Divided Dreamworlds? the Cultural Cold War in East and West Isbn 978 90 8964 436 7
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STUDIES OF THE NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR WAR DOCUMENTATION DIVIDED DREAMWORLDS? STUDIES OF THE DIVIDED NETHERLANDS With its unique focus on how culture Peter Romijn is INSTITUTE DREAMWORLDS? contributed to the blurring of ideological head of the Research FOR WAR boundaries between the East and the West, Department at the Netherlands Institute this volume offers fascinating insights into the DOCUMENTATION THE CULTURAL COLD WAR for War Documentation tensions, rivalries and occasional cooperation (NIOD) and professor IN EAST AND WEST between the two blocs. Encompassing of history at Amsterdam developments across the arts and sciences, University. the authors analyse focal points, aesthetic Giles Scott-Smith is preferences and cultural phenomena through Ernst van der Beugel topics as wide-ranging as East and West Chair in Transatlantic German interior design; the Soviet stance on Diplomatic History at genetics; US cultural diplomacy during and Leiden University and senior researcher at the after the Cold War; and the role of popular Roosevelt Study Center music as a universal cultural ambassador. in Middelburg. Joes Segal is assistant Well positioned at the cutting edge of Cold professor in the War studies, this work illuminates some of the Department of History striking paradoxes involved in the production and Art History at and reception of culture in East and West. Utrecht University. Eds. P. Romijn, G. Scott-Smith andJ.Segal Romijn,G.Scott-Smith Eds. P. ISBN 978 90 8964 436 7 Edited by Peter Romijn Giles Scott-Smith 9 789089 644367 Joes Segal www.aup.nl Divided Dreamworlds? niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 1 21-6-2012 15:04:53 studies of the netherlands institute for war documentation board of editors: Madelon de Keizer Conny Kristel Peter Romijn i Ralf Futselaar — Lard, Lice and Longevity. The standard of living in occupied Denmark and the Netherlands 1940-1945 isbn 978 90 5260 253 0 2 Martijn Eickhoff (translated by Peter Mason) — In the Name of Science? P.J.W. Debye and his career in Nazi Germany isbn 978 90 5260 327 8 3 Johan den Hertog & Samuël Kruizinga (eds.) — Caught in the Middle. Neutrals, neutrality, and the First World War isbn 978 90 5260 370 4 4 Jolande Withuis, Annet Mooij (eds.) — The Politics of War Trauma. The aftermath of World War ii in eleven European countries isbn 978 90 5260 371 1 5 Peter Romijn, Giles Scott-Smith, Joes Segal (eds.) — Divided Dreamworlds? The Cultural Cold War in East and West isbn 978 90 8964 436 7 niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 2 21-6-2012 15:04:53 Divided Dreamworlds? The Cultural Cold War in East and West Edited by Peter Romijn Giles Scott-Smith Joes Segal Amsterdam University Press 2012 niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 3 21-6-2012 15:04:53 Cover illustration: Postcard: The 152 cruising over Dresden (1958), reproduced in: Helmut Erfurth, Das große Buch der ddr-Luftfahrt, 1945 bis 1990 (Munich: GeraMond, 2004), p. 57 Image on p. 137 from Christine Varga-Harris, ‘Homemaking and the Aesthetic and Moral Perimeters of the Soviet Home during the Khrushchev Era’, Journal of Social History 41, no. 3 (2008): 561-589, figure no. 1, p. 566. Reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press. Cover design: Jos Hendrix, Groningen Lay-out: Hanneke Kossen, Amsterdam isbn 978 90 8964 436 7 e-isbn 978 90 4851 670 4 (pdf) e-isbn 978 90 4851 671 1 (ePub) nur 689 © P. Romijn, G. Scott-Smith, J. Segal / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permis- sion of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 4 21-6-2012 15:04:53 Contents Preface vii Introduction — Divided Dreamworlds? The Cultural Cold War in East and West 1 » Giles Scott-Smith & Joes Segal part i Arts and Sciences Between the Blocs Chapter 1 An Unofficial Cultural Ambassador — Arthur Miller and the Cultural Cold War 13 » Nathan Abrams Chapter 2 Biological Utopias East and West — Trofim D. ysenkoL and His Critics 33 » William DeJong-Lambert Chapter 3 Tadeusz Kantor’s Publics — Warsaw – New York 53 » Jill Bugajski Chapter 4 Co-Producing Cold War Culture — East-West Film-Making and Cultural Diplomacy 73 » Marsha Siefert part ii Modernity East and West Chapter 5 The Dreamworld of New Yugoslav Culture and the Logic of Cold War Binaries 97 » Sabina Mihelj niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 5 21-6-2012 15:04:53 Chapter 6 Sounds like America — Yugoslavia’s Soft Power in Eastern Europe 115 » Dean Vuletic Chapter 7 Moving Toward Utopia — Soviet Housing in the Atomic Age 133 » Christine Varga-Harris Chapter 8 Cold War Modernism and Post-War German Homes — An East-West Comparison 155 » Natalie Scholz & Milena Veenis Chapter 9 Flying Away — Civil Aviation and the Dream of Freedom in East and West 181 » Annette Vowinckel part iii Post-1989 Perspectives on the Cultural Cold War Chapter 10 Problematic Things — East German Materials after 1989 201 » Justinian Jampol Chapter 11 (Dis)Connecting Cultures, Creating Dreamworlds — Musical ‘East-West’ Diplomacy in the Cold War and the War on Terror 217 » Harm Langenkamp About the Authors 235 Index 237 niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 6 21-6-2012 15:04:53 Preface The present volume is the result of a conference held in Utrecht on 26-27 Septem- ber 2008. The aim of the conference was to investigate the cultural interchange across the East-West border during the Cold War, as a counterbalance to the more traditional academic approaches that study the two power blocs exclusively in the light of their antagonistic power interests or political ideals. The impressive response to our call for papers suggested positively that we had addressed a topical issue. From the many proposals we received we had to select a limited number for the conference, and for the present volume we then had to make a second selec- tion in order to strengthen the book’s coherence around three sections: ‘Arts and Science Between the Blocs’, ‘Modernity East and West’, and ‘Post-1989 Perspec- tives on the Cultural Cold War’. This by no means implies any negative qualitative judgment on the papers we had to leave out. The conference, an initiative of its three editors, was supported by our aca- demic institutions: the Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg, the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (niod) in Amsterdam and the Research Institute for History and Culture (ogc) in Utrecht, all of which generously contributed both in terms of organisation and financial support. We are very grateful that the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (knaw) sponsored our conference as part of its 200th anniversary celebrations. Without the enthusiastic and resourceful support of our student interns Helen Grevers, Maaike Hensing and Lieke de Jong, the conference would never have been the success it turned out to be. We also would like to thank our special guests who made important contributions to the conference: keynote speakers David Caute and Ruud van Dijk, Sarah Wilson of the Courtauld Institute who participated in our concluding panel of experts, and Thomas Lindenberger, who chaired one of our sections. A special word of gratitude is due to Thomas Lindenberger and Annette Vowinckel, who generously shared with us their expe- riences from organising the conference ‘European Cold War Cultures? Societies, Media and Cold War Experiences in East and West (1947-1990)’ held at the Zen- trum für Zeithistorische Forschung (zzf) in Potsdam on 26-28 April 2007. Their conference was an important inspiration for us and we were happy that some of its participants could also contribute to our project. The Potsdam conference resulted in a publication that will appear almost simultaneously with the present niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 7 21-6-2012 15:04:53 viii | Divided Dreamworlds? volume.1 Together, these two books present a valuable insight into the latest trends in cultural Cold War research. Finally we would like to thank the Netherlands Organisation for War Docu- mentation (niod) for supporting the publication of this volume and making it part of their publication series, and Amsterdam University Press, especially Jeroen Sondervan and Chantal Nicolaes, for their assistance in preparing the manuscript and willingness to publish the book. Peter Romijn, Giles Scott-Smith and Joes Segal 1 Annette Vowinckel, Markus M. Payk and Thomas Lindenberger (eds.), Cold War Cultures. Perspectives on East- ern and Western European Societies (New York: Berghahn Books, 2012). niod-dreamworlds-def.indd 8 21-6-2012 15:04:53 Introduction Divided Dreamworlds? The Cultural Cold War in East and West » Giles Scott-Smith & Joes Segal The Cold War, which started in the aftermath of World War ii and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, was more than a confrontation of economic systems and political convictions backed with military power and technological rivalries: it was a clash between cultures and ideologies. Both the communist East and the capitalist West cultivated their interpretations of the world, including the promise of a definitive break with the human tragedies of the past and exclusive access to universal happiness, social harmony, equality and freedom in the future. However, these collective interpretations were constantly challenged, not only by the opposing camp but also from within.