Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955

by Harald Jähner, Shaun Whiteside (Translator)

How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history— "filled with first-person accounts from articles and diaries" ( The New York Times)— of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust.

Featuring over 40 eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters from the period.
 
The years 1945 to 1955 were a raw, wild decade that found many Germans politically, economically, and morally bankrupt. Victorious Allied forces occupied the four zones that make up present-day Germany. More than half the population was displaced; 10 million newly released forced laborers and several million prisoners of war returned to an uncertain existence. Cities lay in ruins—no mail, no trains, no traffic—with bodies yet to be found beneath the towering rubble.
 
Aftermath received wide acclaim and spent forty-eight weeks on the best-seller list in Germany when it was published there in 2019. It is the first history of Germany's national mentality in the immediate postwar years. Using major global political developments as a backdrop, Harald Jähner weaves a series of life stories into a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. Poised between two eras, this decade is portrayed by Jähner as a period that proved decisive for Germany's future—and one starkly different from how most of us imagine it today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany, World War II, War, German Literature, Audiobook

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Harald Jähner is a German journalist and author. Since 2011 he has been an honorary professor of cultural journalism at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Reviews

[Beata · Rating 4 out of 5]

The non-fiction that aims at explaining the paths Germany took after WW2 was over to become a democratic country it is now. Comprehensive and readable, the book offers an insight into the first post-war decades, focusing on individuals and social rather than political changes. I was quite unaware of the hostile moods that prevailed towards the Germans who arrived having been explelled from the territiories formely belonging to Germany in the wake of new borders drawn at the conferences in Teheran and Jalta. And the idea the Author puts forward that the success of Germany may have been in its diversity is quite interesting. The Germans deported to their new homeland were forced to seek ways to establish themselves in totally new environment and were open and energetic which allowed them to become successful.
*A big thank-you to Harald Jahner, Random House UK, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

finding a future despite a past built on destruction

It’s almost impossible to sum up this book.

🇩🇪 The critical question was how a democracy managed to emerge from a past of repression and fascism - how did modern Germany reconcile itself with its Nazi past? And the answer seems to be - there was no reconciliation. The past was ignored and dismissed by many, former members of the Nazi Party and SS carried on with their pre-war careers and collected their pensions. The Nuremberg Trials of the 1940s were similarly ignored. The rationale for the German public seemed to be: it doesn’t matter where you came from it matters where you’re going. And most Germans wanted to head towards a future that left their Nazi past with all its attendant guilt, far behind. They wanted to remake themselves and their future. It was only their children who, in the 1960s, as buried truths emerged about the death camps, hurled furious accusations at their parents and grandparents and demanded an accounting.

I wonder what the German side of my family felt? They were in Magdeburg but once the wall went up they were silenced. When the wall came down they could no longer be located. So all I ever knew about them was old postcards in German that had been collected in the late 40s and 50s.

An extraordinary book, very readable, and well worth your time in coming to an understanding of modern Germany as well as the modern Europe of which it is such a strong and crucial element.

[Hanneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been a long time that I read such an immensely interesting historical report. I have to make up my mind whether I want to post a review and, if so, go into extensive details or give a general impression.
On second thought, I think I cannot do this study proper justice in a review at the moment as this historical narration somehow shook me to the core. Therefore, I recommend it to those readers who are also very WW2 interested, as it is describing Germany’s state of destitute existence in the years after the war which almost feel that you get a view of an existence that feels astonishingly like a completely alien world. A world in ruins, where you, as a reader, try to grasp what it meant to roam around in a devastated country and your only worry was how to get a place to sleep and not starve to death. Mr. Jähner dealt with subjects per chapter of the most urgent issues and also presents the viewpoints from the Allied Forces as well as the Germans in a clear narrative.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fallout Germany

No country has perhaps been as devastated as much as Germany following its defeat in the Second World War. Not only the death of 3 million men, with another million unaccounted for, 650,000 civilians killed, 3 million women raped and the absolute destruction of their infrastructure, architecture and cultural heritage but also the lingering ideology of the Nazis, which now had to be overcome and dispelled. Aftermath tackles what happened after the ‘three’ (07/05/1945 in the West, 09/05/2023 in the East and 08:05/2033 officially to both) surrenders of the Third Reich and how Germany moved one from its darkest period in history.

Germany was wrecked after May 1945. Completely obliterated. The first thing Harald Jahner notes is that there was so much rubble everywhere, 500 million cubic metres of it, so much so that it influenced culture, music and art. We learn of how different local authorities dealt with the clean up, and the birth of the legend of the rubble women was born. There were no men and for those who did return they had much changed by the war, mentally and physically. Many hobbled around on crutches, with injuries that have constant pain. Others could not adjust to their children who they hardly knew and that many thought were ‘spoilt’. But within so much misery was ask so a time for laughter and recovery. There was a lot of flirting and lovemaking, music and dance. There was also a lot of reinvention out of the ashes of the old.

There were also phenomena. The rise in the black market for all goods, the Berlin blockage where the allies kept West Berlin from starving by airdrops for 18 months. Germans asking ‘why had those happened to them?’ The complete lack of civil war or revenge on fellow Germans and casting aside of Nazism so easily. But also at the time Germans from different parts of the country were in conflict over their region differences and religions. The displacement of people caused groups to become suspicious of one another. The newcomers were always unwanted. With all these hardships of lack of food, clothing, supplies and places to sleep, we are told of the 1952 The Equalisations of Burdens Act, where citizens were told to share their wealth depending on how much they have suffered in the war. This did not work. But German did recover economically over time. This was mainly due to Reichmark being replaced by the Deutschmark in 1948, aligned with the dollar which was aligned to gold. This gave Germany a stable and respected currency and a road to recovery.

I was impressed by Aftermath, which is beautifully written piece of literature. It also tackles all aspects of the fallout of the Third Reich. From the complete lack of food, how Germany came to terms with the morale aspects of the war, how art and architecture were influenced. The return of the soldier, the growth of the children, the liberated women who had once against to surrender domestically and publicly to men. The black market, the rubble clean up, the crime, displaced people and the reintegration of Jews. There are so many angles and interesting aspects to consider. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis really destroyed Germany and it’s people. Even today the nation struggles with its lost identity and dark past. This has huge effects on their heritage which the Nazis stole and warped. But also lessons of positivity. Nothing lasts for ever, people can come back up from rock bottom and fresh starts can be made. For others the trials at Nuremberg awaited. Essential reading for those interested in the Third Reich and the Second World War.

[Helga چـو ایـران نباشد تن من مـباد · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on the Germany of post WWII and the German people; their disillusionment, sense of guilt and struggle to build what had been destroyed during the war.

[Numidica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having lived in Germany in the 1980's, my wife and I often commented on how strange it was that Germans we knew, of a certain age, would have been adults during the war and that these apparently nice people were probably supporters of Hitler during his twelve years in power. Since it appears that as much as 90% of the German people approved of Hitler in 1939, this was a plausible assumption on our part.

After the war, there was a huge challenge for the occupying Allies and for the Germans in terms of devising a way forward, and not just in terms of how to feed, house, and clothe the millions living in the ruins. How to identify former Nazis, and how to "denazify" Germany was the question, and the challenge the Allies set themselves, but they quickly found the archives (wonderful record-keepers, the Germans) of 10.5 million Nazi Party members. This was of course a huge percentage of those eligible for work in government. The compromise, after several false starts, was to execute the worst, to exclude only the most egregious offenders from public office, and to move on to the enormous task of rebuilding.

The section of the book on black markets and the establishment of the Deutsche Mark were quite revealing to me. Until 1948, the old Reichsmark currency was still in use, though with steadily decreasing confidence in it, because everyone expected it to be replaced or devalued. So barter systems and the black market played a huge role in the economy, but this meant that shops were constantly changing prices, hoarding goods, and haggling as the Reichsmark declined in value. This situation could not continue if a true market economy was to emerge, so In 1948, in a stroke of economic genius, the US printed billions of the new D-mark and established an exchange rate for the Reichsmark that meant everyone got something, but above a certain amount, the Reichsmark was worthless. Overnight, confidence in the new currency, which was effectively backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, rebounded, and shops opened for business in a normal way, with goods priced in D-marks. And so the West German recovery began in earnest. Nothing similar happened in the East, and the DDR's economy struggled for decades as a result.

