Sketch of a New World: US Occupation and the Politics of Childhood in Postwar Austria

Abstract

Between 1945 and 1955, US policymakers targeted Austrian children with a sweeping propaganda campaign intended to cultivate democratic, free-market sensibilities. Coordinated in the 1950s by the US Department of State’s Information Agency, US occupation authorities used subtle, Austrian-ized propaganda to develop educational and extracurricular programming at a moment of sociopolitical and economic transformation in postwar Austria. Responding to concerns about the moral degradation of children after Nazism and rising instances of youth delinquency, this campaign sought to address the ongoing youth problem by inscribing a set of behaviors—empathy, cooperation, and respect for others—that were amenable to the broader US democratizing mission in Central Europe. This paper examines a series of articles from Eine neue Welt für unsere Jugend (1953), a German-language anthology written by authors from both sides of the Atlantic. The text exposed Austrian young people to the richness of life in the United States by flaunting sociopolitical and cultural achievements that aligned with the aims of postwar reorientation initiatives, including articles on the Boy Scouts, transatlantic pen pal programs, and after-school clubs. By broaching these topics, US policymakers hoped to cultivate democratic sensibilities in Austrian youth—to build a new Austria supportive of Western-style liberalism. Works by prominent historians in the field, including Jaimey Fisher and Reinhold Wagnleitner, help frame this article that explores the transnational dynamics of democratic rehabilitation in miniature as US policymakers grappled with the aftermath of Nazism on the one hand and an escalating Cold War on the other.