Synopses & Reviews
The sheer intensity and violence of Germanyandrsquo;s twentieth centuryandmdash;through the end of an empire, two world wars, two democracies, and two dictatorshipsandmdash;provide a unique opportunity to assess the power and endurance of commercial imagery in the most extreme circumstances.
Selling Modernity places advertising and advertisements in this tumultuous historical setting, exploring such themes as the relationship between advertising and propaganda in Nazi Germany, the influence of the United States on German advertising, the use of advertising to promote mass consumption in West Germany, and the ideological uses and eventual prohibition of advertising in East Germany.
While the essays are informed by the burgeoning literature on consumer society, Selling Modernity focuses on the actors who had the greatest stake in successful merchandising: company managers, advertising executives, copywriters, graphic artists, market researchers, and salespeople, all of whom helped shape the depiction of a companyandrsquo;s products, reputation, and visions of modern life. The contributors consider topics ranging from critiques of capitalism triggered by the growth of advertising in the 1890s to the racial politics of Coca-Colaandrsquo;s marketing strategies during the Nazi era, and from the post-1945 career of an erotica entrepreneur to a federal anti-drug campaign in West Germany. Whether analyzing the growing fascination with racialized discourse reflected in early-twentieth-century professional advertising journals or the postwar efforts of Lufthansa to lure holiday and business travelers back to a country associated with mass murder, the contributors reveal advertisingandrsquo;s central role in debates about German culture, business, politics, and society.
Contributors. Shelley Baranowski, Greg Castillo, Victoria de Grazia, Guillaume de Syon, Holm Friebe, Rainer Gries, Elizabeth Heineman, Michael Imort, Anne Kaminsky, Kevin Repp , Corey Ross, Jeff Schutts, Robert P. Stephens, Pamela E. Swett, S. Jonathan Wiesen, Jonathan R. Zatlin
Review
andldquo;Advertisingandmdash;this imaginative, erratic, and invasive aspect of capitalismandmdash;finds in Selling Modernity a creative and resourceful interpreter. The book marks an important shift from recent studies on consumer culture by emphasizing advertising as the link between production and consumption. It excellently shows that the ethical and economic meanings of advertisements were above all a reflection of Germansandrsquo; fantasies and dreams between 1871 and 1990.andrdquo;andmdash;Alon Confino, author of Germany as a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History
Review
andldquo;Selling Modernity is an excellent collection; every essay is superb. The contributors examine advertising and public relations in contrasting contexts: a monarchy, a liberal democracy, a popular dictatorship, a cold war democracy, a communist dictatorship, and a postandndash;cold war reunited nation: what a historical laboratory!andrdquo;andmdash;Claudia Koonz, author of The Nazi Conscience
Review
andldquo;A highly readable and wide-ranging compilation of innovative essays on German advertising and the people who produced it under dramatically different political regimes. This major contribution to understanding the culturally specific workings of modern economies will be of interest to specialists, students, and a broader audience.andrdquo;andmdash;Uta G. Poiger, author of Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany
Synopsis
A historical study of modern German advertising, from the Imperial period through the 1970s, that explores mass consumption in modern society and the relationship between business mentalities, artistic creation, consumer behavior, and ideology.
About the Author
“Selling Modernity is an excellent collection; every essay is superb. The contributors examine advertising and public relations in contrasting contexts: a monarchy, a liberal democracy, a popular dictatorship, a cold war democracy, a communist dictatorship, and a post–cold war reunited nation: what a historical laboratory!”—Claudia Koonz, author of The Nazi Conscience“A highly readable and wide-ranging compilation of innovative essays on German advertising and the people who produced it under dramatically different political regimes. This major contribution to understanding the culturally specific workings of modern economies will be of interest to specialists, students, and a broader audience.”—Uta G. Poiger, author of Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany“Advertising—this imaginative, erratic, and invasive aspect of capitalism—finds in Selling Modernity a creative and resourceful interpreter. The book marks an important shift from recent studies on consumer culture by emphasizing advertising as the link between production and consumption. It excellently shows that the ethical and economic meanings of advertisements were above all a reflection of Germans’ fantasies and dreams between 1871 and 1990.”—Alon Confino, author of Germany as a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword / Victoria de Grazia xiii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction / Pamela E. Swett, S. Jonathan Wiesen, and Jonathan R. Zatlin 1
1. Marketing, Modernity, and andldquo;the German Peopleandrsquo;s Soulandrdquo;: Advertising and Its Enemies in Late Imperial Germany, 1896-1914 / Kevin Repp 27
2. Visions of Prosperity: The Americanization of Advertising in Interwar Germany / Corey Ross 52
3. Branding Germany: Hans Domizlaffandrsquo;s Markentechnik and Its Ideological Impact / Holm Friebe 78
4. andldquo;Planting a Forest Tall and Straight like the German Volkandrdquo;: Visualizing the Volksgemeinschaft through Advertising in German Forestry Journals, 1933-1945 / Michael Imort 102
5. Selling the andldquo;Racial Communityandrdquo;: Kraft durch Freude and Consumption in the Third Reich / Shelley Baranowski 127
6. andldquo;Die erfrischende Pauseandrdquo;: Marketing Coca-Cola in Hitlerandrsquo;s Germany / Jeff Schutts 151
7. Lufthansa Welcomes You: Air Transport and Tourism in the Adenauer Era / Guillaume de Syon 182
8. andldquo;The History of Morals in the Federal Republicandrdquo;: Advertising, PR, and the Beate Ushe Myth / Elizabeth Heineman 202
9. andldquo;Wowman! The Worldandrsquo;s Most Famous Drug-Dogandrdquo;: Advertising, the State, and the Paradox of Consumerism in the Federal Republic / Robert P. Stephens 230
10. andldquo;True Advertising Means Promoting a Good Thing through a Good Formandrdquo;: Advertising in the German Democratic Republic / Anne Kaminsky 262
11. Promoting Socialist Cities and Citizens: East Germanyandrsquo;s National Building Program / Greg Castillo 287
12. andldquo;Serve Yourself!andrdquo; The History and Theory of Self-Service in West and East Germany / Rainer Gries 307
Bibliography 329
Contributors 347
Index 351