Design Pedagogy Enters the Cold War

Abstract

During the Cold War, the United States and USSR used educational exchange programs as instruments of cultural diplomacy. In 1950, East German reconstruction policy was radically transformed through a well-documented Soviet-sponsored reorientation of architects and planners from East Berlin. This article chronicles a concurrent but little-known exchange, sponsored by the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, which sent West German architects to America for professional retraining. Although the U.S. program fell far short of its intentions, it illuminates the nature of Cold War cultural strategies deploying urban planning pedagogy, which were meant to reproduce American values and systems of governance abroad.