GIs in Germany: The Social, Economic, Cultural, and Political History of the American Military Presence (Publications of the German Historical Institute)

Cambridge University Press, 9/2/2013
EAN 9780521851336, ISBN10: 0521851335

Hardcover, 378 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English

The fifteen essays in this volume offer a comprehensive look at the role of American military forces in Germany. The American military forces in the Federal Republic of Germany after WWII played an important role not just in the NATO military alliance but also in German-American relations as a whole. Around twenty-two-million US servicemen and their dependants have been stationed in Germany since WWII, and their presence has contributed to one of the few successful American attempts at democratic nation building in the twentieth century. In the social and cultural realm the GIs helped to Americanize Germany, and their own German experiences influenced the US civil rights movement and soldier radicalism. The US military presence also served as a bellwether for overall relations between the two countries.

Introduction Thomas W. Maulucci, Jr
Part I. Strategy and Politics
1. Guarantors of peace and freedom
the US forces in Germany, 1945–90 Hans-Joachim Harder
2. Deterrence and defense
the stationing of US troops in Germany and the implementation of forward strategy in Europe, 1950–67 Bruno Thosse
3. The war that was never fought
the US army, the Bundeswehr, and the NATO central front Dennis Showalter
4. Why they did not go home
the GIs and the battle over their presence in the 1960s and 1970s Hubert Zimmermann
Part II. Military Communities
5. United States army military communities in Germany Thomas Leuerer
6. German-American relations at the local level
Heidelberg, 1948–55 Theodor Scharnholz
7. American military families in West Germany
social, cultural, and foreign relations, 1946–65 Donna Alvah
Part III. Tensions between Neighbors
8. Insolent occupiers, aggressive protectors
policing GI delinquency in early 1950s Germany Gerhard Fürmetz
9. Protection from the protector
court-martial cases and the lawlessness of occupation in American-controlled Berlin, 1945–8 Jennifer V. Evans
Part IV. The German Armed Forces and the American Model
10. The godfathers of Innere Führung? The American military model and the creation of the Bundeswehr Klaus Naumann
11. From Befehlsausgabe to 'briefing'
the Americanization of the Luftwaffe Wolfgang Schmidt
Part V. The 1970s and 1980s
12. 'Army in anguish'
the United States army, Europe in the early 1970s Alexander Vazansky
13. The US military and dissenters in the ranks
Germany 1970–5 Howard J. De Nike
14. The US armed forces and the development of anti-NATO protests in West Germany, 1980–9 Anni Baker
15. GIs under seige
the German peace movement confronts the US military Lou Martin
Appendix
population statistics on the US armed forces in Germany, 1945–2000 Dewey Browder.