A German Community Under American Occupation

This is the first comprehensive attempt to study the impact of American occupation upon a German community. By examining documentary sources and personal papers from the occupation period and interviewing a great many Germans and Americans directly associated with the military and civil administration of the town of Marburg, the author has written an illuminating case study of the occupation as a whole.
The study discloses several significant paradoxes: the effect of some military government policies necessarily doomed other military government policies to failure; military government encouraged decentralization and practiced centralization; the American democratization program encouraged and produced institutions and agencies that Germans used to undermine basic occupation policies; undemocratic methods were often used to promote a democratic ideal.
Perhaps the most important failure of the occupation authorities was their refusal to identify themselves with the German liberal and moderate forces that might have aided in the reconstruction of the kind of postwar Germany that the Americans sought to establish. These forces had an important stake in the results of the occupation, but no concessions or rewards were offered to obtain their active support. Instead, the occupation authorities chose to remain positively neutral during the struggle for power and status that liberals and moderates engaged in against leftists and Communists on the one hand, and conservatives, nationalists, and ex-Nazis on the other.
The author states that "The effect of American efforts was to disillusion the occupation's most loyal supporters and to bring forth people who disagreed with Americans about the extent and intent of denazification...; people who disagree with Americans about municipal and county government codes, the nature of the civil service, the structure and purpose of education, the proper political party organization and proper electoral procedures, the extent of industrial disarmament, the value of grass-roots political activities, and many other things."
Two striking conclusions emerge from the study. One is that American occupation policies fundamentally contradicted each other and thus were impossible to apply with any degree of success. The other is that in failing to achieve their stated objectives, Americans restored German self-respect at the expense of American policy and prestige.

Mr. Gimbel is Assistant Professor of History at Humbolt State College, California.

This is a reproduction edition from a scanned copy of the following original edition:
A German community under American occupation: Marburg, 1945-52
John Gimbel
ISBN 0804700613, 9780804700610
259 pages

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