Anti-Americanism in divided Germany

Anti-Americanism was common while Germany was divided after the Second World War. This anti-American sentiment was present in both West and East Germany. However, it was mostly present in East Germany due to Soviet and East German propaganda. Many Germans hated America because of capitalism in general, or because of the humiliation the Allies brought on them after World War Two.

The anti-American slogan “Go home, Ami” in West Berlin on the former sector border (the streets of Bernauer Straße and Schwedter Straße (1950). The sign to the left saying (in German) "Entrance to the French sector" was painted over.

Children’s home in the GDR (East Germany) 1951. The slogan can be seen on the blackboard.

History

Since 1950, many European communist parties and their supporters used the slogan against the presence of US soldiers: In 1951, "disruptive troops of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and Free German Youth" on West Berlin train stations had adhesive strips with the slogan "Ami go home!" written on those strips. However, these protests were declared "unlawful" by the West Berlin Police Chief. In addition, the slogan “Yankee go home” was used mainly in countries where a strong Political Left turned against the US military presence within the framework of NATO, as in France (until 1966) or Italy.

In the 1960s, the slogan was used in response to the Vietnam War by the extra-parliamentary opposition and remained current during the time of the peace movement in the 1970s. After that, it increasingly disappeared from public perception, but rather passed into general language with an ironic undertone. The Iraq War gave the slogan new popularity in political demands since 2003.

In films

In Billy Wilder's film One, Two, Three – which takes place in divided Berlin shortly before the construction of the Berlin Wall – the modified slogan "Yankee go home" is written on balloons. Justification of the writer, who comes from the America's southern states in the film, where the term "Yankee" is used for Americans from northern states: "It doesn't say 'Ami go home', but 'Yankee go home', and nobody likes it!"

In the Monty Python film The Life of Brian the slogan is parodied: In one scene, a wall is painted with the Latin slogan Romani ite domum ("Romans go home").

In literature

A selection of literature in German contains the words "Ami go home" in the title. These include:

• Amt für Information der Regierung der DDR (Office for Information of the Government of the GDR), (ed.) Ami go home. Warum die Amis heimgehen sollen (Ami go home. Why the Americans Should Go home). Die Wahrheit dem Volke, Heft 7 (The Truth to the People, Issue 7), Deutscher Zentralverlag, Berlin, 1950 (German Central Publishing House, Berlin, 1950.)
• Ernst Busch, Hanns Eisler: Ami – go home! Ernst Busch (ed.): Friedenslieder. Heft 2 (Peace Songs, Volume 2), Verlag Lied der Zeit (Songs of the Time Publishing House), Berlin o.J. (1952)
• James Wakefield Burke: Ami go home. Ein Roman aus unseren Tagen (Ami go home. A Novel from our Days), Amsel, Berlin, 1954
• Reinhard Federmann [de]: Ami go home. Stück in 25 Szenen (Ami go home. Piece in 25 Scenes), Sessler, Pfarrkirchen, Munich o.J. [around 1983]
• Rolf Winter: Ami go home: Plädoyer für den Abschied von einem gewalttätigen Land (Ami go home: Plea for the Farewell to a Violent Country), Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-89136-288-9
• Ingrid Bauer: Welcome, Ami go home. die amerikanische Besatzung in Salzburg 1945–1955; Erinnerungslandschaften aus einem Oral-history-Projekt (Welcome, Ami go home. The American Occupation in Salzburg 1945–1955; Memory Landscapes from an Oral History Project), Pustet, Salzburg 1998, ISBN 3-7025-0371-4
• Wilhelm Langthaler, Werner Pirker: Ami go home. Zwölf gute Gründe für einen Antiamerikanismus (Twelve Good Reasons for anti-Americanism), Promedia Vienna 2003 ISBN 978-3-85371-204-7