Congress for Cultural Freedom

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The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was a Paris- based anti-communist cultural organization during the Cold War from 1950 to 1969 , which was influenced and funded by the US intelligence service CIA . The way it sees itself, the CCF was a collection of left-liberal intellectuals against totalitarianism .

history

The Waldorf Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace in March 1949 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York sparked a campaign not to fall ideologically behind the communist cultural efforts that relied on fellow travelers and communist-controlled mass organizations . The Communist cultural initiative of the Cominform also took part in the conference in order to influence public opinion in the USA in their favor. A prominent participant on the communist side was Dmitri Shostakovich . The opposite side included Benedetto Croce , TS Eliot , Karl Jaspers , André Malraux , Bertrand Russell and Igor Stravinsky .

As a result of the Waldorf Conference, the Congress for Cultural Freedom was founded on June 26, 1950 in the Titania Palace in West Berlin . Based on their experiences with National Socialism and Stalinism , European and American intellectuals undertook a successful attempt for several years to organize themselves.

The Congress for Cultural Freedom funded from 1950 to 1969 left-liberal artists such as Heinrich Böll , Siegfried Lenz and magazines

as part of their struggle against the enemy in the east as well as against US critics such as Thomas Mann , Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Neruda .

The art movement favored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom through the aforementioned magazines was abstract art , which was referred to as informal art or abstract expressionism . In the 1960s, a major congressional campaign was de-ideologization , particularly aimed at journalists and media professionals.

From July 23 to 26, 1953, the Congress and the University of Hamburg organized the Science and Freedom Conference (see literature).

When the history of the CCF ended in 1967, Shepard Stone became the president of the successor organization International Association for Cultural Freedom (IACF). However, their influence was much less. Shepard Stone had previously been a sponsor of the CCF through his work at the Ford Foundation . In the early 1960s it became known that the basic financial resources of the CCF came from the CIA via the Ford Foundation.

On June 23 and 24, 2000, a congress for the 50th anniversary year of the CCF took place in Berlin, organized by the journalist Ulrike Ackermann and which presented the history of the organization as a success and progress for freedom and democracy.

Funding from the CIA

As was first known in the second half of the 1960s and later confirmed, the Congress for Cultural Freedom was influenced by the CIA and financed through foundations in the USA (some established for this purpose) and returns from the Marshall Plan . The aim was to influence high-ranking European artists and writers as they see fit, to encourage pro-Western attitudes and to position them against the communist camp . Michael Josselson was a key liaison between the Secret Service and Congress .

The covert actions of the CIA were made public in 1967 through publications in the magazines Ramparts and Saturday Evening Post . The CIA executive officer and department head Thomas Braden , who had directed the congress in the background for years, confirmed in a film interview in 1999 the CIA's influence on the “Congress for Cultural Freedom”.

literature

Primary texts
Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norbert Seitz: Frances Stonor Saunders: Who pays the bill ... The CIA and the culture in the Cold War: Review note. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . March 21, 2001, accessed on November 13, 2018 (reproduced on Perlentaucher ).
  2. ↑ 1954 lists the book about the Hamburg conference of 1953 still the title Libertà della Cultura with seat in Rome and the person responsible Vittorio Libera .
  3. ^ Volker R. Berghahn: America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe. Shepard Stone between Philanthropy, Academy, and Diplomacy. Princeton / Oxford: Princeton University Press 2001, 373 pp., ISBN 978-0-691-07479-5
    Anselm Doering-Manteuffel: Volker R. Berghahn: America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe. In: see points 3/1. 2003, accessed November 13, 2018 (review).
  4. ↑ 23 and 24 June 2000 Freedom on the Offensive: 50 Years Congress for Cultural Freedom. Ulrike-Ackermann, accessed on November 13, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Joachim Schröder: Germany - Made in USA: How US agents controlled post-war Germany. (Video, 43:36 minutes) In: YouTube . Retrieved November 13, 2018 . Summary of the film: Käthe Jowanowitsch: Germany - Made in USA: How US agents controlled post-war Germany. In: WDR broadcast “Night Culture”. August 4, 1999, archived from the original on September 14, 1999 ; accessed on November 13, 2018 .