Domesticating the Cold War: Household Consumption as Propaganda in Marshall Plan Germany
Author(s): Greg Castillo
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 40, No. 2, Domestic Dreamworlds: Notions of
Home in Post-1945 Europe (Apr., 2005), pp. 261-288
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036324 .
Accessed: 18/10/2012 17:32
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of
Contemporary History.
http://www.jstor.org
c 2005 SAGEPublications,
London,ThousandOaks,CAand
of Contemporary
Journal
History
Copyright
New Delhi,Vol40(2),261-288. ISSN0022-0094.
DOI:10.1177/0022009405051553
Greg Castillo
Domesticating the Cold War:
Household Consumption as Propaganda in
Marshall Plan Germany
In 1951, sociologistDavid Reismanpublisheda fictitiousaccountof a bombing campaign involving consumer goods rather than explosives. What US
officialscalled'OperationAbundance'was soon dubbed'The Nylon War' by
Reisman'simaginaryreportersfollowing its initial barrageof the USSRwith
women's stockings.The offensivestrategywas inspiredand devious:
Behindthe initialraidof June 1 wereyearsof secretand complexpreparations,and an idea
of disarmingsimplicity:that if allowedto samplethe richesof America,the Russianpeople
would not long toleratemasterswho gave them tanksand spies insteadof vacuumcleaners
and beautyparlors.The Russianrulerswould thereuponbe forcedto turn out consumers'
goods, or facemassdiscontenton an increasingscale.'
OperationAbundance'was both violentlyanti-Sovietand pro-peace',according to Reisman'sparody, and entailed 'recruitmentof top-flight production
and merchandisingtalent from civilianlife'. Successivewaves of air-dropped
free sampleswere said to throw socialistsocietyinto disarray'as Soviethousewives saw for their own eyes Americanstoves, refrigerators,clothing and
toys'. Reisman described the war's outcome as a new Soviet policy that
attempted to enfranchise consumers, but strained state resources. '[T]he
Russianpeople,without sayingso in as many words, are now puttinga price
on theircollaborationwith the regime.The price- "goodsinsteadof guns".'2
Less than a decade after its publication,Reisman'sfiction came to seem
prophetic.In the summerof 1959, Russiansgot theirfirsttaste of the US consumerlifestyleat the AmericanNational Exhibitionin Moscow. Advisingon
exhibition strategies,LlewelynThompson,the US ambassadorto the USSR,
proposedthat displaysshould 'endeavorto makethe Sovietpeople dissatisfied
with the share of the Russian pie which they now receive'.3Consequently,
the show's perfunctorysamplingof American'high culture'was dwarfedby
a consumer spectacle which showcased cosmetics, clothing, televisions,
kitchens, soft drinks, mail order catalogues, fibreglasscanoes and sailingboats, automobilesand a prefabricatedsuburbanhouse. SovietpremierNikita
1
David Reisman, 'The Nylon War' in Abundance for What? And Other Essays (Garden City,
NY 1964), 67. I wish to thankGy6rgyPeterifor bringingthis essayto my attention.
2 Ibid.,68, 69, 73.
3 Llewelyn Thompson quoted in Walter L. Hixson, Parting the Curtain. Propaganda, Culture,
and the Cold War, 1945-1961 (New York 1998), 167.
262
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
Khrushchev
seemedtestyon the firstof his two visits.He lost his composure
whenconfronted
bythe 1100sq. ft tracthome,dubbed'Splitnik'byAmerican
for
the
journalists
rampsplittingthe structurein half to allow crowdsof
visitorsto moveunimpeded
interiors.Arrivingat Splitnik's
pastthe furnished
GE
andhis tourguide,ViceKhrushchev
lemon-yellow,all-electric, kitchen,
President
RichardM. Nixon,confronted
eachother.Khrushchev
declaredthat
the US had no exclusivefranchiseon advanceddomestictechnologyand
claimedpreposterously
that'all of ourhouseshavethiskindof equipment'.'
Humiliatedby inadequacies
on the Russianhomefront,the Sovietpremier
madea rashwager:'In anothersevenyearswe will be on the samelevelas
America.Whenwe catchupwithyou,whilepassingbywe willwaveto you.'"
Officialsin Washingtonwereecstatic,proclaiming
the exhibition'probably
themostproductive
effort
everlaunchedbythe
[warfare]
singlepsychological
USin anycommunist
country'.'
Althoughhistorianssometimescreditthe KitchenDebatewith inducting
modelhomesandhouseholdgoodsintothe ColdWar,theAmerican
National
Exhibitionwasthepartingvolleyof a successful
propaganda
campaignrather
thanits openingshot.TheUSStateDepartment
hadbegundevelopingdomestic consumption
as a propaganda
weapontenyearsearlierin dividedBerlin,a
as a setof competingideologicalshowcases.
cityreconstructed
Justas singular
as the constructionof a habitablemetonymfor Europe'spartitionwas the
to constructa dailylife thattransgressed
ColdWarboundaries.
opportunity
UntiltheinfamousWallwentupin 1961,Berlin'ssocialistcapitalandcapitalist metropolismetat relativelyopenbordercrossings.Especially
at thepeakof
in 1950,WestBerliners
WestGermanunemployment
in
shopped the 'Second
World'for cheapgoodsat favourable
rates.'
EastBerliners
crossed
exchange
overto the 'FirstWorld'fornylonsandjeans,or to takein a Hollywoodfilm
at a matinee.8
frombothsides,inspiredbythewaysconsumers
Propagandists
exploitedBerlin'soddnessfor theirown ends,devisednewstrategiesto reach
audiencesacrossthecity'ssectorboundaries.9
householdgoodsexhibitions
Justas in Reisman's'OperationAbundance',
sponsoredby the MarshallPlanin WestBerlinrecruited'top-flight'civilian
talents,includingEdgarKaufmann
Jr,designcuratorat New York'sMuseum
4
5
Khrushchev quoted in Hixson, Parting the Curtain, op. cit., 179.
Robert H. Haddow, Pavilions of Plenty. Exhibiting American Culture Abroad in the 1950s
(Washington, DC and London 1997), 215.
6 1960 USIA Annual Report, quoted in Hixson, Parting the Curtain, op. cit., 210.
7 Katherine Pence, 'The Myth of a Suspended Present. Prosperity's Painful Shadow in 1950s
East Germany' in Paul Betts and Greg Eghigian, Pain and Prosperity. Reconsidering TwentiethCentury German History (Stanford, CA 2003), 153.
8 Uta G. Poiger, Jazz, Rock and Rebels. Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided
Germany (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA 2000), 2.
9 Paul Steege uses the term 'messy location' in the context of the Cold War imperative to segregate ideological realms, to describe Berlin's geopolitical site. Paul Steege, 'Making the Cold War.
Everyday Symbolic Practice in Postwar Berlin' at the 'Revising Alltagsgeschichte', paper presented
at the German Studies Association Conference, New Orleans 2003.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
263
of ModernArt (MoMA).They were assistedin theireffortsby a federal
wartime
architect,Harnden's
employee,PeterG. Harnden.A California-born
workas a USArmyIntelligence
officerwas followedby a postwarcareerin
exhibitiondesignand production- first for the MarshallPlan and later
consultantbasedin
workingunderFederalsponsorshipas an independent
Paris.Hisuseof modelhomesto promotetheUSpoliticaleconomywashoned
in occupiedGermanyand culminateda decadelaterin Moscow.The path
towardKhrushchev's
encounterwitha lemon-yellow
kitchencan
humiliating
be traceddirectlybackto USpropaganda
spectacles
stagedin WestBerlin.
JohnConnellyhasnotedthat'theprecisefunctionof theopenborderis one
of the mostpressingquestionsin thehistoricalsociologyof the GDR'.1'
In an
erabeforetelevisioncouldbeamimagesof WesternlifestylesdirectlyintoEast
Germanhomes,the US StateDepartment
exploitedthe geopoliticalanomaly
of dividedBerlinto exposecitizensof theWestandEastto householdexhibithe MarshallPlan'ssocialcontract,whichconflateddemotions trumpeting
craticfreedomwith risingprivateconsumption.US-sponsored
exhibitions
were scheduleddeliberatelyto coincidewith major socialistholidays,a
strategywhichexploitedthe ease with whichEastBerlinerscouldvisit the
city's westernhalf beforethe constructionof the infamousWall in 1961.
MarshallPlanshowspoachedattendance
fromEastBerlin'spoliticalrallies,
whichwerestockedwithcrowdsshippedin fromacrossthe socialistnation.
admissionsfor those holdingEast GermanidentitycardsproBargain-rate
videdan addedincentivefor a daytripto thecapitalistwest,andallowedUS
officialsto keepa precisetallyof socialistvisitors.To competewiththe 1951
WorldFestivalof SocialistYouth(Weltfestspiele),
forexample,MarshallPlan
introduced
colourtelevisionandprojection-screen
propagandists
broadcasting
to Europe.US techniciansbroadcasta programme
of live entertainment
via
closedcircuitto televisionsets displayedin shopwindowsandto two large
outdoorprojection
screens,oneat Potsdamer
Platz,justa blockfromtheEast
Berlinborder.Crowdsbeganto gatherat 2 p.m.to claimperchesatoppilesof
wartimerubbleto securean unobstructed
view of the eveningtelecast.This
mediated,real-timecommunionwith televisionviewersin outdoorlocations
acrossWestBerlinwas the MarshallPlan'scapitalistanalogueof Stalinism's
embodiedsocialistcollectivity,the latterexpressedin choreographed
masses
A
down
East
Plan
boulevards.
Marshall
release
crowed:
Berlin's
flowing
press
While 100,000 youngmen and womencrowdedthe Sovietsectorof Berlinfor the communist-inspiredworldfestivalof youth,the freesectorof the Germancapitalgot its firstlook at
both color and black-and-white
television.A steadyflow of wide-eyedvisitors... who had
come to Berlinfrommanypartsof the world 'playedhooky' ... and saw for themselvesthe
exhibitsput on by CBSin color, and RCAin black-and-white."1
10 JohnConnelly,'Ulbrichtandthe Intellectuals'in GyorgyP6teri(ed.),IntellectualLifeand the
First Crisisof StateSocialismin East CentralEurope,1953-1956, TrondheimStudieson East
EuropeanCulturesand Societies,no. 6, 103.
