Exhibition Review tilery’s former brick ovens. Te prisoners called these cells “the Catacombs” because they were so dark, cold, and damp, but the name is also ftting because catacombs are ofen large graves, and many of the internees did not live to see the end of the war. Many of these prisoners also may have chosen this name in homage to “Die Katakombe,” a Berlin cabaret that boasted a politically motivated repertoire before Nazi ofcials closed it in 1935. Around these cells prisoners also painted fowers, theatrical masks, and other decorative details, continuing to produce art even though there seemed no reason to do so and even though these designs were not visible for the majority of the time because of the almost constant darkness. In the fnal section, the “volet réfexif,” the museum aims to impress upon the visitor the importance of upholding human rights and speaking out against persecution. Tis part of the site displays images of genocide, racism, and other types of persecution and violence. Tere are also images of resistance, as well as famous words warning against prejudice. In this sense, the memorial contributes to the “universalization” of the Holocaust, asking visitors to see it as part of the broader universe of human sufering. One interesting element is the inclusion of a mirror, forcing one to see oneself as a part of the exhibit and provoking introspection on the topics raised in this section. Whether intentional or not, this element is particularly ironic in a country that has engaged for so long in denial of its complicity with the horrors of the Nazi regime.

The American Way: Die USA in Deutschland Haus der Geschichte, Bonn, Germany. Reviewed by Scott Krause

For nearly a year, the Federal Republic of Germany’s Haus der Geschichte, or House of History, revisited one of its defning postwar cultural inspirations, the United States. From March 2013 through February 2014 the exhibition Te American Way: Die USA in Deutschland ofered more than 200,000 visitors a comprehensive overview of two intertwined topics, surveying both the infuence of American culture on Germany and contradictory German perceptions of the United States. To pursue their ambitious dual agenda, the curators relied on traditional exhibit materials like uniforms

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and posters, alongside which they displayed signifers of modern popular culture like audio playlists and mobile apps. Te American Way guided visitors in one large circle past exhibits from seventy years of German-American history, from World War II to the present. Familiar displays of contemporary US Army uniforms and care packages stood in for the American war efort and occupation afer the collapse of Nazi Germany. Tis exhibit refected the fact that, despite American involvement in severe aerial bombardment of German population centers during the war, Germans singled out the United States as the most benign occupation regime, which was based in West Berlin, the southern German states of Hessen, Württemberg-Baden, Bavaria, and the port of Bremen. Together with the British occupation zone, these areas formed the nucleus of the 1949 Federal Republic, which restored representative democracy with limited sovereignty. Contemporary posters praising the benefts of the Marshall Plan indicated a German-American cultural bonding, while various iconic industrial products showed its economic underpinnings. Most notably, a tailfn Taunus, a Ford Motor Company limousine assembled in Cologne, illustrated how the adaption of American consumer culture to German palates made the West German rump state Europe’s economic juggernaut. Tis narrative of success fails to grasp its Cold War origins, however. Germans in the Federal Republic emulated the United States with particular enthusiasm because it signaled defance of Soviet-style communism. Moreover, the division of Germany shut out seventeen million in Moscow’s client state, the East German Democratic Republic (GDR). Te curators attempted to rectify this dilemma by dedicating a separate room to East German perceptions of the United States. Tis self-contained exhibit accentuated the gulf between state-prescribed depictions of the United States as a behemoth of reactionary capitalism on the one hand and the widespread allure of American pop culture on the other. American foreign policy tried to capitalize on this during the Cold War For instance, for forty years, the American government funded Berlin’s Radio in the American Sector (RIAS). United States foreign policy envisioned RIAS as a weapon in the Cold War, while the GDR leadership reviled it. Despite its political polarization, this radio station succeeded in keeping the population on the other side of the Iron Curtain attuned to the pulse of American pop culture.

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Te American Way depicted the GDR authorities’ most memorable attempt to assuage popular desire. In 1988, the socialist state youth organization FDJ invited Bruce Springsteen to perform in East Germany, as “singer of the American working class.” Te rock superstar’s East Berlin concert attracted far more than the 160,000 tickets allotted. Overrun by an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 attendees, GDR authorities had to helplessly endure thousands of their citizens singing along to “Born in the USA.” American pop culture swept the West German market to an even greater degree. A digital jukebox and video projector allowed visitors to browse through the American pop music that has dominated the German charts from the 1960s to the present day. A collage of movie posters reaching from the foor to the ceiling and replicas of Star Wars robots R2D2 and C3PO symbolized the popularity of Hollywood productions in Germany. Casual American visitors thus could grasp the shared cultural references resulting from the American entertainment industry’s success abroad. However, the exhibition’s section on the history of German-American cultural relations since 2000 questioned the notion that cultural compatibility bred understanding. Charred wreckage from the World Trade Center combined with hundreds of German consolation letters served as poignant reminders of the shared shock of 9/11. Video clips showed German Chancellor Schröder’s proclamation of “boundless solidarity” with the United States in its “War on Terror,” followed by his government’s refusal to contribute to the Iraq War sixteen months later and the overwhelming popular opposition against it. An iPod and Starbucks paper cup stood juxtaposed to the exhibits of such political turmoil. Despite fundamental political diferences, Germans consume American pop music more intensely than ever before, while sipping “Kafee to go.” Te Federal Republic’s former capital, Bonn, served as a ftting location for this exhibition. More than any other West German city, Bonn symbolizes the heady postwar boom years of the Wirtschafswunder. Hurried construction inserted the administrative apparatus for sixty- three million citizens—and one of the United States’ largest diplomatic posts—into the Rhine meadows adjacent to this once-quaint college town. Since the government’s move to Berlin in 1999, Bonn has become an open-air museum of the Alte Bundesrepublik, the Federal Republic prior to reunifcation. Te exhibition therefore resembled the host city itself in

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its loss of a clear narrative afer 1989. Te collapse of communism and the Federal Republic’s absorption of the GDR has failed to make the United States and Germany “Partners in Leadership,” as then-President George H.W. Bush had hoped. Uncertainty emerged with the loss of clearly defned roles, as the United States no longer represented a closely followed model in the West and an ofcially reviled but secretly attractive model in the East. Diverging economic strategies have questioned these roles. While American manufacturing has eroded since the 1980s, Germany has retained the industrial might Americans had helped to rebuild in the 1950s. Knowing the temporal and geographic limits of the linear success narrative, Te American Way asks whether Germany and the United States are growing culturally together or apart. Te exhibition’s failure to answer this question accentuated its larger signifcance. For instance, the curators did not examine geographic blind spots in the German image of the United States. As loyal customers of Hollywood and veteran tourists of New York, most Germans’ image of the United States is more urban than most Americans would recognize. Germans’ rarely come in contact with rural, devout areas United States and thus regard them as foreign. Te exhibition succeeded, however, in ofering an overview of a broad topic that comprised many conundrums, most notably the existence of two competing German states. It also ofered a frst assessment of the last decade in its provocative illustration of that time: a paper cup. Globalization’s ubiquitous beverage results from an American corporation adapting Italian cofee culture to palates worldwide, ready to be tossed away once consumed.

Weblinks:

Exhibition web page [in German]: http://www.hdg.de/bonn/ausstellungen/wechselausstellungen/ ausstellungen/the-american-way-die-usa-in-deutschland/ Exhibition mobile app: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/ viewSoftware?id=641510100&mt=8 [in English]

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