The Civil Rights Struggle, African-American GIs, and Germany

Recipient of the NAACP Julius E. Williams Distinguished Community Service Award 2009

 

About our research project

 

We explore the connection between the U.S. military presence abroad and the advancement of civil rights in the U.S. We investigate the role that African-American GIs played in carrying the civil rights movement to Germany, which was host to the largest contingent of U.S. troops deployed outside the U.S.

Between 1945 and the end of the Cold War, some 15-20 million American soldiers, families, and civilian employees lived in Germany. Between 2-3 million of those Americans were African American. By giving voice to their experience and to that of the people who interacted with them, we expand the story of the African-American civil rights movement beyond the boundaries of the U.S. and contribute to deepen the story of Afro-German History.

Out now:
“Ein Hauch von Amerika”

Miniseries & Documentary

“Ein Hauch von Amerika” (A Breath of America) is a 6-part miniseries and accompanying documentary inspired by Maria Höhn’s research in GIs and Fräuleins (The University of North Carolina Press, 2002). The series was produced FFP new media for SWR and ARD German Public Television. Sigrid Faltin of White Pepper Films produced the documentary. Maria Höhn served as the historical consultant for both productions.

 

Synopsis

They explore the large-scale Cold War deployments of American troops to 1950s West Germany, the economic boom and the Americanization of daily life, as well as the explosion of the entertainment industry. In addition, the series and documentary highlight not only West Germany’s reluctance to address the Nazi past but also the continuing Antisemitism and the many ways in which German and American forms of racism interacted, as U.S. and German officials tried to reign in the romantic relationships between white German women and African American GIs.

 

Documentary

The documentary “Ein Hauch von Freiheit - Die Doku” by award-winning German filmmaker Sigrid Faltin accompanied the TV show. It was downloaded more than 2 million times on German public TV last year and earned Faltin the 2022 TV Award from the RIAS Berlin Commission, which annually presents awards for excellence in reporting on German-American issues. Faltin, who sent a camera crew to the Vassar campus to interview Maria Höhn for the documentary, said one purpose of the film was to help the German TV audience understand that the fictionalized episodes of the miniseries were based on real events.

 

Exhibition

“6 Friedberg–Chicago”, the first institutional solo exhibition by the German-American artist James Gregory Atkinson (*1981 in Bad Nauheim), illuminates a neglected part of African American-German history on personal, social and political levels. The exhibition presents the artist's new same-titled film, which he shot in the Ray Barracks, a former US Army base in Friedberg. Maria Höhn served as a historical consultant for the project.

The exhibition is on display at Dortmunder Kunstverein from December 11th, 2021 to March 13th, 2022.

 

“Do you know what it’s like for a Negro to be among the ‘conquerors’ instead of the defeated? We learned about it for the first time when we ‘occupied’ Germany and none of us ever got over it. We will never go back to the old way again.“

– William Gardner Smith, Interview in the New York Post (September 1959)

 More publications

  • Publication

    A Breath of Freedom:
    The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany

    By Maria Höhn & Martin Klimke
    Palgrave Macmillan 2010



  • Documentary

    Breath of Freedom: Black Soldiers and the Battle for Civil Rights

    Narrated by Cuba Gooding, Jr.; feat. Colin Powell & Dieter Hildebrandt, MDR/ARTE, Smithsonian Network 2013

  • Documentary

    Ein Hauch von Freiheit: Schwarze GIs, Deutschland und die US-Bürgerrechtsbewegung

    Ein Film von Dag Freyer, MDR/ARTE, Smithsonian Network 2014


  • Publication

    Ein Hauch von Freiheit? Afroamerikanische GIs in Deutschland und die US-Bürgerrechtsbewegung

    By Maria Höhn & Martin Klimke
    trancript 2016


This website is a collaborative project of:

    • Maria Höhn, History Department, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

    • Martin Klimke, New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    • AAGE (African-American German Exchange) e.V., Frankfurt, Germany

    • Archive of Soldiers’ Rights, e.V. Berlin, Germany

    • Armed Forces Retirement Home, Washington, DC

    • Black German Cultural Society

    • Black German Heritage & Research Association

    • Black History Month, Berlin, Germany

    • Collegium for African American Research (CAAR)

    • Das Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany

    • Double Nickles Theater Company, Washington, DC

    • Goethe-Institut Washington, DC

    • Humanities Council of Washington, DC

    • Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD), New York / Berlin

    • National Geographic Society

    • Ramstein Docu Center, Ramstein, Germany

    • St. Mary’s Church (Evangelische Kirchengemeinde St.Petri-St.Marien), Berlin, Germany