11 'FreeBerlinExhibitsDraw CommunistYouths',24 August1951 pressrelease,RG 286 MP
Ger. 1088-1106, Visualrecords,US NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
264
MarshallPlan publicistsgrabbedphoto-ops of uniformedmembersof the
FDJ (FreieDeutscheJugend,the East Germancommunistyouth organization)
at Americanexhibitions,and documented'Americanized'teenagers- 'AmiJiinglinge'as they were known in party rhetoric- being beaten by Volkspolizisten,or 'people'spolice', while tryingto cross the borderback into East
WalterUlbricht,the leaderof the East Germanparty, laid down the
Berlin.'12
law for such youths in June 1952: 'Everyyoung personat a universityor any
other kind of school will be immediatelyexpelled if he has any connections
with West Berlin.Whoeveris a memberof the stateyouth organizationwill be
kicked out of the FDJ. .
.
. There is no other way."' Among East German
teenagers, that critical cadre of socialist citizens-in-the-making,the party
programmeof Sovietization'from above' was under mortal threat from a
countervailingprocess of Americanizationinitiated 'from below' - the
consumer-drivenvector of influenceemphasizedby scholarsof the East/West
interface of popular culture - but choreographed'from above' through
Marshall Plan spectacles,which confronted socialist citizens with domestic
environmentsthat werethe antithesisof Stalin-eramaterialdeprivation.14
In the wake of Stalin'sdeath in 1953, economic and social reforms supportedby Khrushchevforgeda tenuoustrucebetweensocialistcollectivityand
capitalistconsumption.A cornucopiaof new householditemssuddenlygraced
the pages of Soviet bloc magazines.Kulturim Heim (Cultureat Home), an
East German home-decoratingjournal founded in 1956, showed kitchen
gadgets and domestictechnologyformerlyassociatedwith Americanexcess,
but now celebratedas the practicalaccessoriesof a contemporarysocialist
lifestyle. Modernist home furnishings,decried by party leaders a few years
earlieras symptomaticof Westerndecadence,becameheraldsof communism's
'New Course'- even if they were nowhereto be found in state retail outlets.
Over the courseof a generation,a Stalinistconstructof domesticityemphasizing the presenceof culturewas abandonedfor one that highlightedthe absence
of objects."Of evengreaterportentthan the Sovietbloc'sembraceof the kind
12 'Caught Red Handed', 15 October 1951 press release, RG 286 MP Ger. 1180, Visual
records, US National Archives, College Park, MD. On the East German party reaction to
'Americanized' socialist youth, see Poiger, Jazz, Rock and Rebels, op. cit., 58-70.
13 Ulbricht's comments at a conference of regional secretaries of the SED, 4 June 1952, cited
and translated in Michael Lemke, 'Foreign Influences on the Dictatorial Development of the GDR,
1949-1955' in Konrad H. Jarausch (ed.), Dictatorship as Experience. Towards a Socio-Cultural
History of the GDR (New York and Oxford 1999), 102.
14 The concept of 'Americanization from below' in contest with 'Sovietization from above' is
developed in Michael Lemke, 'Deutschlandpolitik zwischen Sowjetisierung und Verwestlichung
1949-1963' in Konrad H. Jarausch and Hannes Siegrist (eds), Amerikanisierung und
Sowjetisierung in Deutschland 1945-1970 (Frankfurt-am-Main 1997), 94-9.
15 On the use of socialist consumption as a culture of resistance, see C. Humphrey, 'Creating a
Culture of Disillusionment. Consumption in Moscow, A Chronicle of Changing Times' in Daniel
Miller (ed.), Worlds Apart. Modernity through the Prism of the Local (London and New York
1995). On the role played by consumer dissatisfaction at the collapse of the East German state, see
Jeffrey Kopstein, The Politics of Economic Collapse in East Germany, 1945-1989 (Chapel Hill,
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
265
of commoditiesdisplayedin US StateDepartmenthouseholdgoods shows
was the party'simplicitadoptionof the MarshallPlan'snotion of citizen
enfranchisement
power:a consumerrewardsprothroughrisingpurchasing
grammeimpossibleto maintainin an economyfoundedon the primacyof
in Reisman's
state-owned
fictional'NylonWar',
heavyindustry.As fantasized
a runawayinflationof consumerdesireultimatelybankrupted
the political
socialism.
economyof Soviet-style
US occupationgovernancein postwarGermanyfaceda two-frontcultural
battle.Communist
depictedtheUSAas a militaryempireruledby
propaganda
Germanintellectuals
andopinionleaders,whoconstituted
philistineparvenus.
the secondfrontin America's
culturalcoldwar,typicallyregarded
Americaas
the purveyorof 'a primitive,vulgar,trashyMassenkultur,
whichwas in effect
an Unkultur,
whoseimportation
into postwarEuropehad to be resisted',in
the words of historianVolkerBerghahn.'1
More than merelyhumiliating,
a
of
American
'non-culture'
also subvertedUS plans
perceptions degraded
for Europe'spostwarfuture.TheMarshallPlanset outto linkcapitalistdemocracyand economicgrowthto low-costmass consumption:the Fordist
mechanismby whichworkerswouldbe enfranchised,
andagitationby communistlabourunionsneutralized.17
'Today'scontestbetweenfreedomand
despotismis a contestbetweenthe American
assemblyline andthe Communist Partyline',declaredPaulG. Hoffmann,the formerCEOof Studebaker
who headedtheMarshallPlan'sEuropean
The
(ERP).'8
RecoveryProgramme
ERPblueprintfor unleashingpostwarconsumerdesireeffectivelyredefined
FranklinDelanoRoosevelt's'FourFreedoms',transforming
'freedomfrom
want'intothefreedomto want.
A classifiedUS intelligencereportof 1947 examinedSovietpropaganda
thattheUSAinitiate
Wayof Life'andrecommended
ridiculing'theAmerican
a counter-propaganda
offensivebasedon themeslike 'American
livingstanIn the springof 1948,the Officeof theMilitary
dards'and'tryit ourway'."9
Governmentin US-occupiedGermany(OMGUS)contractedFrederick
Gutheim,a Germanexpatriatearchitectural
historian,as a consultantfor an
exhibitionaboutpostwarhousingtrendsin the USA.Patriciavan Delden,
chief officerof the OMGUSInformationCentersand ExhibitionsBranch,
doubtedthewisdomof suchan exhibit:
NC and London 1997), 192, 195-7, and Charles S. Maier, Dissolution. The Crisis of Communism
and the End of East Germany (Princeton, NJ 1997), 89-97.
16 Volker Berghahn, America and the Intellectual Cold Wars (Princeton, NJ 2001), xvii.
17 The origins and ideological underpinnings of a Fordist consumer culture are traced in Susan
Strasser, Satisfaction Guaranteed. The Making of the American Mass Market (New York 1989).
18 Paul G. Hoffman, Peace Can Be Won (Garden City, NY 1951).
19 US Army Intelligence, 'Russian Propaganda Regarding the American Way of Life' (Project
3869), 10 October 1947. RG319, 270/9/23/7, Box 2900, US National Archives, College Park,
MD.
266
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
In the yearssincethe war, the Congresshas failedto pass an adequatehousingbill, and our
own publications,easily available to the Germansin [US] InformationCenters, draw
constantattentionto thatfact.Unlesswe arein the positionto explainto the Germanpeople
howtheycanacquire
thesehouses,. . . we couldbecriticized
forraisingfalsehopes.
VanDelden'salternative,
to 'confineourselvesto materialshowingAmerican
was disregardedby her superiors.Photographs
conceptsof architecture',
showingnew homesandneighbourhood
planningtrendsweresolicitedfrom
architecture
schoollibrariesat Harvard,ColumbiaandMIT.Theimageswere
enlargedfor displaypanelsat the OMGUSExhibitionsand Information
of graphicsat the
Center,whereJoostSchmidt,the formermasterinstructor
DessauBauhaus,was in chargeof design.So wohntAmerika(HowAmerica
in August1949 (Fig.1). Despitestellarproduction
Lives)openedin Frankfurt
talent,theexhibitionattracted
onlya modestaudienceandwaslargelyignored
and scalemodelsof suburbanhomeshad
by local journalists.Photographs
failedto capturethe imaginationof postwarGermans.The headof the US
Information
Centerin Frankfurt,
DonaldW. Muntz,recognized
the error:'If
realhonest-to-god
electricstoves,refrigerators
anddeep-freeze
unitshadbeen
on hand,the generalattendancefigureswouldhavebeenastronomic.I can
well imaginethatthe problemsin bringingthesegadgetstogetherwouldbe
manifold,but an effortherewouldhavepaid off.'20The show's'particular
failure',as Muntztermedit, would not be repeatedin StateDepartment
exhibitsof domesticmaterialculture.
Whateverthe popularresponseto the American'goodlife'pitchedat the
- to
Frankfurt
valueswerealien- evenalienating
exhibition,its underlying
Germansacrossall fouroccupationzonesat the endof the war.Forpostwar
citizensstrugglingfor sustenanceandbasicshelter,imagesof overseasaffluence were foreignin everysenseof the word.The consensusamongmany
was that Germanywas at the thresholdof a new historicalera
intellectuals
that would muzzlecapitalismand materialexcess.Spartanlifestylechoices
boththeeconomicrealitiesof lifein thewakeof Armageddon
complemented
as well as the searchfor an indigenousGermansocialism.The nation's
modernistsrediscovered
the minimalistdesigntraditionsof the Weimarera,
whichtheyembraced
fortheirpotentialto aestheticize
collectivepoverty.The
DeutscheWerkbund's1949 Neues Wohnen(New Living)exhibitionin
asceticdomesticappointments
as a catalystfor Germany's
Cologneprescribed
spiritualredemption- a theme repeatedlymentionedin opening-day
addresses.The Ministerof Economicsof Nordrhein-Westfalen
ErikN61ting
observedof theexistenzminimumdesignsdevisedbyWeimareramodernists:
'Hardtimesin thepastalsoforceddownsizing
andthriftuponus, butit wasa
20 Donald W. Muntz to Patricia van Delden, 'Special Report re America House Publicity Efforts
on Behalf of the "So Wohnt Amerika" Exhibition, 24 August 1949', RG260, 390/42/21/3, Box
323, OMGUS Information Control, Records of Information Centers and Exhibits Branch,
1945-49, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
267
FIGURE1
Germanvisitorsexaminea modelandphotographsof 'housingfor the prosperous'
at the OMGUSexhibition'How AmericaLives',Stuttgart1949.
