A Child’s Point of View of Germany after the Second World War
I was born during the second year of World War II, in October, 1940. At this time German soldiers had invaded the neighbouring countries, but so far life in Germany itself was still quite normal. But the more the Germans got weaker, the more the foreign forces invaded the country and began to destroy factories and towns. Fortunately my family had relatives in the countryside, where we could find shelter from the bombing and some food.
When the war was over, my family went back to Hannover. My father had remained there during the war. He had not been a soldier, but his task had been to repair damaged military vehicles. Most houses in the town were ruins and people looked for places to live and for some material to repair their apartments if possible. To prevent people from being homeless, the government, consisting then of members of the occupying powers, rationed the habitable places. My family got two rooms of an apartment whose windows were partly nailed up with boards and some other stuff because of the lack of glass. We had to share the kitchen and the bathroom with another family, and there was no bathtub available.
At that time food, clothing and heating material was rationed, too. People got vouchers according to the number and age of family members. My family, like some others, was glad to have rented a small garden at the outskirts of the town, where we could cultivate fruits and vegetables. Some people even kept hens and rabbits there in order to have some meat and eggs. During this hard time we could be thankful to the Americans who sent “CARE” – parcels with food and clothing and supplied the children in schools and maternity hospitals with food.
The classrooms were overcrowded, because only a few school buildings had survived the war in a useful status. When I began school in 1947, there were 60 girls in my class! Also, it was nearly impossible for the children to play in the crowded rooms of the family apartment, and there was no TV and only a few small radios. For fun and exercise, we met in the streets where there were rarely any cars. It was also a great fun for us to climb around in the ruins unless the owners nailed up the entrances.
The grownups spent much time gathering food and heating material and sometimes did not shrink back from stealing. If somebody wanted to do some business, money was rather useless. Barter was the only method of getting needed supplies. For example, many farmers in the countryside got jewelry, paintings, musical instruments, and carpets in exchange for their rural products. Sometimes even the children of farmers got good school reports from their teachers in exchange for hams or sausages.
Generally it was a hard time for the German population not only because of the local post war problems but also because many refugees, expelled by the Russians from the eastern parts of Germany, had to be integrated. Politically, Germany was divided into four parts, dominated by the USA, England, France, and the Soviet Union. Later the three western zones joined and were the basis or the Federal Republic of Germany, but the Soviets wanted to introduce the Communism in their region, installed the Germanic Democratic Republic, and the eventually the iron curtain was erected.
Gradually Western Germany recovered from the aftermath of the war, and the economy was restored by hard work of the population and the aid of the American “Marshall Plan”.
But the value of the money remained a problem: The old “Reichsmark” was only useful to buy the rationed things of basic supply in normal shops. If you wanted to acquire better and more precious articles, you had to go to the “black market”, some places in the town where people met, walked around, talked together and whispered to arrange some business.
Afterwards goods were exchanged at secret places.
Nobody was interested in money , and the bank accounts were worthless. So on June 1st of 1948 the great monetary reform took place when the “Deutsche Mark” was introduced. Former bank accounts were lost, but each citizen, old or young, got DM 40,-- for the beginning, a sum at that time of a greater purchasing power than later. Naturally, this event was appreciated more by our parents than by us young schoolchildren. But nevertheless we remember this day quite well because of the change in the store windows. On our way home from school, we always were groups of children as pedestrians and we liked to pass through streets with many stores for window shopping. During the time before the monetary reform there were only a few things to be admired. But what surprise at the June First! The store windows nearly burst with beautiful things we had never seen before! We as girls above all were attracted by a drugstore the window, which was filled with lipsticks and other cosmetics, perfumes, and articles for bath and body care. People in the streets shouted” We can buy lemons!” and I was very curious to see and taste these strange fruits for the first time in my life.
Everybody now was interested in the new money. Suddenly you could buy all you wanted if you could afford it. The economy in Germany began to flourish, the Germans were very busy and happy to be able to raise their standard of living. They worked with enthusiasm and the years of the 1950's were known world-wide as the period of the German economic miracle. We were also very proud of the good reputation of our new money.
Now, 55 years later, we had to say “good bye” to our beloved “Deutsche Mark” and accept the Euro, the common money for most European countries. People now are skeptical and critical about the new money and especially in the western part of Europe they are anxious about maintaining their living standard.