The story of the recovery of German industry is told in some detail, particularly the story of Volkswagon. It is interesting to me that Germany received a relatively small payment from the Marshall Plan; in 1948 dollars, the UK received $3.2B, France received $2.7B, Italy $1.5B, and Germany received less than $1.4B, but the Germans made every dollar count. A key driver for the delivery of Marshall Plan funds was the realization that the Cold War was beginning, and it was necessary to prop up the countries of Western Europe lest they become satellites of the USSR. It was quite effective in that respect, while also relieving immense human suffering and making possible the rapid economic recovery of Europe.

The story of the arts in Germany after the war is largely one of reaction to the bland conformity of the Nazi years. Modern art was no longer suppressed, jazz became one of the favorites of young people, and magazines covering myriad interests sprang up. To me, the chapters about the visual arts were the weakest, because, to paraphrase Elvis Costello, writing about paintings is like dancing about architecture.

When I was a small child in France, my mother had a German maid, Maria Schnarschmidt, and Mom used to remark on how badly the French treated Maria, but then she would say, "Well, I suppose you can't blame them". The house we lived in had been requisitioned by the Wehrmacht during the war. My father's French boss had had two brothers executed by the Gestapo. Many Frenchmen had been shipped to Germany as forced labor. So yes, a little coldness toward Germans might be expected of the French, and it was worse in the eastern countries. The author comments about the prevalent obliviousness of the Germans in wondering, a bit querulously, why they were so disliked in the world for a couple of decades after the war. They wanted to believe they were mostly victims of Hitler's misdeeds, and there is some truth to that, for some Germans, but it was a bad look for the former members of the Master Race to play the victim.

The truth is that the Germans suffered far more from bombing by the Allies than the British or other Western countries suffered from similar German attacks on them. The same cannot be said of the toll inflicted on Russia or the Jews by the German state. In 1945, their country in ruins, most Germans just wanted to move on, and so did most of the countries they had conquered. Ultimately, the compromise that allowed the Germans to move on, rebuild, establish the Federal Republic, and regain their status in Europe satisfied no one, which meant it was probably a reasonable compromise. The period of peace in Western Europe has now lasted almost 80 years, and the amazing longevity of that peace can be attributed to the way in which Germany moved forward, and the way in which the Allies fostered prosperity and stability, and so the post-war years from 1945 to about 1950 continue to be intriguing.

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich habe selten ein so unterhaltendes Sachbuch gelesen. Ich habe gelegentlich sogar gelacht. Dabei ist dieses Buch alles andere als eine Lachnummer, denn es ist sehr informativ und erhellend und wichtig obendrein. Völlig zu Recht hat Jähner dafür den Buchpreis der Leipziger Buchmesse erhalten.

Das Thema scheint auf den ersten Blick alles andere als leicht: Die unmittelbaren Kriegsjahre (1945 bis 1955) in Deutschland. Es herrschten Hunger, Wohnungsnot, Frauen wurden von Soldaten vergewaltigt, eine funktionierende Verwaltung gab es nicht. Doch Jähner zeigt, ohne diese schrecklichen Aspekte auszublenden, wieviel Lebensfreude es gab. Gerade all dieser Todesnähe zum Trotz. Wie die Menschen ein irrsinniges Verlangen hatten zu tanzen. Wie Frauen sich sexuelle Freiheiten herausnahmen, die kurze Zeit später schon nicht mehr denkbar waren. Wie sich Menschen einfach eine neue Identität erfinden konnten, weil niemand hätte beweisen können, ob sie noch leben. Wie der Schwarzhandel ein Feld wurde, in dem sich Menschen beweisen konnten, wie gewitzt und fintenreich sie waren. Ja selbst die Trümmer schienen einigen Menschen Freiheit zu bieten, einige Architekten äußerten sich schon geradezu makaber-erfreut über die Möglichkeiten, die die ausradierten Bezirke ihnen boten.

Für Historiker enthält das Buch sicher nicht viel Neues, aber für die Öffentlichkeit verändert sich das Bild einer Zeit (hoffentlich!) nachhaltig. Wunderbar finde ich, dass Jähner dabei nicht nur akribisch die entsprechende Fachliteratur zitiert (ausführliche Anmerkungen und Literatur sind im Buch enthalten), sondern auch Literaten mit ihren Werken und autobiografischen Texten zu Wort kommen lässt; und ebenso oft Filme zitiert, die in dieser Zeit gedreht wurden – als Setting die Trümmerkulissen, zum Thema die Gesellschaft, wie sie damals war. Meine Liste mit zu lesenden und vor allem zu schauenden Werken ist bei der Lektüre merklich angewachsen. Hans Habes Biografie und Werk werde ich beispielsweise näher in Augenschein nehmen (ich sehe gerade, dass Ilona gar als alte Bertelsmann Club-Ausgabe meiner Mutter bereits in meinem Regal steht). Habe und Alfred Döblin waren als zurückgekehrte Exilanten als „Umerzieher“ tätig.
Ach und das Fotomaterial ist auch wunderbar. Und die Erwähnung von einigen Fotografen der Zeit wird mich sicher demnächst in Ausstellungen ziehen, die mir sonst entgangen wären.

Der Abschnitt zu Volkswagen und Wolfsburg gehört für mich zu den vielen Glanzstücken des Romans. Er greift zurück in die Zeit der Gründung der Stadt und des Werks während der NS-Zeit, beschreibt die Nachkriegszeit und endet mit einer Einschätzung der gegenwärtigen Situation, die ich als Besucherin Wolfsburgs vor zwei Jahren so nur unterschreiben kann.

Dass diese Zeit eine ausschließlich schreckliche war, scheint vor diesem Hintergrund zu einem guten Stück eine Erfindung späterer Jahre; als man sich nämlich verhalten musste zum Mitläufertum unter den Nazis und sich dann lieber selbst als erstes Opfer der Nazis stilisierte (und, so schlimm diese Art der Verdrängung und dieses Sich-Unschuldig-fühlen klingt, es vielleicht eine Voraussetzung für die Demokratie war, beschreibt Jähner auch). Aber auch weitere Verlogenheiten der Zeit deckt Jähner so ganz nebenbei auf. Wenn er zum Beispiel beschreibt, wie Frauen, die sich mit den amerikanischen Besatzern einließen, schnell als „Amiliebchen“ diffamiert wurde, die das angeblich nur für ein paar Zigaretten taten. Denn andererseits, so Jähner, spielten materielle Beweggründe schon früher und auch jetzt noch in bestimmten Bereichen eine große Rolle. So bändelten im ländlichem Raum zwar Bauernsöhne gerne auch mal mit aus dem Osten vertriebenen Frauen an; wenn es ans Heiraten ging, hielt man sich aber an die Bauerstochter in der Nachbarschaft, weil damit der Anspruch auf deren Hof verbunden war. Umgekehrt verheirateten Bauern ihre Töchter gerne an einen männlichen Vertriebenen, bedeutete das doch eine männliche Arbeitskraft mehr und besonders hoch musste die Mitgift an einen solchermaßen mittel- und wurzellosen Mann auch nicht ausfallen. Verlogenheit ist scheinbar sehr unabhängig von den Zeiten.

Diese Rezension ist schon viel zu lange geraten und es ist ja ohnehin unmöglich alle Themen und Facetten hier aufzugreifen. Aber eins muss ich nochmal sagen: Der Stil ist toll. Er ist so einfach, dass man die Anstrengung dahinter nicht erkennt. Es ist ein Segen, dass Jähner nicht Historiker, sondern Journalist ist. Aber er ist auch Schriftsteller, spätestens mit diesem Buch. Ein Satz beispielsweise, der mich berührte, über den Tod von Döblins Frau:
Sie hatte in ihrer Pariser Wohnung den Gashahn aufgedreht und auf das Anzünden der Flamme verzichtet.

