Peter von Zahn's Cold War Broadcasts to West Germany

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Introduction

   • Eli Nathans

   Pages 1-10

3. Propaganda and Journalism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

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   2. Student and Soldier in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 13-51

   3. Survival

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 53-74

   4. Journalist at the Northwest German Radio Station

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 75-109

4. Networks and Contexts

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111

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   2. Public Audiences and Official Networks

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 113-140

   3. Critical Images of the United States in the Federal Republic

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 141-167

5. Peter von Zahn’s America

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 169-169

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   2. Tradition and Modernity in American Culture and Society

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 171-196

   3. American Public Opinion: Optimistic but Often Ignorant

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 197-213

   4. A Weak Executive, an Irresponsible Congress, and a Courageous Judiciary

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 215-237

   5. From Understanding to Indignation: Zahn on American Racism and the Civil Rights Movement

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 239-268

6. Receptions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 269-269

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   2. Audience Responses

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 271-292

   3. A Difficult Return to West Germany

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 293-319

   4. Conclusion

      • Eli Nathans

      Pages 321-326

7. Back Matter

   Pages 327-334

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This book examines the pioneering radio broadcasts and television documentaries about the United States made in the 1950s by the influential West German journalist Peter von Zahn. Part intellectual biography, part analysis of significant debates in West Germany, part study of an intensive encounter with the United States, the book helps explain the transformation of postwar West Germany. As a soldier in the Wehrmacht in World War II, Zahn held the militantly elitist views typical of young men in Germany’s educated middle class. He reconsidered these positions in his postwar broadcasts. At the same time he coldly assessed the capacity of the United States to win the Cold War. His broadcasts examined McCarthyism, the African-American civil rights movement, and numerous aspects of American culture and politics. Zahn’s broadcasts were one important voice in West German debates about the defects and virtues of modern democratic societies and especially of the United States, debates whose intensity reflected recent German experiences with the failure of the Weimar Republic and with Nazism.  Zahn’s analyses of the United States remain startlingly relevant today. 

• radio
• Nazi Germany
• television
• Second World War
• Soviet Union

“Eli Nathans’s Peter von Zahn’s Cold War Broadcasts to West Germany: Assessing America is still the first book that analyzes the life and work of Zahn as an influential intermediary between America and West Germany. … The merit of this book is a case study of an outstanding journalist.” (Frank Bösch, The American Historical Review, Vol. 124 (4), October, 2019)

“It is convincing to interpret Zahn as an intermediary between the U.S. and West Germany—and between elitist intellectuals and a mass audience—who picked up conservative perceptions about America and tried to undermine stereotypes. What is missing, however, is closer comparative view on other journalists and discourses about the United States in postwar Europe.  The merit of this book is a case study of an outstanding journalist.”  (Frank Bösch, University of Potsdam, Germany)

“With his portrait of Peter von Zahn, Nathans presents us with a picture of the postwar period of the Federal Republic that was determined neither by consensus on political subjects nor by a society primarily focused on consumer goods.  Instead, he illustrates the processes of Westernization and liberalization of Germans through the example of an early and critical foreign correspondent.  The book is worth reading” (Peter Hoeres, Institut für Geschichte, Austria)

• University of Western Ontario , Ontario, Canada

  Eli Nathans

Eli Nathans is Associate Professor of European History at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He has previously published books on the history of German citizenship policies and the career of a senior official in the Nazi administration of justice.

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