In the 1950's, leading German Americanists envisaged a future for American Studies in Germany which would turn the liability of location into an asset: by emphasizing those types of comparative study that could best be carried out from Europe. Though translation studies fit this prespective perfectly, precedence was given to other kinds of work. A reason for this relative neglect may be seen in the limitations that characterised the assumptions of translations studies in those years. The paper offers a survey of new approaches to historical-descriptive translation research that have since been developed, approaches which make the centrality evident that translation has for the international exchange of literatures; an extensive selection of German studies of American literature in translation, 1949-1989, is summarised in the process.