Matters of Taste: the Politics of Food and Hunger in Divided Germany 1945-1971
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Matters of Taste: The Politics of Food and Hunger in Divided Germany 1945-1971 by Alice Autumn Weinreb A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2009 Doctoral Committee: Professor Kathleen M. Canning, Co-Chair Associate Professor Scott D. Spector, Co-Chair Professor Geoff Eley Associate Professor Alaina M. Lemon Acknowledgements The fact that I would become a German historian had never crossed my mind ten years ago – that the past decade has made me one is entirely due to the remarkable number of people who have helped me in ways that even now I cannot fully grasp. Nonetheless, I suppose that these acknowledgements are as good a place as any to start a lifetime's worth of thanking. It all began at Columbia, where Professor Lisa Tiersten suggested that I go abroad, a suggestion that sent me for the first time to Germany. Five years later, when I first considered going to graduate school, she was the person I turned to for advice; her advice, as always, was excellent – and resulted in my becoming a German historian. During my first chaotic and bizarre years in Berlin, Professors Christina von Braun and Renate Brosch went out of their way to help a confused and hapless young American integrate herself into Humboldt University and get a job to pay the admittedly ridiculously low rent of my coal-heated Kreuzberg apartment. Looking back, it still amazes me how their generosity and willingness to help completely transformed my future. It was my years living in Berlin, of course, that made me decide to become a German historian, and especially one interested in the history of the GDR. Certainly the city itself – in all its glory and insanity – deserves mention. It is hard to spend time in ii Berlin and not become some sort of historian; this was especially true when I moved there in 1999. Most of all, however, it was the people there who inspired and interested me, my friends from what were once East and West Germany, from Slovakia, France, Spain, Poland and so many other places. Slavo Szabo kept me going at my most miserable moments, and his wife Ines Koeltzsch has made everything better for both of us. René and Mandy Krüpfganz, and indeed the entire Krüpfganz family, are some of my greatest friends in Germany (and Spain and Switzerland!), and talked patiently with me about the GDR while feeding me delicious meals. Florence Vittu got me to fall in love with Paris on a steady diet of croissants and chocolate. Victoria, die kleine Berlinerin, is one of my very favorite people, and the only German I have ever met who is as loud as I am. Carla not only has an amazing six-pack, but is an all-around amazing person. Sasha was my best friend growing up in Berkeley, and then moved to Berlin and became my best friend there. If the people and space of Berlin made me think about German history for the first time, it was the University of Michigan, and especially my advisors Kathleen Canning, Scott Spector and Geoff Eley, who made me a German historian. Kathleen and Scott convinced me to go to Michigan, something that I have increasingly realized was one of the best decisions that I have made. Geoff told me that I was a German historian long before I believed I was one myself. When I arrived at Michigan, I made many wonderful friends who kept me going during the traumatic transition from Berlin to Ann Arbor, and continued to keep me together afterwards: Justyna, Angie, Ross, Anne, Ema, Josh, Kisha, Susanne, Lenny, Mia, and Roberta. Meeting Latha Reddy on an insane trip to South Africa was one of the best things that happened to me during graduate school. iii Researching and writing this dissertation was inappropriately pleasurable, and not only because my topic allowed me to eat a great number of delicious meals 'from East and West' all in the name of research. Thanks to the generosity of the DAAD, the Berlin Program of Advanced German and European Studies, and the Social Science Research Council’s IDRF program, my research time was incredibly well funded and well organized, something that greatly simplified completing this comparative project. If anyone is looking for a way to have a truly fantastic German archival experience, I can suggest where to begin. Dagmar Kollhof, the librarian of the Deutsches Institut für Ernährungsforschung, began helping me even before I officially began working on my dissertation, and throughout the process kept me supplied with primary and secondary sources, anecdotes, friendly smiles and queries, interviews with current and former nutritionists, and, above all, sincere interest in my project. I must also mention the incredible generosity of the East German nutritionists who met with me at the Institute and answered my questions openly and enthusiastically; in particular I would like to thank Dr. Martin Zobel, with whom I enjoyed several wonderful lunches, and