Seite 22 - Leseproben

expresses the cirmumstance, that democracy is a typical American
arrangement. Although the Soviets - at least verbally - also took up
so called democratizing the Germans, it was primarily an American
job. Because the Americans were the dominant occupying force, the
dominant form of this term is the English one. It is the version,
which the contemporaries were in close touch with, whose sound they
had in their ears, all the more the returned emigrants, who spent
their time in the United States and even those with a socialistic
orientation, like Bertolt Brecht.
We can read this poem in the context of our subject tonight. This
poem is the literary aesthetization of the German linguistic state
in the early post-war time: it is an expression of the social and
political state. Assuming that Americanization is a phenomenon of
the language and societal connection, we describe linguistic
Americanization as a result of the political and social post-war
circumstances. So, we are now going to look more meticulously: We
will observe a particular linguistic process - Americanization - of
a particular language - German - linked with a particular self-
relation - identity - at a particular time of high historical
significance - 1945 as the beginning of the post-war period. We will
also pay attention to what can be regarded as an essential condition
of all human relations and of the verbalization of these relations.
It is the attitude, in our case, the attitude of Americans towards
Germans - which determines American German politics of course - and
the German attitude towards the Americans. In the end, the American
German politics determines the German willingness to allow the
American language in.
Since attitude also concernes self-appraisal, we must consider
corresponding utterances as well. We assume, that the
Americanization of the German language is influenced by the attitude
of the Germans, especially the German intellectuals, towards the
American occupators. This attitude again is influenced by the German
élite self-assessment.
Finally, we will apply these results to German post-war identity,
which was harshly affected after incredibly dreadful German crimes
became obvious. So we will interpret the linguistic Americanization
as one of several German strategies to overcome the crisis.
Therefore, we will link political and social historiography with
linguistic historiography. To be more precise: We explain linguistic
usage phenomenons as the results of special political and social
circumstances, both of which are determined by attitudes, the
interaction partners have. Concerning this regard, we can specify
the meaning of Americanization. What does it actually mean? The
ending -zation, in abstract nouns like democratization,
modernization, individualization, verbalization, industrialization,
internationalization, digitalization, islamization, etc., describes