In 1946, after a two-year imprisonment in Rhode Island, Alfred Andersch and Werner Richter (Group 47's future founders) came back to Germany as selected German citizens as a result of their cooperation with the American military authorities. In a short time, Andersch and Richter obtained a publishing license for their newspaper and so they started to act as journalists and writers within the U.S. zone of occupation. Nevertheless, American consideration and support for both of them vanished when they assumed autonomous stances concerning the future of Germany.