Bridging Cultures during the Cold War: The British Army of the Rhine’s (BAOR) Dortmund Garrison and their German Civilian Workers

Abstract

The Cold War, opening immediately after the Second World War, ensured the continuation of a British military presence in Germany for nearly 70 years. This paper looks at the societal aspects left behind when the British left the Ruhr city of Dortmund in 1996. Using the results of qualitative, sociological research carried out in Germany during 2013, it focuses on the ‘German Civilian Units’ within the British Army of the Rhine, and the role of the barracks which long housed the British occupational forces and acted as places to bridge two cultures. These places are shown to have grown into landscapes in which identities were formed and Anglo-German relations established. It is also argued that physical places can have a great impact on people who have sustained contact with them, so that meaning is added to them, which in turn, influences lives.