. He urged me to finish my dissertation, provided insight into U.S. information programs based on his time at the U.S. Information Agency, and guided me on this and so many other matters relevant to my professional and personal development. Thank you as well to Robert Ehrenreich, Jürgen Matthäus, Suzanne Brown-Fleming, Krista Hegburg, Radu Ioanid, Joseph White, Diane Afoumado, Ann Millin, Jo-Ellyn Decker, and William Connelly. The bulk of my gratitude goes to my supportive, kind, caring, and intelligent wife, Nicole. Although she managed to finish her doctorate in less than half the time it has taken me, she has never once rubbed it in my face. Without her, nothing I do matters. She has been a steadfast friend and partner throughout this occasionally trying process. My young sons, Oliver and Liam, have not only been remarkably understanding with the fact that I am occasionally locked in the basement writing and reading, but have always been eager to cheer me up whenever I become too involved in my work or in my writing. Therefore, I dedicate this dissertation to my wife and children. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Historical Problems of German Press Culture Through 1945 ................................ 2 Political Participation and the Press ...................................................................... 17 Chronicling and Assessing the Occupation Press ................................................. 19 CHAPTER 2 EXPERIENCES WITH THE PRESS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AMERICAN AND SOVIET PRESS POLICIES .................... 23 The American Perspective on Press Control ........................................................ 24 Soviet Perspectives on Press Control .................................................................... 39 Shared Experiences and Shared Intentions ........................................................... 56 CHAPTER 3 EARLY PRESS EXPERIMENTS ............................................................. 58 The Aachen Experiment ....................................................................................... 58 “Overt” Occupation Newspapers under U.S. Control .......................................... 76 Red Army Newspapers ......................................................................................... 87 The Unusual Case of the Berliner Zeitung ........................................................... 94 CHAPTER