US NationalArchivesat CollegePark,MD.
healingforcethat led to new formand a modestyet refineddomesticculture.'21
'Privationpurifiesand tests every object, narrowingit down to just what it
should be: a bed, a table, a kettle', pledgedarchitectRudolf Schwarz.'All of
these simplethings . . . arriveat pure designin the home of the poor, and are
no more embellishedthan their use.'22Salutarypenury had to be defended
21 Erik N1olting, Neues Wohnen. Werkbundausstellung deutscher Architektur seit 1945
(Cologne 1949), unpaginated.
22 Rudolf Schwarz, Neues Wohnen (Cologne 1949), unpaginated.
268
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
'Ourmenandwomen. . . shouldlearnto
againstthe diseaseof materialism.
for
themselves
which
needsarerealandwhicharefalse',
distinguish
perceived
architectHans Schmidtwarned.'Falseneedscan be awakenedby appearIt is essentialto inducewarinessandintrospecances,by envy,by advertising.
tion in people.'23
as the West GermansociologistsTheodor
Konsumterror,
AdornoandHelmutSchleskylatercalledit, ranrampantat the Werkbund's
firstexhibitionof postwardomesticdesign.
TheUSMarshallPlanset its sightson the notionof Konsumterror.
Private
was integralto 'theAmericanway of life',andthe antithesisof
consumption
Stalinism'sinstrumentalasceticism,which redirectednationaleconomies
towardthe statistprojectof buildingsmokestacksocialism.MarshallPlan
instrumentalized
strategiesfor reconstruction
privatespendinginstead.Confuel
would
economic
sumption
expansionand, as a worker'srewardfor
stabilizecapitalistdemocracy.A
co-operationwith industrialmanagement,
continuoussurgeof productivity,
profits,wagesandprivatespendingwould
avertthe classwarfarethat plaguedEuropeaninterwarcapitalism,with its
focus on a zero-sumdistribution
of wealth.America'spromulgation
of the
publicbenefitof privateconsumptionwas nowheremoreevidentthan in
formercapital.In 1950,WestBerlinreceiveda newtradepavilion,
Germany's
of
TheGeorgeMarshall-Haus,
courtesy theUSStateDepartment.
designedby
architect
Bruno
Grimmek,was the formerGermancapital'sfirst
municipal
Style modernismcelebratedby the
exampleof the postwarInternational
curatorsof New York'sMuseumof ModernArt.Builtin Berlin'sexposition
whichpromotedindustrial
park,thepavilionhostedexhibitsandconferences
tradeandmassconsumption.
tariff-free
productivity,
The Marshall-Haus
madeits debutin October1950, with construction
finishedjustin timefor the annualWestGermanIndustrialExhibitionand
the socialistholidaycoincidingwith East Germannationalelections.West
GermanMinisterof EconomicsLudwigErhardopenedthe tradefairwith a
to theBundesrepublik
as 'a freenationof consumers',
one
speechthatreferred
in whichcitizenswoulddeterminewhetherproductionwould'be employed
for the ends of humanand social welfare'.24
However,the US State
to
seemed
have
a
different
consumer
economyin mind.It shipped
Department
in a six-roomprefabricated
tracthome by Pageand Hill of Minneapolis,
Thisexhibit'scuratorwas an architecton loanfrom
repletewithfurnishings.
the US HomeandHousingFinanceAgency,BernardWagner,whosefather,
HarvardprofessorMartinWagner,had beenBerlin'sWeimar-era
municipal
shiftstook
planningchief. Germancarpentersworkingin round-the-clock
onlyfivedaysto assemblethehomeon a sitebesidethenewMarshall-Haus.21
AttractivefemaleAmericanStudiesmajorsfromWestBerlin'snewly-opened
23 Hans Schmidt, Neues Wohnen (Cologne 1949), unpaginated.
24 Ludwig Erhard, trans. J.A. Arengo-Jones and D.J.S. Thomas, The Economics of Success
(London 1963), 80.
25 Amerika zu Hause. Deutsche Industrie Ausstellung, Berlin, 1.-15. Oktober 1950 (n.p.),
unpaginated.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
269
FIGURE2
Crowdsat the policedfrontdoor of the 'Americaat Home'exhibition,
WestBerlin1950. US NationalArchivesat CollegePark,MD.
Free Universitywere selectedas tour guides and trainedto answerquestions
about 'such household miracles as the .
.
. electric washing machine, illumi-
nated electricrange,vacuumcleaner,mix master,toast master,etc.'.26
Predictionsof astronomical attendance at an exhibition featuring 'real
honest-to-godelectricstoves, refrigeratorsand deep-freezeunits'provedaccurate. When Amerikazu Hause (Americaat Home) swung open its front door,
the exhibit was promptlymobbed. Visitors thronged in such numbersthat
police had to be posted at the front and back doors, and foot trafficlimitedto
groupsof ten to avoid structuraldamageto the wood-framebuilding(Fig.2).
Accordingto a US press release,Germanswere impressedby the thermostatcontrolled central heating and 'a model American kitchen with gleaming
electricalapplianceswhich are alreadythe talk of Berlin'.27These domestic
comfortswere boundto createa sensation,giventhe fact that, in 1950, 15 per
cent of the West Germanpopulationwas crowdedinto housingwith three or
more inhabitantsper room, and the averageworking-classfamilyof four spent
26 Memorandum,Paul A. Shinkmanto Henry J. Kellermann,3 November 1950, RG59
862A.191 (InternalAffairsof StateRelatingto Exhibitionsand Fairsin Germany),Box 5225, US
NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
27 'News release',15 October1950; 'ModelUS Home at West BerlinFairNo. One Attraction
for Awed Germans',undated;RG59 862A.191 (InternalAffairsof StateRelatingto Exhibitions
and Fairsin Germany),Box 5225, US NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
270
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
nearlyhalfits disposableincomeon food. At a timewhenthe WestGerman
was stillin its infancy(andfeltlastof all in WestBerlin),
Wirtschaftswunder
this displayof extravagant
was madecredibleby preprivateconsumption
those
that
US
cultural
to neutralcisely
prejudices
diplomacywas attempting
view
that
a
in wealth,
the
America
was
awash
ize,namely
superpower
parvenu
butdevoidof Bildung.
In the two weeksthatit was open,Americaat Homewas seenby 15,000
EastGermans.Thatnumberfell farshortof spectatordemand,frustrated
by
thestructural
limitations
of thesmallhouseandits inabilityto processvisitors
en masse.Nevertheless,
the tracthomeprovedan effectivepropaganda
tool,
US
to
a
filed
State
Paul
according
by
Department
report
representative A.
of
and
was
even
the
most
recalcitrant
of East
Shinkman,
capable disarming
Germanagitators:
At least one of the latter,a 20-year-oldyouth who had whippedup a forumof 200 protesting West Germansto expound his well-worn Communistline of 'Americaneconomic
slavery',changedhis views at the end of a speciallyconductedtour of the house undermy
personaland friendlyguidance.He admittedruefullythat the Americanway of life looked
good to him - but that a visit to the Model AmericanHome was about as far as he could
expect to travelin that direction.28
A closing-dayassessmentsent to the US Secretaryof Statecrowedthat
East GermanRepublicwere being
'whileresidentsof the Soviet-sponsored
instructedto "marchin festivespirit"to the pollsto votefor a singleslateof
in WestBerlin... werevoluntarily
theircountrymen
candidates,
spendingthe
the
thousands
at
the
industrial
US officials
exhibition'.29
sunnyholidayby
'a
of
can
America
at
Home
demonstration
what
be accomjudged
gratifying
in
life
Berlin
the
American
democratic
of
from
the
"showplished selling
way
in
iron
curtain
an
short
of
time'.30
As
case"behindthe
underincredibly
space
decisionnot to raffleoff thedisplayfor use on
scoredby a StateDepartment
anothersite, as originallyplanned,in orderto avoidthe 'possibility[of the]
tracthomehadbecomea
housefallingintoundesirable
hands',the suburban
hadto be
new weaponin America'sColdWararsenaland,correspondingly,
securedagainstunauthorizeduse.3"
The next US forayinto the Cold War'sdomesticfrontattemptedto undermine
the predominantEuropeanbelief in an inherentcontradictionbetween high
28 Memorandum,Paul A. Shinkmanto Henry J. Kellermann,3 November 1950, RG59
862A.191 (InternalAffairsof StateRelatingto Exhibitionsand Fairsin Germany),Box 5225, US
NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
29 PaulShinkmanto Secretaryof State,15 October1950, RG59 862A.191 (InternalAffairsof
StateRelatingto Exhibitionsand Fairsin Germany),Box 5225, US National Archives,College
Park,MD.
30 Memorandum,PaulA. Shinkmanto HenryJ. Kellermann,3 November1950.
31 Webb, FrankfurtOffice of the US High Commanderfor Germany(HICOG)to HICOG
Berlin,12 September1950, RG59 862A.191 (InternalAffairsof StateRelatingto Exhibitionsand
Fairsin Germany),Box 5225, US NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
271
culture and American mass consumption. For this undertaking, the State
Department hired Edgar Kaufmann Jr, MoMA's industrial design curator, as
an independent consultant. Kaufmann staged the museum's annual 'Good
Design' exhibit of modern household products, which was produced by the
museum in partnership with the Chicago Merchandise Mart. Just as the 'Good
Design' shows blurred the distinctions between the museum and a department
store, Kaufmann's collaboration with the Marshall Plan's Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) also eroded the institutional boundaries - in
this case, those separating US foreign policy from MoMA's mission to promote modernism as America's new establishment culture.