Im Fazit findet sich dann dieser mutmachende wie ernüchternde Absatz:
Dass sich trotz der verbreiteten Weigerung sich mit der Vergangenheit auseinanderzusetzen, und trotz der massiven Rückkehr der NS-Eliten auf ihre alten Positionen in beiden Staaten vom Nationalsozialismus geläuterte Gesellschaften durchsetzten, ist ein viel größeres Wunder als das sogenannte Wirtschaftswunder. Fast so beunruhigend wie die Dimension, in der Deutschland zum globalen Alptraum werden konnte, ist die schlafwandlerische Sicherheit, mit der es danach seine Biederkeit wiedergewann.

ABSOLUTE LESEEMPFEHLUNG!

[Jake Goretzki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifically insightful study of the immediate post-war era in Germany and its reflection on society and culture. It's not 'revisionist', but it blows aside several of the orthodoxies about the era that many of us will have grown up with, which portrays that time as a period of silence, contrition and 'heads down' application.

Instead, we see a society that has barely begun to process what it had enabled during the Third Reich and was wallowing in relativist victimhood and the comfortable myth that Germans had been seduced by demons (and were here themselves, too, victims). Jewish victims are barely mentioned. (The Germans grew out of that; the Austrians are still at it).

It's also a time where pretty much everyone becomes, by necessity, a wheeler-dealer and a petty thief - shortages and rationing sending thousands on long tramps into the countryside and flexing their native cunning to source pretty much anything that might be sold or bartered. Amid the death and destruction, we also see the blossoming of culture and a kind of self-abandoned hedonism among that resembles the sixties already: partying, shagging and (poor bastards) jazz.

All the while, the beginnings of kind of feminism (I love the aside on Beate Uhse), as men return from war angry, depressed and emotionally humiliated (that one rings a bell in my family) and women, well, just get on with it. In a similar depleted vein, we see the increasingly frustrated takes of assorted exiled writers (Alfred Doeblin and Hannah Arendt stand out), who look on in horror at the chatty denial of German society in the late 40s / early 50s and despair.

On higher cultural planes, some very interesting insights on the quasi-state role of abstract art in the Federal Republic (it was literally an arm of the CIA; 'so what?' I say).

The sense of sins unrecognised points, in the official narrative, to the sixties, when we tend to read that only then was Auschwitz and parental complicity confronted. According to Jaehner, that's not entirely true: plenty of writers were raising the subject and young people in the fifties were already looking at their parents with open mouths. The sixties generation did of course start the ball properly rolling, but as Jaehner points out, their tendency to present the dull, prosperous market economy prosperity of the Federal Republic as a form of 'fascism' too was wildly misguided and ahistorical. The Federal Republic was / is a miraculous achievement; Ulrike Meinhof and Co are rotting in hell.

Fantastic social history, bursting with contemporary gems. Highly recommended.

[Judith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have since school days been interested in German culture and history, and I have been fortunate in visiting Germany a number of times. I accompanied several school groups around Berlin and had the benefit of knowledgeable and dedicated guides on our visits to the city’s excellent museums, including the Deutsches Historiches Museum, Topographie des Terrors, the Wannsee Villa, the Stasi Prison, and the Gemaldegalerie.

I have also read quite a lot of material on the Third ReichEra., but I had a very limited and patchy idea however until now of the post-war state of Germany:

My parents employed several German nursemaids in the 1950s (there was, I recall my mother telling me, a scheme whereby German girls could be employed by families for one year) and I’m still in touch with one of them, so I knew that she was one of many expelled from the family farm in Silesia in her teens, ending up in Luneburg.

My late friend Max came to Britain on a Kindertransport, trained as a commando with the British Army towards the end of the war, and returned to Germany to work as an interpreter in the displaced persons camps while he also searched for his family, almost all of whom perished in the concentration camps.

I had also read the story in Peter Bolwell’s ‘Lore’s Tale’ of his mother’s journey to Britain and amid the chaos, and also Sue Ryder’s account, in her autobiography, of her work with displaced persons including her efforts to extract the many hapless young men stranded in prisons post-war for very minor offences like stealing a loaf of bread when starving.

Aftermath (Wolfszeit in the German original) is however the first book I have read about the life of German people in the period 1945 - 1955. It’s superbly researched and written by Harald Jahner, former editor of the Berliner Zeitung, and really fascinating.

Very highly recommended.

[notgettingenough · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unrelentingly horrifying experience, I knew nothing about this period. The rubble cities, the desperate shortages of everything, the shocking treatment of their own, and the continuing appalling attitudes to Jewish people. The difference between how the various conquering powers oversaw their areas of control. Art as politics. The relentless sexual assault of women, especially by Russian solders, never acknowledged. The attitude that Germans were the victims, not those they had invaded, or those they murdered. The developing realisation by a younger generation of what their parents' generation was. Essential reading for understanding the world now, and the fact that the Nazis haven't 'come again', but have never gone away. They have been in plain sight, not even hidden.


I started living in Europe in 2010 and felt from the start like I was in the thirties. Now I have a better understanding of why.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating deep dive into various aspects of life in Germany immediately after the end of WWII, from rubble clearance and physical reconstruction, to the social positions of freed forced laborers and ethnic Germans expelled from countries to the east as borders shifted, to the ubiquity of stealing and the black market economy in the face of rationing, to modern art, to psychological repression of Nazi atrocities. It’s a serious book and organized topically rather than chronologically, but the English translation is highly readable. My attention wandered in a couple of sections (on economic recovery and the visual arts), but overall I found it engaging, showing both the big picture and examples from individual people’s lives.

Aside from a general interest in social history, I picked this up out of curiosity about denazification—what turned Germans from Nazi supporters into a successful democratic country repudiating its past crimes, when other defeated places have curdled into bitterness or descended into cycles of endless violence? From this book, I’ve gleaned a number of answers, many of which might seem counterintuitive or just distasteful (most former Nazis were let off the hook and even back into public office; even their staunchest opponents no longer had much passion for punishing them after the war). The Nazi regime in its last few months became a reign of terror for its own citizens too, causing Germans as a whole to see themselves as the victims here, which while morally repugnant, allowed them to firmly dissociate themselves from Nazism and move on. The economy bouncing back gave people a positive path forward, while the beginning of the Cold War caused the former Allies to make common cause, each with the part of Germany that they controlled.

The fact that everyone seemed to relate to each other, racially and culturally, no doubt had a lot to do with this: the Russians were enamored of German writers, the Germans loved American films (though despite their love of Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator wasn’t shown in Germany for many years out of respect for offended sensibilities). German women and young boys loved the GIs. On the other hand, they might not have seen themselves as having so much in common: the Germany of the day was hilariously parochial by modern American standards, and only with wartime evacuations and displacement were people in the countryside forced to deal with ethnic Germans from other regions, apparently a big enough deal to be called “a miracle of integration” even though the longtime residents largely hated the newcomers.

At any rate, time passed, people moved on, “integration” of Germans with other Germans worked itself out, often through marriages of displaced men to local women, and ultimately the younger generation repudiated what their parents had done. But in some ways the Nazi ideology was failing even before Germany lost the war (despite leaders’ calls on the populace for a war to the death, and the enormous brutality toward prisoners as the Nazis lost ground, following Germany’s surrender there was almost no local resistance to occupation). This book does not present an inspiring picture for the moralists—self-righteous former Nazis and their sympathizers are all over the place—and in some ways the picture it presents just seems hopelessly first-world (rubble as the backdrop for fashion shoots!), but it worked, more or less. (Germany does still have a right wing, but then this is hardly unique in today’s world. Perhaps a true analysis of how well it worked would require another book, or maybe another century or two.) And the author manages to maintain a moral perspective while not getting in the way of the facts.

At any rate, this is definitely worth checking out for the history buffs, and taught me a fair bit about a slice of history I previously knew nothing about. It’s not dumbed-down for the foreign reader, but you don’t need any great familiarity with German history to make sense of it.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Как се [пре]възпитава нация? Трудно, с много отклонения и понякога по крайно необичайни начини, отговаря германският журналист Йенер.

