Loving the Automobile to Death? Injuries, Mortality, Fear, and Automobility in West Germany and the United States, 1950–1980/Autoliebe und Verkehrstod. Verletzungen, Angst und Automobilismus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und den USA 1950–1980

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Zeller
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Automotive Sector ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Speed Limits ◽  
Technological Artifacts

Automobility, as it has been understood by historians, has been the historical locus of joy and excitement for millions of drivers and their passengers. Si- multaneously, the growth of the automotive sector has resulted in the deaths and injuries of millions of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. This paper aims to analyze debates and technological solutions surrounding these crashes and their differing perceptions in the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States during the post-World War II period. West Germany’s response to this lethal crisis was a focus on infrastructures and a call for abolishing speed limits on the part of many drivers and their advocates. In the United States, however, automobiles and their design received more attention. Fears and solutions offered to counter fear shaped technological artifacts; in turn, these artifacts themselves were the objects of emotional debates.

Restarting Globalization after World War II

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shale Horowitz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Economic Globalization ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
Side Payments

The present period of economic globalization originated following World War II. Given the strongly protectionist tendencies prevailing at the time, how did this happen? Structural economic and military causes, along with intervening coalitional and institutional factors, are considered. Trade policy change is examined in the five largest trading economies—Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, and the United States. Structural economic causes best explain why protectionist tendencies were so strong, and why they were weakest in the United States and the Federal Republic. The liberalizing trend inaugurated in the United States and the Federal Republic was also facilitated by coalitional side payments to agriculture. Cold War–related military interests appear to have been the strongest impetus behind the unilateral form of the liberalization.

The Wisdom of a Socialist Defector

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-62
Author(s):  
Harry R. Targ
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
The Cold War

Victor Grossman's A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee is at once an exciting adventure story, an engaging autobiography of a radical opponent of U.S. imperialism, and a clear-headed assessment of the successes and failures of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) at the onset of the Cold War until 1990, when its citizens voted to merge with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany). Most poignantly, Grossman compares the benefits workers gained in the GDR, the FRG, and even the United States during the Cold War.

Demilitarization and Democratization in the Post–World War II World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Trombley Averill
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Atomic Bomb ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
United States Occupation ◽  
The Military

This chapter looks at how, in the former Axis powers of Japan and Germany, the United States occupation authorities initially pursued policies that treated democratization and demilitarization as virtually synonymous. They believed a democracy could not flourish in either Japan or the Federal Republic of Germany until the military traditions had been purged from their national character and consciousness. The former aggressors faced total disarmament. Initial plans—embodied most drastically by the Morgenthau Plan to turn Germany into a pastoral country—were severe and uncompromising. However, once the Soviet Union had successfully acquired the atomic bomb, the United States concluded that measured rearmament in both countries was essential for the defense of democracy and the free world.

Lions and Lambs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Benezra Strote
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Postwar Germany ◽  
The Holocaust

Not long after the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, Germans rebuilt their shattered country and emerged as one of the leading nations of the Western liberal world. This book analyzes this remarkable turnaround and challenges the widely held perception that the Western Allies—particularly the United States—were responsible for Germany's transformation. Instead, the book shows how common opposition to Adolf Hitler united the fractious groups that had once vied for supremacy under the Weimar Republic, Germany's first democracy (1918–1933). The book's character-driven narrative follows ten Germans of rival worldviews who experienced the breakdown of Weimar society, lived under the Nazi dictatorship, and together assumed founding roles in the democratic reconstruction. While many have imagined postwar Germany as the product of foreign-led democratization, this study highlights the crucial role of indigenous ideas and institutions that stretched back decades before Hitler. Foregrounding the resolution of key conflicts that crippled the country's first democracy, the book presents a new model for understanding the origins of today's Federal Republic.

Legal Problems of the German Eastern Treaties

1980 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Arndt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The One

During the current political era, which has been marked by the attempts of the two superpowers to abate the economic and political burdens of their intercontinental and other “military build-up” through mutual dialogue (e.g., SALT, MBFR) and to achieve a certain détente in their relationship, a government came to power in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) after the 1969 parliamentary elections, whose declared goal was to make its own German contribution to help bring about a relaxation in international tensions, secure the peace in Central Europe, and make life there more tolerable for its inhabitants. The effort was all the more important because Germany was and is the only place on earth where the United States and the Soviet Union face each other directly. Initially, this political goal, securing the peace by relaxing tensions, was effected by the establishment of an extensive system of international treaties, usually between the Federal Republic of Germany on the one side, and the states of Eastern Europe with Communist governments on the other. Only to the extent that Berlin and the rights of the Allied powers of World War II were affected, were the three Western occupying powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) included in the system of treaties, partly by exchanges of notes and partly directly (e.g., the Berlin Quadripartite Agreement).

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