For the 1951 ECA exhibit Industrieund Handwerkschaffen neues Hausgerdt in USA (Industry and Craft Create New Home Furnishings in the USA)
Kaufmann assembled nearly 500 examples of 'progressive American design'
characterized by 'simple lines and functional forms', and oversaw their display
for the show's Stuttgart debut. The exhibition was also booked for subsequent
venues in Berlin, Munich, Milan, Paris, London, Amsterdam and Trieste.32
Kaufmann's selection of furniture, ceramics, glassware, kitchen appliances and
other household goods for display in Europe recycled the contents of previous
Good Design exhibitions, which juxtaposed upscale collectibles by design
luminaries like Ray and Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi and
George Nelson with prosaic functional items, including a Chemex coffee
carafe, Pyrex measuring cups and Tupperware containers. This demonstrated
that 'a contemporary lifestyle' mixed 'many low-cost items and a few luxury
items', according to a US press release.33Kaufmann's writings ascribed a far
greater significance to domestic modernism. His pamphlet, What is Modern
Design?, published a year earlier by MoMA, asserted: 'Modern design is
intendedto implementthe lives of free individuals'(emphasisin original),and
pronounced household modernism indispensable to democracy. German critic
Heinrich K6nig was correct on many levels when he noted that the products
displayed at the New Home Furnishings exhibition were not 'representational'
in style. Rather than merely representing an 'American way of life', these
domestic goods were its physical embodiment, according to Kaufmann's manifesto.
The New Home Furnishings show also staked a claim to Weimar-era
modernism as America's inherited cultural capital. Kaufmann's essay for the
show catalogue proposed a family tree for American industrial design that
placed it at the culmination of pioneering German efforts, such as Peter
Behrens's commissions for AEG, the work of the Deutscher Werkbund and the
32 'American Home Furnishings Exhibit' press release, RG 286 MP Gen 863-1012, Visual
Collections, US National Archives, College Park, MD; Edgar Breitenbach and Arthur Vogel,
'Department of State Memorandum of Conversation', 2 January 1951, RG59 862A.191 (Internal
Affairs of State Relating to Expositions, Exhibitions and Fairs in Germany), Box 5224, US
National Archives, College Park, MD.
33 'American Home Furnishings Exhibit' press release, RG 286 MP Gen 863-1012, Visual
Collections, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
272
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
legacy of Bauhaus design. This assertion was proudly reiteratedby West
German reviewers, including Bauhaus alumnus Wilhelm Wagenfeld, who
assertedthat 'carefree,ingeniouslightnessand an obviousjoy taken in empirical experiment' were the distinctive new world contributionsthat made
Americanmodernism'more perfectlyresolvedand less problematicthan [its
Germanmanifestation]the first time around,as can be observedfrom . .. the
old Werkbund and Bauhaus'.3 Kaufmann'sconstructed pedigree for US
householdmodernismconformedto a culturalnarrativetaking root on both
sides of the Atlanticover the course of the 1950s. 'In this period', historian
Paul Betts observes,'the Bauhausassumeda privilegedposition within West
Germanculturein part becauseit playeda crucialrole in the largerCold War
projectto drawthe WeimarRepublicand the [postwar]FederalRepublicinto
the same electivelineage,while at the same time conjoiningWest Germanand
Americanculturalmodernism.'3Kaufmann'sNew Home Furnishingsexhibition used modernistconsumergoods bearinga transatlanticdesignpedigreeto
bridgethe chasmbetweenvictor and vanquished.
For an exhibitionpurportedlydemonstrating'Americandesign and craftsmanship as adaptedto Americanhome living', however,Kaufmann'scollection of products 'was in no way typical of the contemporaryAmerican
household', as more than one German reviewer quickly recognized.36The
nostalgic and regional styles that dominatedthe US furnituremarket were
nowhere to be found in the show. America'sprovisionof freedomof choice
for consumers,no matterwhat their taste (or lack thereof),was an aspect of
marketdemocracythat seemedto embarrassMarshallPlan officials.William
C. Foster,a formersteel industryexecutivewho servedas deputyadministrator of the ECA in Europe,claimedthat the 'especiallyprogressive'consumer
designshowcasedby the exhibitionwas in the processof displacingmore 'conservative and conventional' products in the USA. This dissimulation of
American popular taste was the stock-in-tradeof US cultural diplomacy,
which projecteda national self-portraitcreatedexpresslyfor Europeanconsumption. By the end of the 1950s, the US State Departmentwas exporting
InternationalStylearchitecture,abstractexpressionistpaintingand sculpture,
and atonal musicas culturalreflectionsof Americanfreedomof expression.In
this dubiousmarriageof art and politics,modernistabstraction- by common
definition 'non-representational'- was used overseas to represent core
Americanvalues: a propagandaachievementso unlikelythat it was nothing
short of sublime.
34 Wilhelm Wagenfeld, 'Neues Hausgerit in USA', Baukunst und Werkform, vol. 4, May 1951,
43, 44.
35 Paul Betts, 'The Bauhaus as Cold War Legend. West German Modernism Revisited', German
Politics and Society, 14, 2 (1966), 76.
36 Walter Bogner, quoted in 'Neues Hausgerit in den USA', Neue Bauwelt, no. 39 (1951), 160;
Heinrich Konig, 'Neues Hausgerat aus USA', 244.
Castillo:
theColdWar
Domesticating
273
In 1952, officials of the Mutual SecurityAgency (MSA), an ECA successor
organization,proposeda basic shift in exhibitionstrategyfor the US contribution to the annual German IndustrialExhibition. Rather than producing
separateexhibitsof heavy industryand consumergoods (as had been done in
1950, with Americaat Home representingthe latter), the US display would
focus exclusivelyon privateconsumption.The decisionwas motivatedlargely
by its potentialimpactupon East Germans,as a StateDepartmentmemorandum clarifies:
The BerlinIndustrialFair in 1950 was most impressivebecauseit showed large machines
beingproducedby the Westat a timewhenEasternfactoriesweresufferingfromdismantling
by the Sovietsandwhen raw materialsin the Eastwerein extremeshortage.Sincethattime,
however,theEasternemphasison heavymachineryandproductiongoods has broughtabout
a changedsituation.It is particularlyappropriateat this time, therefore,to show West
Berliners,and more especiallyEast Zone and [Soviet]Sectorvisitors, the progressmade
in the West in developingconsumergoods designedto raise the standardof living of the
averagefamily.37
Plans for the exhibition were finalized in May. The show would feature a
house within a house - an 'ideal dwelling' built within West Berlin's
Marshall-Hauspavilion.Just as at a nineteenth-century
ethnographicspectacle, the model home would serve as backdropfor a 'man-wife-childfamily
team actuallygoing through[the] physicalactions of living in [the] dwelling,
making proper use of [the] objects in it', accordingto a State Department
telegraph.Thematiccontentwas 'to be developedin termsof argumentsfor a
high-production,high-wage,low-unit-cost,low-profit-margin,high consumption system ....
Emphasis [is] to be placed upon [the] fortunate outcome of
American economic philosophy when combined with Europeanskills and
Whereverpossible,householdequipmentand furnishingswere to
resources.'38
be WesternEuropeanin manufacture.A moderndomesticenvironmentbased
on New Worldideals,but assembledfromcontinentalproducts,wouldconvey
the benefits of the Marshall Plan and its transatlanticpromotion of the
Americaneconomicsystem.
In producing its most ambitious German exhibition to date, the State
Departmentfacedthe logisticalchallengeof quicklygatheringan international
assortmentof householdgoods. As with the New Home Furnishingsshow, all
domestic objects were to be selected by a curator at MoMA, presumably
EdgarKaufmannJr.39A Germanarchitect,FritzBornemann,was contracted
37 'BerlinIndustrialFair 1952', HICOGBerlinto US Departmentof State,5 November1952,
RG59 862A.191 (InternalAffairsof State Relatingto Exhibitionsand Fairsin Germany),Box
5225, US NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
38 HICOGBonnto US Departmentof StateBureauof GermanAffairs,31 May 1952, RG59
862A.191 (InternalAffairsof StateRelatingto Exhibitionsand Fairsin Germany),Box 5225, US
NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
39 Memorandaof two MSAmeetingsof 21 and 23 July 1952 note a contractwith the Museum
of ModernArtwithoutnotinga specificcurator.RG59/150/71/35/04,Entry5323 (Recordsof the
InternationalInformationAdministration,SubjectFiles, EuropeanField Program1949-1952),
274
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
to draftplans for the model home. In Bonn, US publicaffairsofficerHerwin
Schaefferhelpedlocate the requiredWest Germanfurnishings;freelanceconsultantswere hiredto trackdown productsfromFranceand Italy.Department
of Commerceofficials asked the Air Force to sponsor anotherBerlinairlift:
this one dedicatedto the transportof stylish furnitureratherthan food and
coal. The most harrowingmoment in the show's productionoccurredjust
days beforethe grandopening.At a pressconference,PeterHarnden,chief of
the presentationsbranchof the MSA, describedthe upcomingexhibition and
stated that 'in the course of enacting [a] normal daily living routine [the]
wife-mother would demonstratehousehold appliancesand equipment'including a bathroom shower. The next day, United Press correspondent
JosephFlemingannouncedthat the US StateDepartmentwould be sponsoring
a 'striptease' at West Berlin'sindustrialfair. A flurryof 'confidentialsecurity
information'telegramsbetween Germanyand Washingtonfollowed. MSA
administratorsvowed that Harnden'did not (rptnot) say or alludeto: (A) any
sort of "strip tease" (B) [a] "lusciousyoung Germ[an]girl" hired for [the]
"leading role" (C) "modeling nylons, panties and brassieres". . . . In view of
[the] widespreadplay given this misleading,erroneousaccount, plans for [a]
A few days later,following a successshower routine [havebeen]cancelled.'40
ful VIP preview, an exultant MSA official wired the US Secretaryof State
to report that local journalists,industrialistsand officials, including West
German Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard, were 'delighted' by the
exhibit. 'Contraryto UP story implications,there is nothing vulgar or cheap
about [the]role of actorsdemonstratinghouseholdequipment.'41
Wir bauen ein besseres Leben (We're Building a Better Life) opened in
Berlin,and was scheduledfor subsequentengagementsin Stuttgart,Hanover
and Milan. Its single-familyhome- containingtwo bedrooms,a living-dining
room, bath, kitchen, laundry/homeworkshop, nurseryand garden - was
realized down to the kitchen gadgets and garden tools, but built without a
roof. All the approximately6000 products in and around the house were
modernin designand manufacturedin a MarshallPlanmembernation.A billBox 8, US National Archives, College Park, MD. For US State Department consumer design exhibitions, however, Edgar Kaufmann Jr had become the consultant of first choice. A memo from
Elmer Lower of the HICOG Office of Public Affairs in August 1952, concerning an international
'Design for Use' show planned by Stuttgart's Landesgewerbeamt, states: 'It is my suggestion that
... the [US State] Department consult people in the design field, such as Mr Edgar Kaufmann
from the Museum of Modern Art, so that a representative group of high quality materials is sent.'