Първите 10 години след втората световна война, в Германия са белязани от воала на мълчанието и забравата на миналите зверства, от отказа от поемане отговорност и дори осмисляне от страна на германското общество, и - разбира се - германското икономическо чудо. Изведнъж всички германци до един се възприемат като жертво на нацизма, лишени от съпричастност към извършените зверства и устремени невинно към бъдещето с цялата си тевтонска упоритост и методичност и нетърпеливи отново и бързо да заемат мястото си сред цивилизованите народи.

Заслугата на Йенер е детайлното открояване на невидимите или трудноразличимите различни течения в тази на пръв поглед еднотипна повърхност. А те никак не са малко и влиянието им не е за пренебрегване. Като се започне от многобройните освободени концлагеристи и принудителни работници; наводнилите ФРГ етнически немци, прогонени от Полша, Чехия и Унгария; еманципиралите се в бруталните следвоенни условия жени; завърналите се емигранти-антифашисти; различните юридически програми за денацификация на съюзниците и наложената нова културна пропаганда и изобщо начин на комуникация, които да са максимално отдалечени от яростта и изстъпленията на на националсоциализма; та до новите олекотени стилове в интериорния дизайн, абстрактното изкуство и архитектурата, които се явяват интригуващ контрапункт на тежкия, грандомански, задушаващ стил от времето на Хитлер. Декорът също превъзпитава.

Разбира се, лицемерието и отказът от отговорност не просто остават, а процъфтяват, като в средата на 50-те ФРГ успешно е “интегрирала” на всички институционални нива бившите нацисти. Стажът в СС дори носи пенсионноосигурителни права в новата германска държава. Не се приемат единствено публичните залитания към нацистката реторика и идеи.

Дали тази ситуация е била за добро, или за лошо, все още не е еднозначно. За лошо - защото цяла една нация е “амнистирана”, без да изживее истинско вглеждане в себе си. За добро - защото преходът е мирен и осигурява материалното благополучие за следващото поколение, което през 60-те започва с неопетнена съвест да съди и рови в мръсното нацистко бельо на родителите си. А внуците са още по-свободни да съдят безпристрастно, лишени от личния елемент.

Както веднъж ядосано заяви един германски колега по адрес на друга голяма европейска нация - “Арогантни и самодоволни са, защото не са имали свой Хитлер.”

Темите в книгата са проучени с немска добросъвестност и изчерпателност. Поднасянето е доста увлекателно. Разбирането на подобни оздравителни процеси с тяхната нееднозначност, комплексност и немалка продължителност е ключово в епохата на надигащата се носталгия по деспотизма в лицето на Тръмп, Путин, Орбан. Може би не е толкова релевантно за ислямистките екстремности или за Източна Азия - там факторите са различни. Но безспорно е полезно четиво, а за възпитаниците на европейската култура и производните ѝ из други континенти си е направо задължително.

П.П. Отличен превод и оформление от страна на издателство “Емас”!

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

What was it like to be living in Germany immediately following WWII? Harald Jahner surveys the time and place. He brings the demographic data to life through its depictions in the era’s magazines, novels, films, poetry and music. He concludes with the legal and other issues regarding former Nazis and war criminals.

The first chapter tells how people heard and reacted to the news of the war’s end. The second on the “Ruins” defines the war’s destruction and life in the rubble’s environment. Rape, particularly by the Soviet forces was common and the narratives show the burdens shouldered by German women.

The format (data amplified by contemporary bios and media) helps the reader to understand the scope of the “Great Migration: “…40 million were not where they belonged or wanted to be”. (p. 39). They could be in Germany, the Soviet Union, other European countries or even the US. With rail roads and bridges destroyed many traveled on foot, foraging along the way, others stayed in their concentration or forced labor camps until travel was arranged. The personal stories and the fictional portraits show the means and methods of homecoming, which, In some cases, this took years.

The displaced persons could be soldiers, POWs, deserters, concentration/ work camps survivors, those who had fled the air attacks or had lost homes in the bombing . They were physically weak and emotionally demoralized. Returning shell shocked fathers might stand in front of their former homes, unrecognized, just looking at them for long periods of time.

The women who, with their children, survived the bombing and continued to live in the rubble had to become resourceful. They were savvy to the black market and engaged in and encouraged their children in petty theft. The war had made those husbands who had returned bitter and demanding. The previous norm, with women deferring to men was jolted. Poverty and just living in and among the rubble made family dynamics worse. If couples had considered (still a cultural taboo) divorce, there was no legal structure to grant it.

It is no surprise that young girls were attracted to the American soldiers (and not their German male peers) for optimism, free spirit, and their resources (they did not have to live on ration cards). This interaction, frowned upon by both parents and commanding officers influenced the younger generation.

Jahner describes how the cash and policies of the Allies helped to heal the nation through reconstruction and police action. They hired non-Nazi locals and removed known Nazis from government positions. The re-education campaign included not just publishing newspapers free of Nazi propaganda, but also films, performances and art work. It is strange to think (p.286) “parts of the CIA turned into art dealers sending the best works of American expressionism on exhibition tours such that the Museum of Modern Art in New York looked quite empty.”

Relief from the poverty came in June of 1948 when the US, UK and French backed currency reform went into effect. People turned in their “Reichmarks” for Deutsch Marks”. Like any large scale program there were many caveats which Jahner explains on pp. 196-8. How the economy grew is told through stories such as on how Volkswagen emerged from Hitler’s plan for a city based on automobile production.

The last two chapters speak to how Germans have dealt with, and not dealt with their past. Jahner describes the legal issues such as responsibility for war crimes, staying in a government position, receiving a pension. Nazis sought pardons (Persilscheine – denazification certificates) and often went to those who had opposed the regime (most sought were those imprisoned for an attempted assassination of Hitler) to get support. After a time the structural elements of de-nazification were discarded as former Nazis got their old jobs back, pensions were paid, etc. The strongest reckoning came in the 1960’s when the grown children of the war generation vehemently turned on their parents.

The question of how Germans left the Nazi allegiance behind has not been fully addressed. It is hard to understand how the Nazi opposition had to live side by side with former Nazis who had imprisoned, tortured or killed family members. Maybe the guilty were so shattered that itself was the reckoning. It could be that the total devastation was testament enough to the false belief in the master race. Poverty may have forced cooperation. It could be that the American GIs sent an example that appealed to upcoming generation. There is no answer.

Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II covers 3 countries in this era. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 looks at how the Soviet Union took advantage of the situation to develop its influence and then control of Eastern Europe. This book is a worthy companion to these books. It is distinguished by using art and media of the time to define daily life. Besides description of popular movies, novels, songs, etc., there is a chapter on dancing (showing how it was social and international, "swing" was liberating, and young people broke from the staid culture of the past). This portrait, alongside the research significantly adds to the readers' understanding of the time.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I’ve read many books about the immediate post-World War II period, including Ian Buruma’s Year Zero: A History of 1945, William L. Hitchcock’s The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe, and Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, and some essays collected in The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and Its Aftermath, there is still a good deal in this book that is new to me. Much of that is attributable to the fact that Jähner’s focus is trained on Germany, rather than including other countries affected by the war and its aftermath.

Jähner’s first chapters vividly and strikingly describe the so-called “Zero Hour,” when the war ended and Germans thought of history as re-setting; the country, especially its cities, in utter ruins and how that was handled; the “great migration” of displaced persons and the influx of ethnic Germans expelled from other countries; dancing frenzy, about Germans throwing themselves into popular music and dancing; love amidst the rubble; rationing, the black market and theft; Germany’s economic miracle. He then turns to broader, less anecdotal themes: re-education and denazification; art and the beginning of the cultural Cold War; the repression of thought and German’s unwillingness to face up to their war responsibility.

The first set of chapters were fascinating. For example, hose who know about the postwar period are aware that there were many millions of persons displaced during the war and the monumental task to return them to their previous homes or new homes. At the same time, ethnic Germans who had lived—sometimes for generations—in Poland, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia and other countries, were expelled and made to “return” to Germany. I wasn’t aware of how these “expellees” were treated by Germans whose villages and towns had to accommodate the incomers. Their reception was generally hostile, with every regional, religious and cultural difference emphasized and denigrated. But Jähner also argues that the expellees, having already had to cope with huge disruption in their lives, were much less set in their ways than the locals, were willing to try new jobs, and were instrumental in the postwar German economic miracle. This was a new insight for me.

