“This congenitally ill patient costs the National Community 60,000 marks per year. Comrade, that’s your money too.” (Nazi poster, 1937)
In the film “I Accuse” (1941), Professor Heyt consoles his incurably ill wife before giving her a morphine overdose. Over 70,000 patients were murdered in the T4 euthanasia program ordered by Hitler in
Gas chamber in the cellar of the Bernburg psychiatric hospital, where 8,601 patients were murdered in 1940/41
Occupation zones for Germany, Austria, & Berlin: Poland annexed Danzig (now Gdansk)
THE REVIVAL OF POSTWAR GERMANY 1945: The Allies permit the old SPD and KPD to revive, and a new “Christian Democratic Union” emerges. 1947: The Marshall Plan aids recovery. June 1948: The Currency Reform in the British and American Zones; price controls are abolished. 1949: Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) under Konrad Adenauer and the Communist German Democratic Republic. 1950: Adenauer endorses a “Common Market” with Western Europe and German rearmament. March 1, 1953: The death of Stalin (the narrative present for THE TIN DRUM). 1955: West Germany joins NATO.
The black market in Hamburg, 1945/46
German women help themselves to chunks of coal to keep warm (as permitted by Cardinal Josef Frings)
German girls dating American GI’s in the Volkspark Treptow, Berlin, 1947
THE NEW STATES OF 1947: Schleswig-Holstein Hamburg Lower Saxony Bremen North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Hesse Baden-Württemberg Bavaria
SPD chair Kurt Schumacher ( ): Combat veteran of the Great War; beaten and abused in concentration camps from 1933 to 1945
“Forward, SPD, for a free Germany” (1949): Note the claim to the eastern border of 1914
“The Union: The Gathering of all Christians on the Political Level” (CDU campaign poster for the municipal elections of 1946 in Northrhine- Westphalia)
“Christian Democratic Union: All strength for reconstruction” (Northrhine- Westphalia, 1946)
Konrad Adenauer ( ) CHAMPIONS OF THE “SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY” Ludwig Erhard ( )
The Marshall Plan as the wind in Europe’s sails (West Germany, 1950): The European Recovery Program was launched in June 1947 and invested $11 billion to revive European industry
In the Currency Reform of June 21, 1948, every citizen received 40 new Deutsch-Marks. The stores proclaimed: “New currency… New Prices!”
President Theodor Heuss (FDP) swears in Konrad Adenauer (CDU) as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, September 1949
The East German “People’s Congress” proclaims the foundation of the German Democratic Republic in October 1949, while Young Pioneers sing praises of Stalin
Adenauer’s approval rating (green) dipped, and his disapproval rating (red) soared, when he announced his support for rearmament and European economic integration
AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH OF GDP COUNTRY France1.6%0.7%4.6%5.8%1.3% Germany2.9%1.2%7.8%*4.8%*1.6%* U.K.2.2%1.7%2.7%2.8%1.2% Italy1.4%1.3%5.8%5.7% USA4.3%2.9%3.2%4.3%2.2% Sweden2.4%2.0%4.4%4.5% * Refers solely to West Germany.
Ludwig Erhard talks with housewives in a department store, 1953
“All roads of Marxism lead to Moscow! Therefore, CDU” (campaign poster from 1953)
“NATO: His Comrades, our Allies” (West Germany, 1955/56)
“No Experiments! Konrad Adenauer – CDU” (campaign poster, 1957, when the CDU won 50.2% of the West German vote)