Images - Life during the Economic Miracle: West Germany

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1.	A Young Family during the Early Years of the "Economic Miracle" (1951) Against the backdrop of the “zero-hour” collapse of society and the hardship of the subsequent occupation period, many West Germans regarded the upswing in the Federal Republic as nothing less than....
2.	Lunch Time at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich (1951) In order to ensure that barley could be used to stretch bread and relieve the acute food shortages just after the war, the U.S. military government in Bavaria only permitted low-alcohol beer to be....
3.	Camping with a VW-Bus in Germany (1952) In the 1950s, West German society became increasingly motorized: the number of passenger cars in use rose sharply from 515,608 in 1950 to 4,066,000 in 1960. The growing popularity of camping was....
4.	Subsidized Housing (1952) In the postwar period, state-subsidized social housing projects aided in rebuilding efforts. These new housing projects consisted of rental units intended primarily for people with limited means....
5.	Vacation Destination Italy: "German Spoken Here" (1955) The first major vacation destination for German tourists in the postwar period was Italy, which became popular in the 1950s. The drive south over the Alps in one's very own car – often the first....
6.	Lieper Bay (1956) In the 1950s, automobiles (especially the new small cars like the Volkswagen Beetle or the BMW Isetta) became increasingly popular means of transportation for excursions and vacation travel. In the....
7.	Ludwig Erhard with his book Prosperity for All (January 28, 1957) This 1957 photograph shows Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard flipping through the pages of his newly published book Prosperity....
8.	Blessed New Year: Cover Page of Simplicissimus (January 4, 1958) After the famine, disease, and hardship of the occupation period, Germans had an enormous, pent-up desire to enjoy life again, especially food and drink. Thanks to improved supplies and living standards....
9.	Italian Chianti in German Supermarkets (1959) Increased wealth, shorter working hours, and the motorization and mobilization of society meant that vacation traveling by West Germans had developed into mass tourism by 1959-60. There was also....
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