Jähner’s later chapters lack the force and immediacy of the early chapters. I was interested to read about the “Ritchie Boys,” Americans, many of German ancestry, given the military assignment to go to Germany, set up its local organizations, especially newspapers, and be responsible for many denazification efforts. Unfortunately, though, this chapter becomes disorganized and repetitive. There are similar problems with his art chapter.

Despite some failings in later chapters, this is a history well worth reading by anybody interested in the topic.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, but extremely discursive exploration of the way Germany progressed after its devastating defeat in the Second World War. It covers a much wider range of topics than one might imagine upon entering into its reading, including de-Nazification, physical reconstruction of the country, the importance of modern art to the CIA's plans for rebuilding the nation as it wished, and the rebirth of literature. The translation from the original German is elegant.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Как се преживява колективната и лична травма от нещо невъобразимо ужасно като война? С клишета, може би. Клишета, к��ито са такива, защото са истина. Всеки ден гледаш да слагаш единия крак пред другия, да не умреш от глад с 1550 калории на ден или дори по-малко, да преживееш ледената зима, да забравиш преживения ужас, да се радваш на всеки ден, в който все още си жив и т.н. Животът е голям и сложен, но най-вече продължава, ако си извадил късмет. Няма време и достатъчно енергия за вайкане, за преработване на вината, за посещение при терапевти, за покаяние. След май 1945 германците изглежда са имали една проста цел – да продължат да живеят ден след ден, а ако бъдещето ще им предлага нещо по-добро, ще посрещнат и него.
Книгата описва дейности от ежедневието на най-обикновените хора в Германия веднага след пълната капитулация и през следващите десетина години, а такива неща винаги са ми интересни. Разчистването на руините, преселените на милиони хора от едно място на друго, неумиращата ксенофобия, дори към гермаците от източните провинции, отношенията с победителите, продоволствието, танците, любовта. Има отделена глава за изкуството, което е послужило за психологическо превъзпитаване и демократизация на германците. Интересен щрих е участието на ЦРУ във финасирането на подходящи художници, писатели и творци от всякакъв вид. Разбира се, не директно, а чрез музеи, фондации, университети. Ето толкова важно е било за съюзниците възраждането на изкуството в Германия след войната.
Присъства и темата за почти несъстоялата се денацификация, за колективната вина, по-скоро за изтласкаването на мисълта за такава; за чувството на германците, че са станали жертва на националсоциализма и следователно не носят отговорност за престъпленията му. Сигурно има много психология и социология в това, като само една от причините е, че така се е оцелявало по-лено.
Наскоро бях в Нюрнберг, чиято стара част е била на 90% срината от бомбардировките. Екскурзоводката, на видима възраст малко над 60 годишна, ни показа снимки от онова време, на една от църквите се виждаше останалата полусрутената предна стена. Възстановили са всичко, камък по камък. Макар повечето къщи да не са съвсем автентични, но хората са имали спешна нужда от подслон, а не от запазване на историята. Това ми се стори невероятно, чак недействително и достойно за възхищение. След толкова години екскурзоводка ни все пак изпита нужда да обясни с няколко думи нацизма, макар никой от групата ни да не повдигна въпроса. Тя всъщност повтори това, в което може би и до днес вярват германците – Нюрнберг е съществувал от 11-ти век, а нацизмът е продължил само 12 години. Един вид нищо чак толкова съществено от общата перспектива на историята. Не е забравен, споменават го, случил се е, но е нещо като аномалия, останала в миналото.

[Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting book! When it comes to books about Germany, they tend to focus either on the two world wars, Nazism or the interwar period. Pretty little is known to the average reader about the decade following the tragedy of the Holocaust. This book certainly changes that. Millions of refugees in a broken country, this topic is the start of a great story, a chapter that certainly puts our hysterical attention around current refugee influxes in the right perspective.
I also found the chapter on the hunger for culture just after the end of the war extremely interesting. Even though life was a daily struggle of all against all (hence the title "Wolfszeit", homo homini lupus) for a little food, coal and a roof over the head, shortly after the armistice cinemas, cabarets and concert halls were packed. It is somewhat reminiscent of our "Kulturhunger" just after the closure of our culture houses due to the pandemic. The book does not shy away from tricky themes either: the victim role in which many Germans wallowed after the war and the unwillingness to come to terms with their own guilt. Highly recommended!

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harold Jahner is a German journalist and author who has written “Aftermath”, in which he looks at what happened in Germany immediately following Germany’s defeat, surrender, and occupation at the end of WW2. This book has been recently translated into English from German. This is a superb book that is valuable even if one has already read a lot of the history.

So what is so special about the period immediately after the war in Germany?

It is tempting to view histories, especially relating to wars, as chronicles of distinct periods during which a clear set of events occur and which follows an arc of events - a sort of plot - that readers can learn and come to grips with. So you can read about wars as you can read about individual, family, or even group lives, about the beginning and growth of an organization and its decline - history as something that has happened and possesses a plot line.

This is not really what Jahner is writing about. Sure there is a temporal line to the book (also a topical one) but this book is about discontinuities between historical events. It is about the time when the Nazi regime had fallen, Hitler was dead, and Germany occupied by four separate national forces, but where there was no social order to speak of.

The government that had pursued the war and enforced the societal rules was gone, but the new order of occupation had not taken hold (and was intended as temporary) and a new national government was only an unclear possibility. In such a situation there are only questions. How do people continue to live when society is largely disrupted? How do people survive when there is no stable money and the black market controls the allocation of goods and services? How does one adjust to a new society when large numbers of men are dead, imprisoned, injured, or otherwise traumatized by years of war? How does someone rebuild community when the entire nation seems to be shattered and perpetually in transit. How do people carry on after 12 years of Nazi violence, atrocities, and genocide? How do people adjust to former enemies as occupiers who require cooperation to succeed and meet out phenomenal violence on civilians in retribution for losses elsewhere?

How does one even talk about transitional periods like this? Is the issue the lack of a constitution for a new German state? That came fairly quickly. Is the economy about getting the economy going again? For the west, that would take into the 1950s. Is the transition about reunification? That would take another four and a half decades. What about the reestablishment of German society and culture? That is still going on. So Mr. Jahner is focusing on some big historical thing, but apparently one without clear boundaries or even a time from. He goes at it through a combination of a set of related issues which are discussed in a general temporal order from 1945-1955. This seems to work.

Jahner has done exhaustive research on the records of the times to report on how Germans addressed these questions and managed to survive. He reports on his research and indicates what seems to have happened during these times - much of which seems different from commonly held beliefs. He not only reports on local politics and rebuilding, but shows how the arts and cultural institutions reestablished themselves. He does an exceptional job on the transition from the black market and destruction of the initial aftermath period to the currency reforms, the Marshall Plan, and the beginnings of the West German economic “miracle”. He has lots of interesting cases along the way, for example the growth of Volkswagen in Wolfsburg from the immediate postwar into the beginnings of the German automobile industry.

Much of this material has been presented before by others in different places. What is especially good about jahner’s book is how these different and only loosely related issue areas are brought together and discussed in terms of the overall problem of Germany recovering from the catastrophe of WW2.

It is a well written and engaging book.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm afraid this book was overtaken by others that I have on my reading list. In another time and place I'd maybe have got through it because I think you do have to be in the mood to appreciate scholarly and worthwhile books like this. For whatever reason, it just didn't quite click with me. It was interesting and well written (or translated) but became a bit bogged down in information that I thought would be fine in a doctoral thesis but was of less import in a popular history. Some of the points were a bit too laboured, almost over-researched, and I felt they obscured what was maybe the overall message about Germany's recovery from the disaster of the war. How did ordinary people deal with what had happened to them and their society? It's an interesting question, but I gave up on the book before I'd found any real answers to it.

[Ozymandias · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of books about the end of World War II but not as many about what came after, at least not ones sold to a general audience. This book seeks to correct that by providing an account of the postwar years from the perspective of Germany.

