America Houses
First known as U.S. Information Centers, the America Houses were an important third prong in the fork of post-war strategic diplomacy and the most directly related to the expansion of the Austro-American Society from Vienna into regional branches, including Tirol.
Beginning in Germany as simple, basic reading spaces with books and magazines donated by U.S. soldiers as early as 4 July 1945 (first in Frankfurt), America Houses—U.S. Information Centers, as they were initially called– began to open in other cities, even if just as a public room where locals could come and learn about the United States, while warming themselves in the often only heated rooms available.
These spaces became community centers of friendly exchange. First controlled by the U.S. military and then by the State Department, the American library spaces began to fill a cultural void that had been left by Nazi censorship and wartime destruction of libraries, theaters, symphonies and movie houses. It soon became clear that the cultural interaction was helping to establish a more positive image of the victors/occupiers, and the reading spaces expanded to include film screenings, music performances, art exhibits, lectures and language courses. With the implementation of the European Economic Recovery Plan (Marshall Plan) in 1948, the America Houses gained in importance as promoters of a “Marshall Plan for the Mind”, a universal community of scholarship, art and science in the 18th century enlightened spirit of the age of Goethe and Thomas Jefferson.
Amerika Haus Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 2 Wien
With U.S. government aid, the America Houses reached a highpoint of cultural exchange by the early 1950’s. This was also the heyday of the Cold War, however, and the America Houses became more politically strategic centers for promoting the “American Way of Life”. The America Houses were critical aspects of strategic U.S. post-war cultural diplomacy. At the end of Allied Occupation in Austria, the regional America Houses began to close. Today, only the America House in Vienna remains and is run under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy in Vienna.