Sustainable Cultural Entrepreneurship. German Cultural Propaganda in Occupied and Neutral Countries During WWI 1914-1918

German cultural communications were especially intensive in the occupied and neutral countries during WWI. Due to this focus and intensity, peripheral European cultures (Flemish and Polish, for instance) suddenly were catapulted closer to the center of the newly created political and military poly-system. This was caused not only by enforced mobility of individuals, but also by a strong support manifested by German propaganda organisations.

Case studies will illustrate the contribution of the publishing house Insel from Leipzig managed by Anton Kippenberg to the Belgian-German and Polish-German cultural communications during WWI. I would like to demonstrate that a new analysis of these archives allows us to broaden our understanding of cultural communications and transfers. My focus will be on forms of cultural policies and cultural propaganda in times of war. I will also discuss the “double constellation” of involved professionals, who had acted both as employees of the propaganda machine and as actors in the cultural polemics of the same period.