This is very much a journalist’s book. There is not much research done with official records or efforts made to quantify the statements being made except where the figures appear in some other book. The main focus is on culture; on literature and news and attitudes. Most of the sources are journals, novels, memoirs, films, letters, etc. All personal rather than official documents. The larger context of events is usually not considered or is covered very briefly. If that sounds critical it’s not meant to. The book is what it is and given the sparsity of books on this topic (at least translated into English) it can hardly be claimed that it isn’t teaching us something new. Indeed, the book does very well as a cultural history of Germany – obviously something it’s going for. The attitudes, dreams, confusion, prejudice, fears, etc. of the time are captured in detail.

He doesn’t go easy on the German people either, even though he is broadly sympathetic. As might be expected in a recently deNazified country there’s a lot of racism going around. But what makes it interesting is how it changed from Nazi times. Now the returning German soldiers are no longer fellow Aryans but filthy immigrants. The former victims of Nazi terror are now hated for having it better than the Germans instead of being a corrupting force from within. The question of guilt and blame is often lurking, but often it is drowned out by the needs of survival and the sense of victimization that brings. How can we be the bad guys when we’re clearly victims? Let bygones be bygones. Hardly an attitude that would endear them to foreigners but understandable amidst the ruins. And looking ahead a bit to digest the eventual German reckoning with their past makes this a much more informative book than any written at the time the issues were fresh could have been.

More disgusting is the attitude often seen in rural areas. They weren’t fanatics about Naziism, but were furious at having their slave labor taken away. Pay people? Are you mad!? German refugees were dismissed as filthy Polacks and treated appallingly. There are even stories of whole families being murdered in the chaos to avoid the imposition of having to take care of them. Which, as brutal as it sounds, must have done wonders to undermine the idea of a united Aryan master race. Without the unifying racial ideology and with Germany apparently falling apart as the old certainties of life crumbled, it must have been profoundly disillusioning. But even as people fell out of the spell of Naziism they lacked a real alternative. When all your heroes have been overturned who do you look to? It would take a generation before the anti-Nazis like Sophie Scholl and Von Stauffenberg reached national hero status. In the meantime everyone was on their own.

He has an especial fondness for pricking preconceptions. This might actually be one of the areas that throws people since these are myths and stereotypes native to the German-speaking world. I had not heard all of these stories before he debunked them. When they are broader stereotypes though this can be some of the book’s strongest sections. Who would have thought that the dance scene in postwar Germany would be so vibrant? The vision of people wandering the ruins searching for bare subsistence and then spending the evening dancing is bizarre. I liked it.

If the subject sounds at all interesting to you you’ll probably enjoy this book. I found it very interesting as I am always fascinated by how people recover from crises. And WW2 was the biggest crisis that man has encountered in the modern era. One of his few statistics informs us that 2/5 of all the men born in Germany between 1920 and 1925 did not return. Yikes. If there is one area I think the book is lacking it is the expulsion of Volksdeutsche from all the liberated parts of Europe. The consequences are dealt with and some isolated stories discussed, but this is one area I don’t think you can really discuss without turning to archives and statistics. How many people were expelled? How significant were the long-term demographic changes to the existing population of Germany? We get tantalizing hints, but in this one area that did not feel like enough. The writing was generally good and doesn’t read like translationese. There are even a few puns that carry over into English, like “From Bondage to Vagabondage”. Although I can’t help but wonder if that was originally the other way around: from Vagabund to Bund (the State). It still works.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really valuable book about post-WW II Germany, with insights that probably couldn't have come from a writer who wasn't German. The translation seems excellent as well.

The subtitle is a bit misleading, as the book is about much more than the difficulties of "life" in the ruins and the problems of living in a shattered country. There's much attention to the citizens' process of putting Nazism behind -- often by rejecting individual guilt and believing themselves victims of Hitler and die-hard Nazis.

The first two-thirds of the book is about life in the ruins of the Third Reich -- how Germans coped with no shelter, no fuel, little food, and mass migration from eastern areas given to Poland. The final third explores the "economic miracle" of West Germany (the Federal Republic) after the currency reform of 1948, the Allies' efforts to "re-educate" the German psyche, and a variety of cultural trends. One tidbit -- seems the CIA was a major backer of modern art and architecture in West Germany!

This is one of those books with meaty notes in the back. One must read with two bookmarks for maximum efficiency. Also, as you would expect from a book about Germany originally written in German and published in Germany, most of the sources in the bibliography are German-language only. Too bad for a non-German reader, as many of the sources seem enticing!

Update moments later — rummaging through the bibliography, I see that some of the sources given only with German titles HAVE been translated to English. But determining which would be a daunting task!

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boeiend en zeer interessant boek over het Duitsland de eerste jaren na WOII

[C. G. Telcontar · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much a sociological study as it is a history of Germany after the war, an outstanding survey of how Germans navigated the postwar chaos and found a way to a stable society. East Germany is largely ignored and the chapters on art and journalism are tedious to me, others excellent from start to finish.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️4,5/5

Znakomita pozycja przybliżająca powojenne losy Niemiec i Niemców. Autor - dziennikarz i historyk Harald Jähner ujął temat przekrojowo i wnikliwie i kompleksowo zanalizował i opisał poszczególne zagadnienia. Poza często przytaczanymi w literaturze faktu historiami powojennego życia obywateli niemieckich czy problemami ekonomicznymi i kryzysem gospodarczym autor oddzielne obszerne rozdziały poświęcił mniej oczywistym, można by rzec niszowym kwestiom jak m.in. wpływ II wojny światowej na design, przemysł erotyczny czy samochodowy. Jähner wszystkie zagadnienia potraktował rzetelnie - nie wybiela nazistów, przytacza świadectwa jak wielce tragiczna była sytuacja ludności cywilnej w powojennych Niemczech. Nie unika ciemniejszych kart historii zarówno Niemiec jak i Polski czy ZSRR - sporo miejsca poświęcił na ukazanie udokumentowanych przykładów jak brutalnych i bestialskich aktów od tych dwóch narodów doświadczyli jego rodacy.
Ogromnym plusem „Czasu Wilka” jest ogromna ilość przykładów, konkretnych historii osób przewijających się na kartkach książki bądź ich wspomnień, które doskonale obrazują i uwierzytelniają przytaczane, często trudne do uwierzenia, dane i informacje. Nie jest to literatura faktu naszpikowana niemal wyłącznie samymi suchymi nazwiskami, nazwami miejsc i liczbami, dzięki czemu pomimo ogromu zawartych informacji, „Czas Wilka” czyta się płynnie, gdyż stylem bliżej mu do reportażu niż akademickiej książki historycznej. Bez dwóch zdań jeden z najciekawszych tytułów przeczytanych w tym roku.

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[Martin Poulsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's thousands of books about the Nazi era and it's downfall, but very little is written about the decade following Stunde Null.
Harald Jähner describes in detail how the German social, economic, artistic and religious fabric was restored. The book has a strong focus on how America through a variety of initiatives changed German moral, outlook, social and economic conditions to pave the way for at democratic minded Germany.
Unfortunately there's very little in the book concerning the Eastern Zone and how the Soviet Union created an very different Germany, and there's virtually nothing about how the British restored its zone of occupation. The book hints at a suggestion that post-war Germany is almost entirely an American affair.

[Kate Potapenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the part of history that is never spoken about in school or in general..
It is brilliantly written and covers so many aspects of afterwar life in Germany..
Jahner looks into music, art, sex, family, black market and so on.. We get little snaps from newspapers, pictures taken at the time. It felt like I was on a time travelling adventure. 
it is unputdownable, educational  and in a weird way exciting!Even if you're not a huge fan of history, I reckon you will still enjoy it!

Thank you #NetGalley for my free copy.

[Kinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

How did Germans live after the Second World War? How did the country go from being the pariah of Europe to an economic powerhouse?

This book does an excellent job addressing these questions, including looking at post-war migration from Germany's former eastern territories (East Prussia, Silesia) and social life after the war. I found the topic really interesting and the author did an excellent job exploring the immediate post-war years in Germany.

