ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how American Studies as an academic subject came to be established and institutionalized at universities, "the natural centers of intellectual life, where research is organized and knowledge accumulated and passed on." The United States of America had been a topic of interest at European institutions of higher education since the end of the eighteenth century, though on a far from systematic level. The attempt to influence and to shape the Austrian educational system was certainly an important component of the U.S. cultural mission because it was here that the general goal of reeducating those Europeans who had been brainwashed by totalitarian, antidemocratic regimes could truly take effect. The role of the United States in institutionalizing American Studies in Austria has to be seen in the wider context of the U.S. cultural mission in Austria after World War II. Up to 1938, U.S. foreign relations in matters of culture had consisted of informal, private contacts.
