Propaganda nach Hitler: Eine Kulturgeschichte des Wahlkampfs in der Bundesrepublik, 1949-1990

Election campaigns are more than the prelude to the election: they are scenes of a democratic culture. Citizens and politicians are particularly close and express directly their ideas of democracy and the tasks of politics. In his study on cultural history, Thomas Mergel shows what expectations of politics are negotiated between voters and campaigners - in images, discourses, symbolic forms of action and communication. In doing so, he critically examines the widespread thesis of the Americanization of European election campaigns. Although German campaigners certainly looked abroad - and especially in the USA - they nevertheless took stubborn paths: In response to the Nazi era, the voters of the old FRG expected, above all, objectivity and fairness and were skeptical of seductive images and political marketing. [Publisher]