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Очевидно, что автором была проделана огромная работа в поиске и сборе материалов для максимально полного отображения жизни послевоенной Германии и немцев. Проделан гигантский труд, чтобы показать во всех деталях, как жили немцы в период между 1945 и 1955. Однако сразу стоит заметить, что в основном автор описывает первые годы послевоенной Германии и что речь идёт исключительно о жизни людей на территории Германии. Это очень правильное решение, ибо благодаря такой сфокусированности на одной теме – социальной ситуации в Германии 1945-1955 – мы можем максимально полно увидеть картину происходившего. Это чрезвычайно важно, ибо большинство авторов затрагивают слишком много вопросов или берут слишком большой исторический промежуток времени из-за чего такие книги становятся поверхностными. Эта книга - тот исключительный случай, когда автор задался целью рассказать максимально подробно исключительно об одной теме или об одном, но большом, событии – жизни немцев сразу после поражения во Второй Мировой войне.

Насколько интересно у автора получилось рассказать историю? Достаточно интересно. Хотя стоит отметить, что у читателя должен изначально иметься интерес к этой теме, ибо хоть автор иногда пишет поэтично и слишком часто цитирует известных писателей, текст временами довольно тяжёлый. Нет, это, разумеется, не учебник по истории, но и простым рассказом историй разных людей / событий эту книгу тоже нельзя назвать. Да и не стоит забывать о довольно большом объёме.

Итак, автор начинает буквально за пару дней до капитуляции Германии и описывает ситуацию, связанную с жизнью простых немцев (не солдат). Буквально, как они выживали в тот период времени. Не нужно быть экспертом по истории Второй Мировой войны, чтобы понять, что в период между капитуляцией и полной оккупацией Германии (т.е. занятием войсками территории) практически ничего в стране не работало, следовательно, наступление голода была реальной перспективой. Именно с истории «поиска еды» в Берлине и начинается книга. Трудно сказать, откуда автор взял настолько подробные и яркие описания тех событий, но они, без сомнения, впечатляют. Они настолько впечатляют, что уже одного их описания достаточно для того чтобы стать пацифистом и противником всякой войны. В другой главе автор описывает, как обстояли дела с переселением немцев из восточных территорий или что происходило с людьми, которых освободили из концентрационных лагерей. Меня особе поразило то, что многие евреи даже после освобождения продолжали носить одежду, которую носили, будучи заключенными, концентрационных лагерей. Почему? Да просто другой одежды у них вообще не было. Другая поразившая меня деталь заключалась в том, что какого-то особого тёплого отношения к бывшим узницам концентрационных лагерей также не предусматривалось. Другими словами, хоть евреев и выпустили из лагерей смерти, никакой заботы проявлено не было. И тут я не думаю, что причина заключалась в нехватке персонала или ресурсов. Как мне кажется, все стороны конфликта к евреям относились как беспризорному ребёнку, мешающемуся под ногами взрослых. Пожалуй, настолько ярко высветить данную проблему смогла только эта книга, не являясь при этом иск��ючительн�� книгой о евреях в поствоенную эпоху. В любом случаи, меня просто-таки поразило, как они были брошены на произвол судьбы сразу после своего освобождения. Я хочу тут отметить, что речь идёт о времени, когда боевые действия уже закончились, так что случившееся не может объясняться тем, что «вокруг стреляют». Нет, дело всё в том, что о них не было кому озаботиться, в отличие от граждан других государств. Правда, стоит отметить, что когда автор писал о заключённых, содержавшихся в немецком плену, он пишет, что в целом к ним относились прохладно (к примеру, солдатами США), а иногда даже агрессивно. Как я понял, за то долгое время, проведённое в немецких лагерях для военнопленных, у этих людей довольно существенно изменилась психология поведения. Так что в целом, можно сказать, что те люди, которые прошли через лагеря, даже после своего освобождения, испытывали если не прямые гонения, то точно холодный приём, пусть возможно и не в массовом масштабе.

Помимо тягот и невзгод первых недель после поражения в войне, немцы не только боролись за выживание путём организации чёрного рынка и всеобщего воровства всего, что только можно было найти в брошенных домах и магазинах, но очень быстро в страну вернулась тяга к развлечению, включая кинофильмы, музыку и пр. Я не нашёл данную тему особо интересной для меня, но тем-не менее, нельзя отдать должное такому примечательному событию как острое желание развлечений. Хотя, до этой главы автор дойдёт лишь после того как опишет жизнь в руинах и избавление от этих руин. Учитывая, что руины необходимо было разобрать и удалить, чтобы на их месте возвести новые постройки и, учитывая тот факт, что многие мужчины находились либо в плену, либо в лагерях, основную силу по разбору завалов руин немецких городов возложили на плечи женщин (особую роль в этом играли те, кто входил в специальные женские организации, созданные в Третьем Рейхе).

Вообще, роль женщин в патриархальном немецком обществе довольно примечательная и как мне кажется, это событие существенно повлияло на развитие феминизма в Германии. Как пишет автор, из-за того что почти все мужчины ушли на фронт (а вернулись с фронта намного позже), именно женщины «управляли» городами, буквально собственными руками убирая руины, организуя отношения на чёрном рынке и воспитывая детей. Но даже после того как мужчины пришли, ситуация не сильно изменилась ибо кого женщины увидели? Не просто проигравших, а полностью сломленных немецких мужчин, которые, тем не менее, хотели управлять и жёнами и детьми (которые годами не видели своих отцов) как прежде. Думаю, это было довольно жалкое зрелище – проигравший и сломленный мужчина пытающийся сохранить последний островок своего былого авторитета. Разумеется, этого произойти уже не могло, несмотря на то, что развестись было очень и очень тяжело, если и вовсе невозможно.

Несмотря на то, что война является делом мужчин и именно мужчины принимают на себя главный удар, гражданское население тоже страдает и не только от возможного перебоя продуктов питания, но особенно несладко приходится гражданскому населению побеждённого государства. Разумеется, автор не смог обойти вниманием такой вопрос как изнасилования немецких женщин после оккупации страны. К счастью, автор не вдаётся в детали этого, но то, что он описал, достаточно чтобы понять, что счёт мог идти на сотни тысяч и возможно даже миллионов (если я не путаю, есть оценка в 2 миллиона изнасилованных немок). Главный приз в этом позорном деле достался, разумеется, Красной Армии. Да, были случаи, когда в этом преступлении были замечены и другие армии союзников, однако чуть ли не общее мнение, что наибольшее количество изнасилований было именно в восточной Германии и именно со стороны Красной Армии. Как пишет автор, это приняло настолько массовый характер, что с жалобой на это обратись к Сталину союзники по антигитлеровской коалиции. Особо останавливаться на этой теме у меня нет желания, да и автор не сильно акцентирует на этом своё внимание, но нужно признать, что эта страница истории ещё недостаточно отрефлексирована как самими странами Запада, так и странами бывшего СССР. А это важно, ибо без признания этого невозможно построить нормальное государство.

Мне не хотелось бы пересказывать книгу, поэтому в заключении отмечу, что вся книга представляет из себя разные темы о социальной ситуации в Германии и о самих немцах, к примеру, возвращающихся из военного плена. Какие-то темы могут быть кому-то более интересны, а какие-то - менее. Однако, несмотря на это книга даёт максимально полную картину жизни немцев в первые годы после крушения Третьего Рейха. Какие-то истории или темы забудутся почти сразу, а какие-то запомнятся надолго (как например, массовый суицид советских солдат, когда те узнали, что их собираются отправить обратно на родину). Тут главное то, что автор собрал калейдоскоп вопросов, пусть и объединённых одной темой.

The author has done a tremendous amount of work in researching and collecting materials to show as fully as possible the life of post-war Germany and Germans. A gigantic amount of work has been done to show (in great detail) how Germans lived between 1945 and 1955. However, it should be noted that the author mainly describes the first years of post-war Germany and that it is exclusively about the life of people in Germany. This is a very good decision because by focusing on one topic - the social situation in Germany from 1945 to 1955 - we can see the fullest possible picture of what happened. This is important because most authors deal with too many issues or take too long a historical period, which makes such books superficial. This book is an exceptional case in which the author has set out to tell in as much detail as possible exclusively about a single topic or a single but large event - the life of the Germans after their defeat in World War II.