Elmer Lower to Richard Brecker, RG59 862A.191 (Internal Affairs of State Relating to
Exhibitions and Fairs in Germany), Box 5227, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
40 HICOG Berlin to US Secretary of State, 17 September 1952, RG59 862A.191
Affairs of State Relating to Exhibitions and Fairs in Germany), Box 5225, US National
College Park, MD.
41 HICOG Berlin to US Secretary of State, 19 September 1952, RG59 862A.191
Affairs of State Relating to Exhibitions and Fairs in Germany), Box 5225, US National
College Park, MD.
(Internal
Archives,
(Internal
Archives,
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
275
FIGURE3
A bird'seye viewof the toplesshome and second-storeycatwalksof 'We'reBuildinga Better
Life',West Berlin,1952. A narrator,dressedin white overalls,can be seenatop the crow's-nest,
upperright.US NationalArchivesat CollegePark,MD.
board mounted beside the home's front door announced: 'The objects in this
house are industrial products from many countries in the Atlantic community.
Thanks to technology, rising productivity, economic cooperation and free
enterprise, these objects are available to our western civilization' (Fig. 3). This
stage set for the domestic life of 'an average skilled worker and his family' was
manned by a model family, in the literal sense. Two couples and eight pairs of
children, all professional actors, worked in alternating shifts, going about their
household tasks and leisure rituals in a consumer wonderland. A narrator,
dressed in white and perched in an overhead crow's-nest, explained the model
family's interaction with its domestic environment. Visitors became voyeurs,
staring through windows or crowding catwalks for a bird's-eye view, observing how the use of modernist household objects created their subjects.
The tour of the show ended at an installation introduced by a display panel
showing a male labourer with the headline: 'This man is a worker and at the
same time a consumer.' For East German visitors it was an obvious reference
to the lack of material rewards for labourers under Stalinist socialism. Given
the era's standard gendering of household consumption as female, the panel
276
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
FIGURE4
The culminatingdisplayareaof 'We'reBuildinga BetterLife',this photographfromthe show's
secondopeningin Stuttgart.Belowpanelsannouncing'Wepossessthe world'shighestliving
standard'and 'Wepossessunlimitedknowledgeand ability',the homefurnishingsseen within
the modelhomewereavailablefor closerinspection.US NationalArchivesat CollegePark,MD.
also provideda cue to the presenceof an exhibitiondiscourseof importanceto
men (Fig.4). In this finaldisplayarea,the furnishingsseenearlierin the model
house could be examinedat close range.Attachedto everyitem was a tag indicating countryof origin,retailprice and the numberof hours of labour- as
measuredby a skilledworker'swage - neededto purchasethe object. This
seeminglyguileless calculationof purchasingpower entailed a fundamental
repudiationof Marxist ideology, which used the concept of labour value to
define capitalistproductionand distributionas exploitation.Profit,according
to Marx, was the unpaid labour value that industrialistsappropriatedfrom
workers when manufacturedgoods were sold at retail price. MSA planners
arrogatedMarx's concept of labour value to express the amount of work
needed to purchasean item, ratherthan produce it. This shift in emphasis
radicallyredefinedlabour value as a means to quantifycapitalism'sreward
system,ratherthan indictcapitalistexploitation.
At A BetterLife, MoMA's InternationalStyle modernismdid much more
than just provide aestheticredemptionfor bourgeois domesticity- a predominant messageof the Kaufmann'sNew Home Furnishingsexhibition of
1951, and its Good Design progenitors.As a primerin 'the modernapproach
to interior decoration', accordingto an MSA press release, A Better Life
showed how 'rationallydesigned products from different countries in the
Atlantic communitycan be combined harmoniously'.42
Or, as expressedin
42 'Productivityand IntegrationMake for Higher Standardof Living', March 1953, RG
286/Ger2219-2226, VisualCollection,US NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
277
anotherpressrelease,'the show says that just as these items from the various
countries combineto form a homogenouswhole, so the nations themselves
can combine to form a homogenouscommunity'.43
The exhibition'sunderin
German
was
the
West
lying message
reprised
daily, Der Tag:
The new style, realism plus simplicity, finds its strongest expression in the US Marshall-Haus
....
There are differentversionsof one style and one way of life typical for a 'western
bourgeois' household. Nothing is foreign to us, whether it comes from Berlin or Los Angeles,
from Stockholm,Sicilyor New York.44
At A BetterLife, InternationalStyle modernismwas not simply an aesthetic,
but also the modelof productionand consumptionthat supportedthe identity
politics of ColdWar cosmopolitanism.An antitheticalnotion of 'realism'was
concurrentlyunder constructionjust a few miles east, where East Berlin's
socialist realisthousing blocks were risingwith advicefrom Sovietarchitects.
East German art and architecturewere being transformed by a partyorchestratedculturalrevolutionintendedto installsocialistrealism,characterized as 'socialistin content and nationalin form', as a national aesthetic.By
contrast,the moderniststyle promotedby the US StateDepartmentat A Better
Life was capitalistin content and internationalin form. To counterthe likely
charge that A Better Life was an exercise in Americanization,comparable
to the apparentcultural Sovietizationof East Berlin,MSA officers went to
great lengths to clarify the exhibition'sinternationalism.'To some visitors,
this home of a future "averageconsumer" would appear perhaps to be
"American",but that is incorrect',a West Germandesign journalreported,
reiteratingan opening-dayaddressby Michael Harris, chief of the German
branchof the MSA. 'JohnSmithor Hans Schmidtwould be perfectlycapable
of affordingsuch a house when certainconditionswere met: we must make
the Atlanticcommunityof nationsa reality;eliminatetariffbarriers,and raise
productivity,therebyallowing us to lower prices and raise wages.'4SStalinist
ideologues equated the Marshall Plan's advocacy of a common market
strippedof tradebarrierswith an assaultupon nationalsovereignty,and vilified modernistdesignas a capitalistplot to 'disassociatethe people fromtheir
native land, from their language and their culture, so that they adopt the
"Americanlifestyle"and join in the slavery of the Americanimperialists'.46
While alarmist,the assessmentwas not baseless. The Better Life exhibition
43 'WeBuilda BetterLife',undatedtypescript,RG59/150/71/35/04,Entry5323 (Recordsof the
InternationalInformationAdministration,SubjectFiles, EuropeanField Program1949-1952),
Box 8, US NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
44 Articlein Der Tag,22 September1952, translatedand quotedin Lyonto Secretaryof State,
22 September1952, RG59 862A.191 (InternalAffairsof StateRelatingto Exhibitionsand Fairs
in Germany),Box 5225, US NationalArchives,CollegePark,MD.
45 HeinrichK6nig,'Ausstellung:"Wirbauenein besseresLeben"',Architekturund Wohnform,
61, 2 (November1952), 87.
46 G. Alexandrov, cited in Edmund Collein, 'Die Americanisierungdes Stadtbildesvon
Frankfurtam Main',DeutscheArchitektur,1, 4 (1952), 151.
278
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
indeedrevealedthat the US StateDepartmentwas groomingmodernismas the
stylistic lingua franca of internationalconsumercapitalismand its idealized
American'good life'.
A BetterLife was a hit with Germanvisitors, who seemedto embraceits
vision of postwar domesticity,and, in some cases, the Cold War Realpolitik
behindit. The toplesshouse drew over half a millionvisitors,over 40 per cent
of them from the East.West Germannewspaperreportswere positive, 'with
no (rpt no) referencewhatsoever'to the stripteasescandal,as MSA officers
informedtheir superiorsin Washington.Der Tag told its readers:'Take your
time to inspectthis exhibition.With respectto the arts, handicraftsand technics, it revealsthat Americais the grown-updaughterof Europe.... You will
see there what it meansto live a decentlife.'47An actressportrayinga housewife in the exhibitioneffused:'Thishouse is so perfectthat I am afraidwe will
not want to move out .... What will happenif I fall in love with the kitchen
too?'48Germanarchitectswere also enthusiasticabout the exhibition, sometimes seeing in its celebrationof householdmodernismthe promiseof superpower design patronage.In a review entitled 'The Domestic Cultureof the
Western People', Baukunst und Werkformeditor Alfons Leitl proclaimed:
'Whoevermight not have known it learns emphaticallythrough this exhibition: in all the countriesof the Westernworld one deals with the same quesThe Cold War realitiesbehindA Better
tions, with the same designthemes.'49
Life'sdeploymentof modernismwere apparentto Leitl- and othersas well,
judgingby a commentoverheardat the exhibition:'You have to understand
that this whole thing isn't put togetherjust from a professionalpoint of view
.
but with political intent.' 'A political exhibition, then?', Leitl mused.
'Domestic reformwith "industrialdesign"as a responsibilityof the Foreign
Minister.Not bad. Afterthe Werkbund,we'll give it a try with [WestGerman
Chancellor Konrad] Adenauer and [French Foreign Minister Robert]
Schumann Anotheradvocate of modernism,designcritic HeinrichKonig,
interpretedA Better Life as a mandate for government-sponsoredcultural
reform.In the journalArchitekturund Wohnform,he exhorted:'This exhibition is also an appeal to ministries,especiallythe one administeringpublic
education,finally to introduce"The Studyof Living"as a course of instruction. . . . It goes without saying that this class is only to be entrustedto
teacherswho are trulyreceptiveto the New [styleof] Living.'"'Knig's call for
anotherculturalrevolutionmanagedfrom on high echoedthe tactics used to
47 Article in Der Tag, 22 September 1952, translated and quoted in Lyon to Secretary of State,
22 September 1952, RG59 862A.191 (Internal Affairs of State Relating to Exhibitions and Fairs
in Germany), Box 5225, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
48 Article in Tagesspiegel, 20 September 1952, translated and quoted in Lyon to Secretary of
State, 20 September 1952, RG59 862A.191 (Internal Affairs of State Relating to Exhibitions and
Fairs in Germany), Box 5225, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
49 Alfons Leitl, 'Die Wohnkultur der Westlichen Volker', Baukunst und Werkform, no. 12
(December 1952), 40.
