America House (Hanover)

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The America House in Hanover was located on the ground floor of the Prinzenstrasse 9 building from 1970 to 1990

The America House in Hanover was from its inception in 1950 until its closure in 1995, a facility for the care of cultural exchanges with the United States . The aim was to provide information about the culture, society, history, economy and politics of the United States. This was done through events, advisory work on school and youth exchanges and a library .

history

Children's painting class in the Amerika-Haus in Hanover in the early 1950s

The America House in Hanover was opened on May 22, 1950 as the first America House outside the American occupation zone . At that time it was in the former British occupation zone . The opening was made by the American High Commissioner John Jay McCloy in the presence of the Lower Saxony Prime Minister Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf and the Hanoverian Mayor Wilhelm Weber . The facility's first seat was in the Conti -block on Kröpcke . In 1970 it was reopened in the building of the Cumberland Gallery , which is now part of the Hanover Theater . 1990–1995 the headquarters were at Prinzenstrasse 4.

Headquarters at Prinzenstrasse 4 from 1990 to 1995

From the mid-1960s with the emergence of the 1968 movement , a difficult time began for the America House in Hanover as well as for other America House in West Germany and especially for the America House in Berlin . American policy on Vietnam and the Vietnam War met with criticism and rejection. Although the house in Hanover was less affected by anti-American demonstrations and actions, during this time there were several tumults and window panes were thrown in. In 1981 the America House was occupied by demonstrators to support the call for detained members of the Red Army faction to be merged on a hunger strike .

As early as the mid-1970s, the Amerikahaus was hit by financial cuts by the American government. She demanded more funding from the German side. In order to prevent a closure, the city of Hanover and the state of Lower Saxony followed suit by providing grants for the costs of the house and the program.

At the instigation of the Republicans , the General Accounting Office decided in the 1990s to examine foreign cultural policy for its usefulness. As a result, the America House in Hanover, together with the America House in Stuttgart, was closed for financial reasons. The library holdings and the technical equipment came to libraries, schools and universities in Lower Saxony. A substantial number of documents has been in the Hanover City Archives since 2005 .

deals

The Amerika-Haus had the following offers for visitors:

  • Film screenings in a cinema, which took place daily and in some cases had up to 12,000 visitors a month, including closed screenings for schools and other organizations.
  • Use of film mobiles that carried out film screenings in other cities in the 1950s and trained projectionists.
  • Library of American literature and American magazines. Borrowing was free of charge for all residents in Lower Saxony. The peak with 27,000 books was in the 1950s, after which the inventory was reduced to a special library with 8,000 volumes on American topics. The magazine collection contained 180 continuously held titles.
  • Mobile library as book mobiles , which used two buses to travel to 16 locations in Lower Saxony in the 1950s. After that, the service was canceled because city libraries were set up in the towns.
  • Children's program with singing, handicrafts, painting, learning English, drama and children's library.

Events:

The Amerika-Haus offered a rich program of events that was not limited to Hanover. Shortly after the establishment of the house, refugee camps for displaced persons in Loccum , Uelzen and Salzgitter were looked after. The program had the following offers, among others:

  • Music events with music lectures, record lessons and performances by musicians from the United States, including pianist Chick Corea , jazz musician Lionel Hampton and in 1970 the introduction of the Moog synthesizer by Paul Bley . In 1989 the music festival Music Days USA was held, which had around 6000 visitors.
  • Theater events with the performance of American plays, especially modern works that are unknown in Germany. From the mid-1960s there were performances in English. From 1980 the hall of the Amerika-Haus was too small due to the large number of visitors and the Humboldt School in Hanover with 600 seats was avoided . Since the space was tight here, too, in 1982 they switched to the Theater am Aegi with 1200 seats. American classics such as John Steinbeck , Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams were played in the English-language guest performances . Alternative theater was shown in the pavilion , where the San Francisco Mime Troupe performed as a political street theater group .
  • Exhibitions on the subjects of photography, painting, graphics, handicrafts, pop art , Indian art. There were also special exhibitions, for example the German emigration to the USA.
  • Panel discussions on current political issues.
  • Lecture events on America-specific topics from politics, economy, space travel, environmental protection, minorities, art, architecture and travel to the USA.
  • Advanced training seminars on the English language and on political topics for young people, teachers and members of the armed forces in cooperation with the Evangelical Academy Loccum and the Lower Saxony State Center for Political Education .

literature

  • America House Hanover: 30 years America House Hanover: 1950–1980 . Published by Amerika-Haus Hannover 1980.
  • Katrina Hartje: Signals of Indian Artists, Amerika-Haus, Hanover, September 4–28, 1984 . Akmak Gallery Berlin 1984
  • WP Eberhard Eggers: Modern American printmaking , an exhibition in the Amerika-Haus Hannover 29 May to 5 July 1985. Publisher: Amerika-Haus Hannover 1985
  • America House Hanover: 40 years America House Hanover: 1950-1990 . Published by Amerika-Haus Hannover 1990.
  • Christine Zeuner: Adult Education in Hamburg 1945 - 1972 . Lit Verlag 2000, ISBN 3-825-85080-3
  • Alf Lüdtke, Inge Marßolek, Adelheid von Saldern : Americanization. Dream and nightmare in Germany in the 20th century . (Transatlantic Historical Studies (Ths)), Steiner (Franz) 1996, ISBN 3-515-06952-6
  • Klaus Mlynek : Amerika-Haus In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (ed.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 24.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christine Zeuner: Adult Education in Hamburg 1945–1972, p. 63. Accessed on January 6, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Cast on March 22, 1981 in: Hanover Chronicle
  3. ↑ FOCUS Online: TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONSHIPS: Unrequited love. Retrieved January 6, 2013 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 22 ′ 25.9 ″  N , 9 ° 44 ′ 40.4 ″  E