ABSTRACT
The war of cultures centred, first and foremost, on Germany. The Vietnam War protest songs of Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan were played in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with the approval of the Communist Party. The American pop singer Dean Reed moved to the GDR and became an icon. GDR communism was dominated by males, and she was probably the only female who could tell Ulbricht, Honecker and company where to put their comments and get away with it. The GDR authorities could not resist the rising influence of Western pop, and it became acceptable for youths to wear jeans; Soviet culture, on the other hand, had little impact. There were many architectural competitions, but one group of young GDR architects pushed its luck too far. They ended up in jail for proposing a 'watch-tower' for a playground in Bersarinplatz from which the children could be 'shot' for trying to 'escape'!.