How interesting did the author manage to tell the story? Interesting enough. However, it should be noted that the reader should initially have an interest in this topic because although the author sometimes writes poetically and too often quotes famous writers, the text is sometimes quite heavy. Of course, this is not a history textbook, but this book cannot be called a simple story of different people/events either. And one should not forget about the rather large volume.

So, the author starts just a couple of days before the surrender of Germany and describes the situation of the lives of ordinary Germans (not soldiers) - how they survived during that period. You don't need to be an expert on World War II history to realize that between the surrender and the full occupation of Germany, virtually nothing in the country was working hence the onset of famine was a real prospect. It is with the story of the “search for food” in Berlin that the book begins. It is hard to say where the author got such detailed and vivid descriptions of those events, but they are undoubtedly impressive. They are so impressive that their description alone is enough to make one a pacifist and an opponent of all war. In another chapter, the author describes how things were with the resettlement of Germans from the eastern territories or what happened to people who were liberated from concentration camps. I was particularly struck by the fact that many Jews, even after liberation, continued to wear the clothes they had worn as prisoners in the concentration camps. Why? Because they had no other clothes at all. Another detail that struck me was that there was no special warm treatment for former concentration camp inmates. In other words, even though Jews were released from the death camps, no care was shown. And here, I don't think the reason was a lack of personnel or resources. It seems to me that all sides of the conflict treated the Jews as neglected children, children who were in the way of the adults. Perhaps only this book can highlight this problem so vividly, but it is not exclusively a book about Jews in the postwar era. In any case, I was struck by how they were abandoned to their fate immediately after their release. I want to point out here that we are talking about a time when the fighting was already over, so what happened cannot be explained by “shooting around”. No, it is because there was no one to take care of them, unlike citizens of other states. However, it should be noted that when the author wrote about prisoners held in German captivity, he writes that, in general, they were treated coolly (for example, by US soldiers) and sometimes even aggressively. As I understand it, during that long time spent in German POW camps, the behavioral psychology of these people changed quite significantly. So, in general, we can say that those people who went through the camps, even after their liberation, experienced if not direct persecution, then certainly a cold reception, though perhaps not on a massive scale.

In addition to the hardships of the first weeks after the defeat of the war, Germans not only struggled to survive by organizing a black market and general theft of everything they could find in abandoned houses and stores, but very quickly the craze for entertainment, including movies, music, etc., returned to the country. I didn't find this topic particularly interesting to me, but nevertheless, one can't do justice to such a remarkable event as a keen desire for entertainment. However, the author will reach this chapter only after describing the life in the ruins and getting rid of these ruins. Given that the ruins had to be dismantled and removed in order to build new structures in their place, and taking into account the fact that many men were either in captivity or in camps, the main force to remove the rubble of the ruins of German cities was put on the shoulders of women (a special role in this was played by those who were members of special women's organizations created in the Third Reich).

In general, the role of women in patriarchal German society is quite remarkable, and I think this event significantly influenced the development of feminism in Germany. As the author writes, because almost all men went to the front (and returned from the front much later), it was women who “ruled” the cities, cleaning up the ruins with their own hands, organizing black market relations, and raising children. But even after the men came, the situation did not change much because who did the women see? Not just losers but completely broken German men who (nevertheless) wanted to rule their wives and children (who had not seen their fathers for years) as before. I think it was a pretty pathetic sight - a lost and broken man trying to preserve the last island of his former authority. Of course, that couldn't happen, even though divorce was very, very difficult, if not impossible.

Despite the fact that war is a man's business and it is men who take the brunt of it, the civilian population also suffers, not only from possible food shortages. Of course, the author could not ignore such an issue as the rape of German women after the occupation of the country. Fortunately, the author does not go into details, but what he described is enough to realize that the count could go into the hundreds of thousands and perhaps even millions (if I am not confused, there is an estimate of 2 million raped Germans). The main prize in this shameful affair went, of course, to the Red Army. Yes, there were cases when other Allied armies were involved in this crime, but it is almost a consensus that the greatest number of rapes were in East Germany and by the Red Army. As the author writes, it became so widespread that the anti-Hitler coalition allies complained to Stalin about it. I have no desire to dwell on this topic, and the author does not emphasize it much, but we must admit that this page of history has not yet been sufficiently reflected both by the countries of the West and the countries of the former USSR. This is important because it is impossible to build a normal state without recognizing it.

I don't want to rehash the book, so I'll conclude by noting that the whole book presents different themes about the social situation in Germany and Germans themselves, for example, returning from military captivity. Some topics may be more interesting to some and some less so. However, despite this, the book gives as complete a picture as possible of German life in the first years after the collapse of the Third Reich. Some stories or topics will be forgotten almost immediately, and some will be remembered for a long time (such as the mass suicide of Soviet soldiers when they learned that they were going to be sent back to their homeland). The main thing here is that the author has collected a kaleidoscope of questions, albeit united by one theme.

[António Dias · Rating 4 out of 5]

O tema é para mim interessantíssimo: o rescaldo do Terceiro Reich e o modo como a sociedade alemã reagiu, encarou e eventualmente se redimiu das atrocidades cometidas durante a II Guerra.

Harald Jahner faz neste livro um esforço gigante para carcterizar o pós-guerra na Alemanha, tocando em diversos pontos críticos e intrigantes, como a remoção dos escombros num país destruído, o envolvimento das mulheres alemãs com os estrangeiros libertadores, perante a ausência dos maridos ou o regresso destes estropiados ou avariados da cabeça, a revolução da senda cultural, o milagre económico, e sobretudo, a incapacidade para lidar com as atrocidades cometidas e a vitimização de que se assumiram perante o nacional-socialismo, como se cada alemão individual nada tivesse a ver com a aceitação do regime (sabendo-se hoje, segundo o autor, que excluindo o terror espalhado sobre os próprios alemães no fim da guerra, o Terceiro Reich nunca foi uma verdadeira ditadura interna mas, pela contrário, gozou de uma ampla aceitação pela generalidade dos alemães).

Este último ponto, mais ético que prático (ainda que se traduza num plano muito concreto) mesmo que tendo sido pouco desenvolvido no livro quando comparado com os restantes, foi e é para mim o mais interessante, e algo que eu desconhecia por completo. A falta de coragem para assumir a culpa e ajustar contas com o passado, apesar dos julgamentos que tiveram lugar, e apesar de se aflorar que se assim não fosse, seria impossível recuperar o país, dado o elevado número de condenações necessárias, deixam-me mais dúvidas do que certezas.

Por fim, a crítica: demasiados detalhes, ou pelo menos, demasiadas páginas com temas que não necessitavam de tanto esforço despendido. Tornam as 400 páginas deste livro, aqui e ali, maçadoras. Talvez menos 100 páginas e um foco maior na ausência em lidar com o passado tivessem dado algo a ganhar a este livro.

Mas entendo o autor na sua tentativa de conferir a este relato um cariz mais global, tocando os diversos aspectos da sociedade alemã (se é que se podia aplicar o termo "sociedade") no anos que se seguiram ao fim do conflito. Um livro que vale (muito) a pena, embora não para ser lido de uma vez. De qualquer forma, muito, mas mesmo muito interessante.

[Ana Castro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foi aconselhado por Paulo Portas no seu comentário semanal de domingo.

O autor, bem documentado (livros, filmes, peças de teatro, programas de rádio, revistas, jornais, etc, etc.) dá-nos a conhecer o “Aftermath” , os dias meses e anos da reconstrução da Alemanha após a II Grande Guerra.
A Internet permitiu-me acompanhar através de fotografias a desolação em que o País ficou .
Nada funcionava e havia 75 milhões de pessoas a precisarem de se alimentar e encontrar onde viver.
No meio do caos procuravam familiares sobreviventes.
E o lema era : “muito sorrir para a tristeza suprimir”.

É um documentário completo mas, quanto a mim, demasiado pormenorizado .

A parte final do livro torna-se monótona, confusa e maçadora.

Esperava melhor.