Designing one nation : the politics of economic culture and trade in divided Germany /
Designing One Nation explores how East and West Germans negotiated their country's postwar division at the juncture of economic and cultural politics. It is especially concerned with historical interconnections between the two Germanies in industrial design, economic structures, corporate ethos...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Oxford University Press,
[2020]
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| Series: | Sustainable history monograph pilot.
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| Summary: | Designing One Nation explores how East and West Germans negotiated their country's postwar division at the juncture of economic and cultural politics. It is especially concerned with historical interconnections between the two Germanies in industrial design, economic structures, corporate ethos, trade, economic foreign policy and consumer culture, all of which are subsumed under the term "economic culture." It shows that postwar reconstruction, as envisioned and realized by a network of politicians, entrepreneurs and cultural brokers, did more than to modernize the respective parts of Germany. Rather, through the national reinscription of their material culture, here explored in the realm of interior design and furniture production, the two German states pursued an unprecedented effort to regain economic stability and political influence in postwar Europe's order. Significantly, what started as a Cold War competition for ideological superiority quickly turned into a shared, politically legitimizing quest for an untainted post-fascist modernity. Following products from the drawing board into the homes of ordinary Germans, this book thus offers unique insights into how converging visions of German industrial modernity created shared expectations about economic progress and living standards. The resulting economic culture linked the two Germanies together and acted internationally in a pan-German interest. |
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| Physical Description: | xvi, 289 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780190877279 0190877278 |