whose fascinating life could itself be the subject of a dissertation. Last but not least, the Institute is home to a fantastic canteen with truly affordable prices, ensuring that I sincerely looked forward to lunch every day. I cannot imagine that many places are as wonderful to work at as the library of the Dresden Hygiene Museum: an amazing collection of primary sources, a gorgeous room in a fantastic museum, and remarkably friendly and helpful staff. Susanne Roeßiger, Marion Schneider and Ute Krepper made my time in Dresden a pleasure. I am certainly not the first person to have discovered the glories of the Landesarchiv Berlin, but I would iv like to specially acknowledge the generosity of archivist Klaus Dettmar, who, not once but twice, gifted me with the remarkable two-volume edited collection of Berlin's Magistratsprotokolle (a wonderful source for anyone interested in postwar German history.) In addition, the archivists at the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz and Berlin, and at the city archives of Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Leipzig, all went out of their way to answer my vague questions about 'food and politics,' teaching me as much about my topic with their thoughts and memories as with the materials that they gathered for me. The fact that writing this dissertation was almost as much fun as researching it was due entirely to the support of my advisors, colleagues and friends. As all of her advisees have noted in their own acknowledgements, Kathleen is a remarkable teacher and reader, simultaneously critical and supportive. Scott pushed me in all the right ways and on all hard questions (ideology . identity . agency . .). Geoff has mastered the art of letting you do what you want to do while at the same time ensuring that it is at least half-way right. Looking back at where I was when I first came to Ann Arbor in 2003 and where I am now (a German historian!), I can honestly say that it is largely due to the three of them. My studies at Michigan went so smoothly thanks to the work of the History Department staff, in particular Sheila, Lorna, Diana and Kathleen. Many other people provided invaluable feedback and support along the way. In particular, Atina Grossmann, James Vernon and Ulrike Weckel read my scattered chapters and discussed unfocused ideas with enthusiasm and great intellectual generosity. Their thoughts and suggestions were tremendously helpful and personally inspiring. A Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship allowed me to move to the Big City and dedicate v myself to writing. During my year in Chicago, it was Michele, Tara, Aaron, Leah and my orange cat Macaw who kept me from being too lonely to write. Above all, I am thankful for my family. My father died when I was nine, but gave me enough love in those nine years to last a lifetime. David brought me into his heart and made me part of a new and wonderful family. Maddy is about the coolest little sister a person could hope for. And at the very beginning, of course, was my mother – who raised me with a never-ending supply of stories of injustice, wonder, suffering and possibility that have taught me the power of history since the day I was born. This dissertation is dedicated to her. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements ……….……………………………………………………………....ii Abstract .………………………………………………………………………………….ix Chapter 1. Introduction. Food, Hunger and German History..……………………………..1 Food and the Postwar…………………………………………………….13 Rethinking Production and Consumption in German History…………...29 Chapter Summaries……………………………………………………....26 2. The Origins of Postwar Hunger: Food, Life and Death in the Age of Hitler…33 The Making of a German Hunger: Food and Nazi Ideology…………….41 A War for Food and a World of Hunger ………………………………...62 Confronting Hunger in Postwar Germany: Allies, Germans and Other Victims …………………………………………………………………..74 3. Realizing Their Fate: Hunger and the Creation of a Postwar Identity in Occupied Germany ……………………………………………………………...88 Claiming Victimhood: German Bodies as Hungry Bodies………………93 Dissenting Voices: Rejections of the German Hunger Narrative ……...103 Sein oder Schein: Hunger-Disease as German State of Being ………...115 Unwanted Appetites: Non-German Hunger during the Occupation……125 4. Cold War Hunger: Battles over Food between Socialism and Capitalism ……………………………………………………………...142 vii Starving Berlin: Hunger as Cold War Salvation ……………………….146 Still Hungry after All These Years: Keeping Hunger Alive in Divided Germany. ……………………………………………………………… 160 Our Hungry Brothers: Hunger in the ‘Other Germany’ ………………..180 5. Work for Food or Food for Work? Canteens and the German Worker ……..197 Feeding the Volk: Collective Feeding from the Kaiserreich to the Third Reich …………………………………………………………………...201 Enabling Labor in the Socialist Canteen ……………………………….221 Nourishing the Individual with the Collective: Factory Canteens in the FRG …………………………………………………………………….235 6.