A Window on the United States. The Image of American Architecture in West Germany’s Journals: 1947-1962

Abstract

This article aims to explore how American architecture was presented throughout the pages of two main architectural journals published in West Germany in the very first years after the end of World War II. The selected journals, Baukunst und Werkformand Baumeister, are rather independent magazines with opposite positions – the first is extremely oriented towards modernity and the latter is deeply conservative - and by no means can be considered as part of the cultural Cold War program. In spite of that, studying these magazines reveals how, in this particular period, it was impossible to avoid knowing, measuring and confronting the transatlantic world.

Keywords

• post-war germany
• americanism
• architectural journals
• baukunst und werkform
• baumeister