From Socialist Hero to Capitalist Icon: The Cultural Transfer of the East German Children’S Television Programme Unser Sandmännchen to Sweden in the Early 1970S

Abstract

Based on a case study of the import of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) children’s programme Unser Sandmännchen to Sweden in the early 1970s, this article explores the cultural recoding at work in the processes of transnational media exchange. Using archival source material from both Germany and Sweden as well as Swedish press debate, the article argues for an entangled media perspective on Cold War East-West cultural exchanges. In the process of transfer, Unser Sandmännchen, called John Blund in Sweden, was transformed from a calm, socialist hero to an outspoken and sometimes rude capitalist. This was the result of the active agency of individual entrepreneurs as well as the turnout of the political ambitions of Swedish and East German state television institutions. In Sweden, although stripped from its possible ideological content, the cultural transfer of Unser Sandmännchen contributed to strengthening the relations between the two countries and to opening up Swedish relations to the GDR in areas well beyond the media sector.