The Hunt in Occupied-Germany (Pic Magazine, 1946)
While the hunt for Nazis and hidden weapons cachés was taking place in allied-occupied Germany, a small number of U.S. Army detectives happened upon the entire archives of the Nazi Party.
Aftermath (WWII)
Learn about post-WW II Europe with these old magazine articles. Find information on occupied Germany in the late 1940s and 1950s.
The American Sector (United States News, 1945)
Written seven months after VE-Day, this article reported on life in the American zone of occupation:
Today, with every facet of his life policed by foreign conquerors, the German civilian faces the worst winter his country has known in centuries. And it is likely to be but the first of several such winters. He is hungry now, and he will be cold. Shelter is inadequate. His property is looted by his neighbor. Lawlessness and juvenile delinquency disturb him. Public health teeters in precarious balance which might tip the disaster.
The Abusive Occupying Army (Collier’s Magazine, 1946)
This editorial lends credibility to Andrei Cherny’s 2007 tome, The Candy Bombers
Stories keep coming back to this country about American soldiers sticking up Berlin restaurants, or beating up German citizens, or looting German homes. How much of this stuff goes on, we don’t know. We do know that some of it goes on, and that any of it is too much. Not that we believe in sobbing unduly over the German people, they let themselves be razzle-dazzled into the war by Hitler and his mobsters.
The Policy Behind the Occupation of Germany (Yank Magazine, 1945)
In the aftermath of World War II Germany found themselves occupied by four armies; in the attached article General Eisenhower explained what the policy of the German occupation was to be:
‘His idea is that the biggest job for right now is riding herd on the rehabilitation of Germany’s political and economic structure…We are working toward a government of Germany by the Germans under the supervision of the Allied General Control Council,’ he said. The government will pass more and more under German civil control. At first we’ll have to look down the German’s necks in everything they do.’
-To read more 1940s articles about General Eisenhower, click here.
The Post-War Miracle that was Volkswagen (Pic Magazine, 1955)
Out of the smoldering ruins of Japan came the Honda factories; while Germany amazed their old enemies by rapidly beating their crematoriums into Volkswagens. Confidently managed by a fellow who only a short while before was serving as a lowly private in Hitler’s retreating army, Volkswagen quickly retooled, making the vital improvements that were necessary to compete in the global markets.
Ludwig Erhard (1897 – 1977), West Germany’s Minister of Economics between the years 1949 and 1963, once remarked that Germany was able to launch its Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) by implementing the principles of a market economy and laissez-fair capitalism within the framework of a semi-socialist state.
The Bavarians Wanted a King (Pathfinder Magazine, 1949)
An important news item came across the wire in mid-may, 1949:
The delegates from Western Germany’s 11 states gave final approval to the draft of the constitution for the new Federal Republic of Germany.
– but what matter was this to the thousands of Bavarians who were highly distrustful of the new government; they had their own gloried past that was largely due to the royal family known as the House of Wittelsbach:
A strong faction is campaigning for the return to the throne of former Crown Prince Rupprecht. The eldest son of King Ludwig III, deposed in 1918, Rupprecht is a tall, thin man of vast education. He led Bavarian troops under Kaiser Wilhelm. In World War II, he was exiled to Italy. Since then he has been living with his family at Leutstetten Castle on Lake Starnberg near Munich.
If the Bavarian people desire monarchy, I shall respect their desire.
Nice work if you can get it…