50 Ibid., 39.
51 Heinrich K6nig, 'Ausstellung: "Wir bauen ein besseres Leben"', op. cit., 91.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
279
institutionalize
socialistrealismin EastGermany.
ComingfromWestGerman
enthusiof
the
notion
was
cultural
that
modernism
anti-fascism,
proponents
how
few
lessons
demonstrated
asmfor an officially-sponsored
postwarstyle
weresometimeslearnedby thosewho had firsthandexperienceof the nazi
ventureintoaesthetichegemony.
A BetterLife may have wowed Germans,but it sparkeda controversy
withthe
amongUSadvisersin Europe.DonaldMonson,a housingconsultant
LabourDivisionin Paris,objectedto the displayof an 'ideal
MSAEuropean
house'with twicethe squarefootageof the WestGermanlegalaverage,as
of the nation'sfirstpostwarhousing
stipulatedin theenforcedegalitarianism
law. 'It'sall verywell to put up showslikethis, but in view of the extreme
to
whetherpropaganda
housingshortagein Germany... it canbe questioned
breakdownthis [German]ruleof fairsharingis a wise one.'52
In response,
MSAChiefMichaelHarrisassertedthattheexhibition'wasnot abouthousing
at all. Its mainpoint was the attractiveand realisticdisplayof the least
objectscommonlyusedin
expensive,aesthetically
acceptablemass-produced
on
The
everydaylivingby ordinarypeople.'" goods display,however,were
A report
anythingbutcommonforeverydaylifein Europeof theearly-1950s.
items
that
of
the
submittedto theUS StateDepartment
acknowledged 'many
are
in the house(refrigerator,
televisionset, etc.) still
automaticdishwasher,
beyondtheaverageGermanbudget'.Parkedaroundthe homewerea bicycle,
kayak,motorcycle,motorscooterand a Volkswagen(chosenfor its 'direct
appealto localpride'.)'No averageworkercouldpossiblyown alltheseforms
an MSAmemonoted.s4
of transportation',
Thecommodityculturecelebrated
A
unitof
Life
was
in
Better
other
utopian
by
ways as well. Its fundamental
was
the
on
a
married
nuclear
couple
young
consumption
family,premised
withtwo children.Excludedfromthisvisionof an 'idealhome'andits domesnumberof femaletic economywas Germany'shistorically-unprecedented
headedhouseholds.In 1950, at which time most Germansinternedin
campshadbeenreleased,therewere1000menforevery1400
prisoner-of-war
15 millionhousewomenbetweentheagesof 25 and39. Of WestGermany's
holds, nearlyone-thirdwere headedby widowsor divorcedwomen."The
52 Donald Monson to Joseph Heath, 31 October 1952, RG469/250/79/28/03-04, Box 3
(Consumption, Housing, Propaganda Strategies; Records of the US Foreign Assistance Agencies
1948-61, Special Representative in Europe, Office of Economic Affairs, Labor Division, Country
Files Related to Housing), US National Archives, College Park, MD.
53 Michael Harris to Joseph Heath, undated, RG469/250/79/28/03-04, Box 3 (Consumption,
Housing, Propaganda Strategies; Records of the US Foreign Assistance Agencies 1948-61, Special
Representative in Europe, Office of Economic Affairs, Labor Division, Country Files Related to
Housing), US National Archives, College Park, MD.
54 Lyon to Secretary of State, 22 September 1952, RG59 862A.191 (Internal Affairs of State
Relating to Exhibitions and Fairs in Germany), Box 5225, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
55 Robert G. Moeller, 'Reconstructing the Family in Reconstruction Germany. Women and
Social Policy in the Federal Republic, 1949-1955' in Robert G. Moeller (ed.), West Germany
Under Construction. Politics, Society and Culture in the Adenauer Era (Ann Arbor, MI 1997),
112.
280
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
or 'oversupplyof women', and its accompanying
so-calledFraueniiberschufl,
about'incomplete'
discourses
families,madethe'typical'householdportrayed
at
the
MSA
exhibition
a sortof speculative
actors
socialfiction,one that
by
reflectedthe ongoing'politicalreconstruction
of the family'takingplacein
boththeUSAandWestGermany."6
In termsof the edificationof Westand EastGermans,A BetterLifehad
moreto do with modelcitizensthan modelhousing.The exhibitionconfronted a long-standingGermandiscoursethat used representations
of
and anxietiesaboutmodernizaAmericato plumbthe nation'senthusiasms
tion. In the 1920s, Fordistmassproductionhad inspiredGermanfantasies
about the twentiethcentury's'new man', from the bourgeois'captainof
of socialistmyth.S7
industry'to the heroicproletarian
Modernity's
potentialto
redefinegenderrelationships
often lent representations
of the new world's
'newwoman'an anti-American
tone, as culturalhistorianMaryNolan has
observed.The white, middle-classAmericanhousewifeconfabulatedby
criticslikeAdolfHalfeldembodiedanxietiesaboutmodernconWeimar-era
womenwho preferreda job to
sumptionthroughportrayalsof hard-edged
fed
their
from
ruledoverscientifically-efficient
and
tins,
home-making,
family
but comfortlesshomes- a genderedbetrayalof Kultur,Bildungand Geist.s8
The ThirdReichelaboratedon this anti-American
rhetoric,honouringthe
for
her
a
idealhousewife
abilityto nurture prolificbroodand inculcatethe
thatconstitutednazifamilyvalues.The long-termsuccess
racistnationalism
of the Marshall Plan was contingent upon underminingGerman fears of
Americanconsumermodernity,whichremainedan undercurrent
of public
opinion, the war's 'unconditionalsurrender'notwithstanding.
The identitypoliticsof genderwas to playa crucialrole in establishing
a
transnational consumer economy and the cultural cosmopolitanism that
nurturedit. Beneaththe appealto Germantraditionapparentin A BetterLife
- expressed in the actress-Hausfrau'sapron and pinned-up braids, her
kitchen bustle and Kaffee-Klatschcharm- lurked a new postwar persona.
Signifiersof a putativereturnto 'normal'domesticidealsmollifiedreactionary
anxieties,andallowedtheidealizedhousewifeto proceedwithhernewhouse-
hold task of negotiatinga Fordistrevolutionin mass consumption.Although
56 Moeller,'Reconstructing
the Family',op. cit., 126.
57 On the 'new man'as an interwarsignifierof radicalsocialreform,see FritzNeumeyer,'Die
neueMensch.KorperbauundBaukorperin derModerne'(15-31) andWilfriedWang,'Geometrie
und Raster.Der mechanisierteMensch' (33-49) in Vittorio Magnagoand RomanaSchneider,
Traditionund Moderne.ModerneArchitekturin Deutschland1900 bis 1950 (Stuttgart1992),
andWolfgangPehnt,'The "New Man"and the Architectureof the Twenties'in JeannineFiedler
(ed.), Social Utopias of the Twenties. Bauhaus, Kibbutzand the Dream of the New Man
Germanhousewifeas the 'new
(Wuppertal1996), 14-21. For a discussionof the 'Americanized'
man' of postwar modernitysee Mary Nolan, 'ConsumingAmerica,ProducingGender'in R.
LaurenceMoore and MaurizioVaudagna(eds), The AmericanCenturyin Europe (Ithaca,NY
and London2003), 243-61.
58 MaryNolan, Visionsof Modernity.AmericanBusinessand the Modernizationof Germany
(New Yorkand Oxford 1994), 120-7.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
281
her male partnermay have been 'a workerand at the same time a consumer',
as the MSAproclaimed,it was the 'completelyautomatic,mechanizedwonder
kitchen . . somehow reminiscentof the control panel of an airplane',as the
The kitchenshown in
Neue Zeitunggushed,that crownedthe new lifestyle."s
A BetterLife the only room in the dreamhouse in which nearlyeveryobject
was importedfromthe USA- was an objectof desirefor both sexes, according to a Tagesspiegelreport.'Forwomen and all men interestedin mechanics,
it is a white paradise. .. .'60 Images of masculine aggression had given
advanced technology a sinister edge during the war. Feminizationwould
render a postwar machine age gemiitlich. The MSA's 'new woman' also
overcame German national chauvinism in her cultivation of the tasteful
cosmopolitanismreflected in home furnishingsassembled from across the
'transatlanticcommunity'.The role of the postwarHausfrauwas limiting,but
also liberating,as Erica Carterhas argued,in that its restrictivegenderconstruct was accompaniedby the privilegedstatus of 'housewifeas consumercitizen',situatingWest Germanwomen 'in discoursesof reconstructionas the
bearerof the values of a specificform of postwarmodernity,one dominated
With her relentlessoptimism,will
by scientificand technologicalrationality'.61
to live in the here-and-now,and devotion to a better future, the idealized
housewife was the pre-eminent'new man' of West Germany'sfirst postwar
decade.62
A BetterLifemarkedthe apogeeandconclusionof StateDepartment
funding
formodernist
In1953,overseaspropaganda
was
householddesignexhibitions.
entrustedto a new organization,
the US Information
Agency(USIA).It was
bornjust as anti-communist
isolationistsand fiscally-conservative
populists
were launching a two-pronged assault on federal spending for foreign
culturalprogrammes.Overthe courseof the 1950s, Congressimposedcuts in
the USIAbudgetso punitivethat the organizationand its missionwererescued
only throughexecutivebranchintervention.PresidentDwight Eisenhower,a
vigorous proponentof anti-communistpropagandaefforts, formulatedwhat
historianRobertHaddow has called a 'McCarthy-proof'strategyfor cultural
diplomacy.It borrowed from the New Deal model of partnershipbetween
andprivateenterprise,
butshiftedfinancingand- moreimporgovernment
the
to thelatter.The'American
attention
from
former
tantly public
wayof
59 Article in Neue Zeitung, 20 September 1952, translated and quoted in Lyon to Secretary of
State, 20 September 1952, RG59 862A.191 (Internal Affairs of State Relating to Exhibitions and
Fairs in Germany), Box 5225, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
60 Article in Tagesspiegel, 20 September 1952, translated and quoted in Lyon to Secretary of
State, 20 September 1952, RG59 862A.191 (Internal Affairs of State Relating to Exhibitions and
Fairs in Germany), Box 5225, US National Archives, College Park, MD.
