After the Apocalypse: What Life Was like in Post-war Germany
A brief history of Germany’s economic miracle
“Transportation and communication services had ceased to function. Agriculture and industry were largely at a standstill. Food was scarce and there was a serious risk of famine and disease during the coming months. And to crown it all there was no central government in being, and the machinery whereby a central government could function no longer existed.” — British field marshal Bernard Montgomery describing Germany at the end of the war in his memoirs
In May 1945, Germany lay in ruins. For a start, the defeated nation had been partitioned by its victorious opponents, to be governed by Allied administrators. More importantly, however, the country’s infrastructure had been obliterated. Relentless bombing by the US and the UK had turned any city of industrial or military importance into a pile of rubble, as well as devastating German agriculture, which was crippled by the destruction of farm equipment as well as by the reduction in fertilizer supply that resulted from the industrial damage. Around 20% of German housing was destroyed as well.
Worst of all was the loss of life. Well over 4 million Germans died in the war, most of them soldiers who died on the front, but also over 300,000 German Jews and an even higher…
