-
How did the rapid influx and appropriation of American popular culture—from jazz and blue jeans to Hollywood cinema and consumer goods—function as a decisive form of “soft power” that modernized West German society, creating a cultural firewall against both Soviet communism and the resurgence of authoritarian nationalism? This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the cultural transformation of West Germany from 1945 to the late 1960s, focusing on the phenomenon of “Americanization” (Amerikanisierung). It challenges the narrative of American culture as merely an imposed imperialist tool, arguing instead that it was enthusiastically appropriated by the younger West German generation as…