61 Erica Carter, How German is She? Postwar West German Reconstruction and the Consuming Woman (Ann Arbor, MI 1997), 225.
62 Nolan, 'Consuming America, Producing Gender', op. cit., 254.
282
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
life'wouldbepromotedhenceforth
at international
throughprivatebusinesses
tradefairs.Corporations
donatedproductsandcapitalin returnforan opportunity to penetratenew marketsabroad.The US CommerceDepartment
assumedresponsibility
for shippingexhibitsand providingoverseassupport
services.Underthenewsystem,federalfundsprovidedseedmoneyratherthan
all expenses.Propaganda
expertisedevelopedoverthe postwar
underwriting
yearswould not be lost; it would be privatized.PeterHarnden,the MSA
officerwho inadvertently
launchedreportsof a federally-funded
stripteaseat
of exhibitionproduction
We'reBuildinga BetterLife,becametheco-ordinator
Officeof International
TradeFairs.Harnden's
fortheCommerce
Department's
firm
from
Paris-based
boasted
private
design
employees ninedifferentnations,
to createa newgeneraandderivedits profitsprimarily
throughcommissions
tionof UShouseholdexhibits.63
as an overseas
UnderHarnden'ssupervision,the tracthome reappeared
in
closeto its
nowdisplayed something
emissaryof American
livingstandards,
forapplicationon
nativeform,ratherthanas a hybridized
varietyengineered
andParisin 1955,
foreignsoil.At tradefairsstagedin Milan,Bari,Barcelona
suburbanhomes,completewith gardenpatio and
two completely-furnished
of HouseBeautifulmagaunder
the co-sponsorship
were
exhibited
carport,
of HomeBuildersand
The
The
Producer's
National
Association
zine,
Council,
Institute.HouseBeautifulfurnished
HomeManufacturer's
ThePrefabricated
and decoratedone of the homesin Lafayette,Indiana,the otherin Toledo,
Ohio. Both were photographedfor publication,then disassembledand
shippedto Europe.Althoughthe magazine'seditorstrumpetedthe high
in
of the decorand 'the noticeableimprovement
qualityand affordability
taste, as comparedwith interiorsof only yesterday',the plushupholstered
furniture,greenandtangerinecolourschemeandclutterof decorativeaccesMidwestthanMilan
soriesperhapswereindeedbettersuitedto theAmerican
or Paris.While MoMA'scuratorscertainlywould have consideredthese
USIApropaexhibitionpolicya stepbackwards,
resultsof a newly-privatized
the
gandastrategytooka decisiveleapforwards.Displaysbeganto emphasize
mechanismsby whichsuburbanhomesand theirconsumeraccoutrements
intotheirbroadercapitalisteconomy.Fora 1955 Parisexhiwereintegrated
andplacedit besidea
mockedup an Americansupermarket
Harnden
bition,
kitchento its
modelhometo clarifythe relationship
of the technology-laden
sourceof packagedprovisions.His workat a tradefairin Viennathe followingyearlinkedthemodelhometo a fashionshowanda colourtelevisiondisplay. This additiveapproach'broughtmaterialcultureto life and revealed
theaverageperson'.64
USIAexhibitionsproclaimed
howtechnologybenefitted
of theAmerican
consumer's
thatforeignreplication
'goodlife'meantimporting an entireeconomicsystem,not just its individualproducts.
63 CynthiaKellogg,'An AmericanBrusselsFairDesignerGivesFrenchHome ModernLook',
New YorkTimes,4 December1957, 63.
64 Haddow,Pavilionsof Plenty,op. cit., 60-1.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
283
Harnden'sadvancesbeyondan earliergenerationof MarshallPlancommissions yielded a propagandatriumphat the AmericanNational Exhibitionin
Moscow in 1959. Federalofficialshired GeorgeNelson, whose furniturehad
been featuredin previousMarshallPlan shows, to designthe Moscow exhibition. Duringthe preliminaryplanningphase,Nelson met Harnden,who was a
'majorcontributor'to the final design.6sNelson immediatelyaddedto his staff
an employeefrom Harnden'soffice, Philip George,who becameresponsible
for co-ordinating the entire Moscow exhibition as Nelson's right-hand
man.66Given the establishedrecord of Americanpropagandastrategy,the
Communist Party Central Committee was aware that, for the US State
Department'sMoscow exhibition, 'special attention will be paid to the
demonstrationof domestic appliances:electric kitchens, vacuum cleaners,
refrigerators,air conditioners,etc.'.67Soviet visitors moved througha vortex
of technology,product and servicedisplaysrelatedto the model home that
awaited them at the end of their procession.They were introducedto 'the
Americanway of life' by a dazzlingaudio-visualpresentation,'Glimpsesof the
USA', createdfor the exposition by the husbandand wife team of Ray and
Charles Eames, two of the nation's most celebratedmodernist designers.
Across seven overhead screens, impressionsof a typical day in suburbia
flickeredand pulsedin choreographedmulti-mediaimagery.The main exhibition pavilion,seen next, was conceivedby designconsultantGeorgeNelson as
'a huge modular steel shelving system' stocked with a cornucopiaof toys,
stereos, sporting goods, cookware and kitchen appliances,clothing, masscirculationperiodicalsand even musical instruments.Framedby this Cold
War stockpileof consumergoods, Singerprovideda sewing demonstration,
Helena Rubensteinoversaw makeoversof Russian women in her cosmetic
company'sbeauty salon, RCA operateda working colour television studio,
and a 'MiracleKitchen'concoctedmeals from packagedingredientsdonated
by GeneralFoods and Betty Crocker.Just as at Berlin'sBetterLife show, a
second-storeycatwalkprovidedvisitorswith a bird's-eyeview of Fordistconsumerpractices.By the time Sovietvisitorsentered'Splitnik',the model home
supplied by All-State Propertiesof Long Island and outfitted by General
Electric and Macy's, they had been exposed to a working outline of the
capitalist infrastructureupon which American consumer domesticity was
dependent."6
Khrushchev'svow to beat the West at its own game, made memorableby
the KitchenDebate photo-op at the 1959 exhibitionin Moscow, in fact predated that event by years. The Soviet Seven-YearPlan for 1958-65 had
pledgedto matchthe USAin housingsupplyand consumergoods, some of the
65 'American National Exhibition in Moscow', Industrial Design, 6, 4 (April 1959), 54.
66 Stanley Abercrombie, George Nelson. The Design of Modern Design (Cambridge, MA
1995), 164.
67 Report to the Central Committee of the CPSU, 23 May 1959, cited in Hixson, Parting the
Curtain, op. cit., 186.
68 Ibid., 206.
284
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
latterto be distributedfree of chargeby 1980, or so the promisewent.
to theUSSR'sThirdPartyProgramme,
forall,according
Abundance
ratifiedin
the
was
one
of
for
a
full
transition
to
communism.
1961,
preconditions
of a citizenof a new type:educated,cultivated,
Anotherwas the emergence
- especiallyin regardto consumer
sociallyintegratedand self-disciplined
desire.Khrushchev-era
ratherthanapingits capitalistcounterconsumption,
part,was envisionedin reformistterms,as SusanReid has demonstrated.
Ratherthan inventingneeds and inflamingdemand,socialistadvertising
wouldinculcaterationalconsumption
patterns,ensuringthatmarketscould
be predictedandmanaged.The'normative
consumption
budget'devisedfor a
as
Reid
reflected
'communist
notes,
typicalfamily,
morality,whichin general
entailedself-discipline
and voluntarysubmissionof the individualto the
collectivewill'.69
Khrushchev's
'thaw'mayhaveproducedthe EastBloc'snew subjectivity,
thesocialistmassconsumer,
butitsinspiration
waslargelynon-Russian.
While
dramaticsocial changerequiredMoscow'simprimatur
to becomeofficial,
EastBlocculturaltransformation
was morecomplexthanthe constructof a
Khrushchevian
'revolutionfrom above' might suggest.Soviet socialism's
westernfrontierservedas a catalystforchangein theUSSR,andlogicallyso.
EasternEuropehadenduredStalinism
onlybriefly,andjustbarely.Consumer
in EastGermanyand Czechomeasures
violent
rebellions
austerity
sparked
slovakiain 1953, whichwerequelledonlythrougha deusex machinainterventionof Soviettanks.AfterHungary'sabortiverevolutionof 1956, local
reformsfostereda partialmarketeconomyand increasedprivateconsumpdescribedas 'goulashsocialism'.In the wake
tion, yieldingwhatKhrushchev
of anotherroundof protests,Polandintroduceda mixedeconomyin 1957
withthe aimof increasing
consumergoods.In 1959, as theUSAproudlydisplayeda supermarket
mock-upin Moscow,a realone of glassandconcrete
As withthe rediscovery
in socialistart
was risingin Warsaw.70
of modernism
and architecture,
EasternEurope'speople'srepublicswereprovinggrounds
for experimentsin socialistconsumermodernity.The rampartof satellite
nationsassembledby Stalinto insulatetheUSSRfromtheWestprovedto be
nothingof the sort.By the mid-1950sthe EastBlocfunctionedinsteadas a
transmissionbelt on which repackagedwesterntrendswere shippedto
Moscowfor evaluation,ostensiblyas culturalinnovationsfromthe socialist
periphery.
As EasternEuropedevisedits own variantof the MarshallPlan social
contract- citizenenfranchisement
throughconsumerrewards- strangely
familiarimagesinvokeda post-Stalinist
'newman'.In 1957 an articlein the
EastGermanadvertising
Neue
carriednewsof a 'newform
journal
Werbung
69 SusanReid,'ColdWarin the Kitchen',op. cit., 219.
70 David Crowley, 'Warsaw'sShops, Stalinismand the Thaw' in SusanE. Reid and David
Crowley(eds),Styleand Socialism.Modernityand MaterialCulturein Post-WarEasternEurope
(Oxfordand New York2000), 41-2.
the ColdWar
Castillo:Domesticating
285
FIGURE5
A Czechmodelhousewifedemonstratesa vacuumcleanerbeforean audiencein
'A Day at Home', stagedin the windowof a statedepartmentstorein Pilsen.
