| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Transmission Impossible: American Journalism as Cultural Diplomacy in Postwar Germany, 1945–1955. By Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. xxii, 230 pp. Cloth, $47.50, ISBN 0-8071-2310-2. Paper, $22.50, ISBN 0-8071-2409-5.)

In the final phase of World War II, a group of German (mainly Jewish) refugees from Adolf Hitler returned to their homeland, where they struggled to win the hearts and minds of millions of German readers. For a decade, they operated in the American zone in southern Germany, where their newspaper, Die Neue Zeitung, was both widely read and influential. Led by a flamboyant Hungarian Jewish journalist who had assumed the name Hans Habe, the team faced obstacles that challenged its ingenuity and dedication. Though anticommunist, Habe and company needed to avoid attacking America's Soviet partner in the occupation of Germany. At the same time, they wanted to encourage critical thinking and antifascist views. Their newspaper was a forum for discussion, not a funnel for U.S. military orders. Its format, if not its content, made the Neue Zeitung reminiscent of publications that flourished during the Weimar Republic. Comfortable with German culture but anti-totalitarian, Habe and his successors fraternized with their readers, sometimes in defiance of official U.S. edicts. . . .

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