the coolest heroes of the cold war |
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The Background
cold war geography
The Cold War started to be felt after the end of the Second World War with the division of Germany into occupied zones. The Western Allies ended up face to face with the Soviet Union and consequently, Stalinism. Germany’s division marked the division of the world as it was into two political and economic ‘blocks’ or spheres of influence: West and East. The AFN (American Forces Network) had long since been established in (West) Berlin and in 1945 began recording programs in the American sector of the divided city; bringing Berliners (in the West as well as the East) swing, rock ‘n’ roll and soul and later other popular musical styles.
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The AFN, which had actually been produced exclusively for the G.I’s, advanced in Berlin’s particular situation as a divided city and became the free voice of Berlin and of the free world and broadcast its remarkable programme to over 54 countries. Its presenters became the darlings of the Berlin public in the Western zone, as well as in Soviet-occupied areas which were later to become the GDR. The stories of the division of Berlin and of its Western part (known as West Berlin) and the AFN are inseparable and belong to the memory of a particular state of being, of a city which existed as an island surrounded by a ‘Red Sea’.
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