Thread Number: 68479  /  Tag: Ranges, Stoves, Ovens
Post War/1950's Germany Homefront
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Post# 912290   12/23/2016 at 10:09 (2,652 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        

launderess's profile picture
While researching the "Sunil" 1950's commercial (see other post) came upon various other things about Germany during that period. Thought would share as we so seldom discuss that era and place.

www.alamy.com/stock-photo/germany...





Post# 912295 , Reply# 1   12/23/2016 at 10:35 (2,652 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        

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Just as in the USA and elsewhere there was a push in post-war Germany on the domestic front. Various packaged preparations we're coming onto the market to make a married woman's life easier in terms of meals.

Dr. Oetker is a brand of yeast and other products one still uses today.






Post# 912296 , Reply# 2   12/23/2016 at 10:37 (2,652 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        
Sadly as else where cigarette smoking also took hold

launderess's profile picture
It was advertised as glamorous, sophisticated and perfectly natural, this even for women and when done around children






Post# 912318 , Reply# 3   12/23/2016 at 13:04 (2,652 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
Yes,

and was much in need. The Marshal plan, the baby boom, Konrad Adenour's economic miracle, etc. Volkswagen became the peoples car, and even found it's way to America. Wolfsburg was more or less a company city.
The 1950's were still lean for Britain compared to the USA, and most of Europe.
The war was on their soil. Almost 30 percent of British housing had been destroyed, and almost half of it's industry. Germany worse, yet many American politicians opposed the Marshal plan, mostly from the right.
It created as many if not more good paying American jobs.
Today, there are no productive spoils of war, only more debt.


Post# 912319 , Reply# 4   12/23/2016 at 13:05 (2,652 days old) by vacbear58 (Sutton In Ashfield, East Midlands, UK)        
Is this someone we know?

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Some great machines featured






Post# 912409 , Reply# 5   12/24/2016 at 10:00 (2,651 days old) by panthera (Rocky Mountains)        
Wirtschaftswunder

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Was possible in the US and Germany because both countries had politicians willing to take risks.

The poor UK was saddled with enormous debt, no economic help from anyone and politicians who, if we count back to 827CE, were among the worst, ever.

 


Post# 912411 , Reply# 6   12/24/2016 at 10:18 (2,651 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
yes Pantera,

I know a few who came from England, and they told me back in 1954, there were still holes from bombs in central London.
Eventually, the Golden Lane, and Barbican estates were built there. Barbican is a grade 1 listed historic site today.


Post# 912414 , Reply# 7   12/24/2016 at 10:26 (2,651 days old) by panthera (Rocky Mountains)        
it's not that the brits weren't

panthera's profile picture

Hard working and willing to sacrifice - things would have been even worse, had they not been. Just, the US insisted on being repaid, their governments were worse than Donald Trump and Maggie Thatcher combined and they suffered enormous losses in both WWI and WWII which had to be overcome.

Just plain awful, all around. C.S. Lewis wrote a lot of good things on how awful the mentality of the governing class was at that time. Horrid as she was, Thatcher was a break with that. One of the very few good things I can think to say of her, apart from her standing up to the Argentine Juanta.


Post# 912451 , Reply# 8   12/24/2016 at 15:59 (2,651 days old) by miele_ge (Danbury, Connecticut)        
Thank you for posting that Laundress

miele_ge's profile picture
I often have what I suppose is a "US centric" view on packaged foods. It's nice to see how all that evolved in Europe.

Post# 912455 , Reply# 9   12/24/2016 at 16:35 (2,651 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        
Ein heller Kopf verwendet stets Oetker!

launderess's profile picture
Oetker products are staples in Germany. For baking power the equal would probably be Davis or Rumsford.


Recipe book/owner's manual for my vintage Bosch "Universal" mixer/Nutrimill

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Oetker...

www.oetker.us/us-en/about-dr-oetk...

Back on topic:

While much of Germany was like this just after the war:
www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/...

West Germany by the 1950's was well into Wirtschaftswunder (German Miracle) economy. Things in East Germany however were another matter.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirtschaft...


It seems wiser heads prevailed and soon the USA and Allies backed off much of harshness (and quite frankly blood thirstiness) of Henry Morgenthau, Jr's plans that would have sent Germany down the same path as the Treaty of Versailles/end of WWI.

The outcome was that barely fifteen or so years after WWII West Germany was an economic power house of Europe, much to the dismay (and or disgust/fear) of some elsewhere.


Post# 912524 , Reply# 10   12/25/2016 at 06:37 (2,651 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
Only Finland

repaid it's war debt. No other country could have.

Post# 912550 , Reply# 11   12/25/2016 at 12:19 (2,650 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)        
This is true.

launderess's profile picture
Though there is/was much moaning about the Treaty of Versailles and Germany's crippling war debt, she barely paid any of her WWI debts. Initial payments began but soon for various reasons were reduced then finally stopped all together.

After WWII the Allies and Soviets were determined to get what they could out of Germany *this time*, and again had the Morgenthau Plan been implemented to it's fullest Germany's economy (West) would have been a basket case for decades to come.

Again calmer heads did prevail this time and were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the ToV. Germany did suffer some economic hardships/losses, including forfeiture and or theft of patents, factories, manufacturing, and reparations, but nothing like the blood thirst some wanted.

Also playing into this was the threat of communism/Soviet Union spreading across western Europe. The USA and others realized (again using post WWI as a model) that a beaten down and disgruntled west German population would perhaps welcome Stalin and the spread of Soviet Union; this was to be avoided at all costs.

Of course reason why Germany was able to rebuild so quickly post WWII (and WWI for that matter) has much to do with *Prussian Values*. That also explains even today why Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe.


Post# 912701 , Reply# 12   12/27/2016 at 01:23 (2,649 days old) by Sudsmaster (SF Bay Area, California)        

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If I'm not mistaken, the US war effort also lead to a huge government debt. To address this, income taxes rose to over 90% in the late 40's and early 50's. This was even the topic of one Twilight Zone show, as I recall, where an elderly couple that won a lottery discovered they were broke after spending about 10% of it on good deeds.

Of course these days, a top income tax rate over 40% is verboten in the USA. Trump proposes to drop the current rate down to 33% or less. I've heard people claim that balancing the high rates of the 40's and 50's were the numerous available deductions, most of which are no longer. Still, we just elected a president who managed to pay zero taxes for 18 years on $1 billion income.

Go figure.


Post# 912709 , Reply# 13   12/27/2016 at 06:30 (2,649 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
True Rich,

although, the average American income also rose a lot after the war. We had the highest standard of living of any nation by the 1970's. The interstate highway construction also added debt, and raised taxes. Still, all in all, it grew this nation. It takes spending money to make money. Even during the depression, the Hoover dam, TVA, etc. etc. were all federally funded projects.
I have read that Trumps tax modification proposal will tax married couples (us included) an extra $150 per year, and families with children more also.
My concern is this term may go like from early 2001, when we lost the first good job in the family. It was downhill from there through 2009.
Neither of us were in manufacturing either.
More and more manual labor jobs will become more and more automated with more robots. Even pharmacies. A Pharmacy doctorate will be in charge of it all, just the techs will be displaced, or will be employed in filling the dispensory machines.
Now, those educated in computer software and hardware, I.T. and web security, robotics, healthcare, etc. I hope will be ok. Also those in education.
So, I challenge anyone who says that you, or I am an uninformed or a low informed voter.



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