Neue Werbung,vol. 4, no. 4 (1957).
of socialistadvertising'using live subjects(Fig. 5). In the Czechcity of Pilsen,
a domestic 'pantomime'had been staged in a multi-room home interior
mocked up along the glass frontage of a departmentstore. The storefront
exhibit, entitledA Day at Home, employedadult and child actorsto portraya
family engaged in household activities. During the course of the day, the
housewife demonstratedan arrayof new domesticproductsand appliances.
As the model family moved about their dream home, an invisible narrator
described its 'practical modern appointments', explaining how the new
labour-savingdevicesworked,while spectatorson the sidewalkobservedthem
in use. This novel approachto a householdgoods exhibitionwas reportedto
have generated'greatinterestamongthe public'in Pilsen- just as it had five
years earlier under US State Department sponsorship at Berlin's We're
Buildinga BetterLife exhibition.A Day at Home reprisedin close detail the
tactics devisedby Harndenand his crew to mobilizeconsumerdesire,bolster
capitalismand underminethe appeal of communism.More importantthan
the particularsof the householdgoods displayedin Pilsenwas the technique
of putting 'consumersthemselves in the store showcase, thereby turning
286
Journalof ContemporaryHistoryVol 40 No 2
them into objectsof consumptionand observation',in the words of historian
KatherinePence.Anotherconsequenceof this exhibitionstrategy- deployed
consciously in Marshall Plan shows, but unintended in its Soviet Bloc
application- was to sensitizecitizensto the materialdeficienciesof home life
under 'real and existing' socialism.71
During the 1960s, most East Bloc governmentswere able to supply the
minimumrequirementsof a fledglingconsumersociety:one small apartment
per nuclearfamily,a selectionof basicfoods and a fairlydependablesupplyof
essential household products. But Soviet-stylecommand economies, which
privilegedthe state ratherthan the citizen as sovereignconsumer,were unsuited to the reproductionof a commodity culture based on unrelenting
novelty across an ever-changingspectrumof goods. Perhapsmost important,
the projectof creatinga cadreof socialistconsumerspurgedof irrationalneeds
was doomed from the start. As early as 1956, foreign journalistsin Russia
reportedsightingsof a new subculturalspecies, the Stiliagi:stylish Westerninfluencedyouths who wore non-conformistidentitieson their sleeve, so to
speak, in contempt of Soviet taboos on extravagantconsumption and its
publicdisplay.72
The legitimationof a 'consumersocialism'modelledon its capitalistcounIt set the stagefor the historically-specific
terpartwas a historicalwatershed.73
formation
of
'late
characterizedby the desireand inability
socialism',
political
to emulatethe kaleidoscopicconsumerlandscapeof late capitalism,with its
constantshifts in inventedneeds,marketingploys and productlines;the latter
providinga kit-of-partsfor identitystatementsthat could be continuallydismantled and reassembledon an individual basis. Soviet Bloc consumer
durableslike televisions,washing machinesand automobilescame with long
Rationingneverended, but was insteadcamouflagedby prices
waiting-lists.74
set high to discourage the purchase of limited stock. 'Shelf-warmers'productsso undesirable,given the price,that they weremadeto gatherdust in
windows -
and what shoppers in Poland called 'brakorobstwo' -
a term
coined for unusedproductsthat were also unusable- epitomizedthe feeble
connectionbetween socialist producerand consumer,attenuatedby a
andindisystemnegotiatedby theparty,stateministries
Byzantine
regulatory
Retailprice,ratherthanbeingderivedfromthecost of
vidualmanufacturers.
makingandmarketingan item,was determined
by politicalexpediencyand
71 Katherine Pence, 'Schaufenster des sozialistischen Komsums. Texte der ostdeutschen "consumer culture"' in Alf Liidtke and Peter Becker, Akten. Eingaben. Schaufenster. Die DDR und
ihre Texte (Berlin 1997), 110. Pence is wrong, however, to consider this demonstration a vehicle
for a 'GDR-specific version of "consumer culture"' (109), not least since the production was originally mounted in Czechoslovakia.
72 Susan Reid, 'Cold War in the Kitchen', op. cit., 220, fn. 30.
73 Corey Ross, The East German Dictatorship. Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation
of the GDR (London 2002), 81.
74 For example, East Germans had to pay 'for technical consumer durables, eight to fifteen
times the price of their West German counterparts'. Jeffrey Kopstein, The Politics of Economic
Decline in East Germany, 1945-1989 (Chapel Hill, NC 1997), 189.
Castillo:Domesticating
the ColdWar
287
the complex,constantly-changing
politicsof subsidy.Campaignsto correct
the
and
pricing,improve design qualityof goods,anddevelopan efficientand
courteousretaildistribution
systemwere,in effect,cumbersome
attemptsto
into
socialist
the
reverse-engineer
consumption qualitiesrequiredfor most
retailbusinesses
to surviveundercapitalism.7s
Thecouplingof a Westernlifestyleidealwith a permanent
lag in 'catching
however.It becamethe basisof governance
for
up' was a usefulincongruity,
socialistclientstatesfoundeduponthe rewardof consumption
in returnfor
complicity.As the SovietandEastGermanpartiesabandonedthe projectto
invent a specificallysocialistconsumersubjectivity,late socialismrelied
on privileged
accessto goods,includingWesterngoods,as partof
increasingly
a rewardsprogramme
for its dlites,andwhichestablished
a set of valuesthat
In
East
the
socialist
visionof a
permeatedthroughoutsociety.76
Germany,
reformistconsumersocietywas abandoneddecisivelywith ErichHonecker's
successionas partychairmanin 1971 andthe so-called'unityof socialeconIn theinterestof socialstability,
omyandpolicy'forgedunderhis leadership.
theEastGerman
Politburouncoupledrisingconsumption
fromits logicalpretheequationbroadcastacrossWesternEurope
requisiteof risingproductivity,
theStalin-era
by MarshallPlaneconomists.
Jettisoning
prescript'asyouwork
thepartyrewarded
citizencompliance
with
today,so shallyoulivetomorrow',
whateverthesocialisteconomycouldchurnoutin thehereandnow.
Throughthe early 1970s, East Germanymade impressivestridesin its
standardof living,gainingrenownthroughout
the SovietBlocas socialism's
consumeroasis.Butwithina decade,the'plannedmiracle'hadstalled.Aseconomicgrowthsputtered,evenpartialfulfilmentof a socialcontractbasedon
couldbe achievedonly by takingout loansfrom
Western-style
consumption
the capitalistworld or cannibalizinginvestmentearmarkedfor industry.
Erraticshortages
of basicgoodsoccurred
withincreasing
At a crisis
frequency.
meetingof the EastGermanPolitburoin 1989, StatePlanningCommission
ChairmanGerhardSchiirerremarked:
'Thereare poorercountriesthanthe
GDRwitha muchricherofferingof goodsin thestores.... Whenpeoplehave
75 This assessmentis supportedby recentinvestigationsof socialistretailing,including:JulieM.
Hessler,'Cultureof Shortages.A SocialHistoryof SovietTrade',unpublisheddiss., Universityof
Chicago, 1996; Mark Evan Landsman,'Dictatorshipand Demand. East Germanybetween
Productivismand Consumerism,1948-1961', unpublisheddiss., Columbia University2000;
KatherinePence,"'You as a Woman Will Understand".Consumption,Genderand the RelationshipbetweenStateand Citizenryin the GDR'sCrisisof 17 June 1953', GermanHistory,19,
2 (2001), 218-52, and Andr6Steiner,'Dissolutionof the "Dictatorshipover Needs"?Consumer
Behaviorand EconomicReform in East Germanyin the 1960s' in Susan Strasser,Charles
McGovernand MatthiasJudt (eds), Gettingand Spending.Europeanand AmericanConsumer
Societiesin the TwentiethCentury(Cambridge1998), 167-85.
76 As CharlesS. Maierhas noted:'Privilegebecamea pervasiveway of rationingvaluedaspects
of life, accessto whichwas less politicalin the West,so that the regimecouldget creditfor doling
them out .... [E]veryfavorfinallygrantedwas a reminderof how easilyanothermightbe withheld.' CharlesS. Maier,Dissolution.The Crisisof Communismand the End of East Germany
(Princeton,NJ 1997), 42-3.
288
of Contemporary
Journal
HistoryVol40 No 2
a lot of money and can't buy the goods they want, they curse socialism.'77
Late-socialistattemptsto fuse egalitarianrhetoricto Westernlifestyleimages
yielded an unstablehybrid,momentousnot so much for its resultingsurface
resemblanceto capitalist commodity culture, but ratherfor the underlying
absenceof an alternativeconceptualizationof privateconsumption.As Jeffrey
Kopsteinhas observed,the life-spanof East Bloc socialismundoubtedlycontractedwhen Marxist-Leninismdefaultedon the creationof 'its own unique
understandingof modernity,its own vocabularyfor it, its own discoursethat
would have enabledpeople to experiencescarcityin a qualitativelydifferent
way'.7"On the Cold War's crucial home front, Marshall Plan exhibitions
staged early on in dividedBerlinmodelledpatternsof domesticconsumption
that helpeddefinean emergent'FirstWorld'materialculture,and auguredthe
destructionof its 'SecondWorld'alternative.
Greg Castillo
is an AssistantProfessorat the Universityof Miami School of
Architecture.He is the authorof severalarticlesand is currently
preparinga monograph,Cold Waron the Home Front,which will
be publishedby the Universityof MinnesotaPress.
77 GerhardSchiirerquotedin Kopstein,The Politics of EconomicDecline in East Germany,
op. cit., 192. On the use of socialistconsumptionas a cultureof resistance,see C. Humphrey,
'Creatinga Cultureof Disillusionment.Consumptionin Moscow, A Chronicleof Changing
Times'in DanielMiller(ed.), WorldsApart.Modernitythroughthe Prismof the Local (London
and New York 1995). On the role playedby consumerdissatisfactionat the collapseof the East
Germanstate, see Kopstein,ThePoliticsof EconomicCollapsein East Germany,op. cit., 195-7,
and Maier,Dissolution,op. cit., 89-97.
78 Kopstein,ThePoliticsof EconomicDeclinein East Germany,op. cit., 195-7.