Whereas previous volumes address the troubling question of how Germans got themselves into one of the most brutal dictatorships of the 20th century, this one focuses on how they emerged from the experience of Nazism to rebuild their economy, society, political system, and culture. Key aspects of this process will be introduced in the present narrative and explored in greater detail in the accompanying primary source documents and historical photographs. Before we proceed, however, a few words about the organization of this volume are in order.
The documents included in Occupation and the Emergence of Two States, 1945-1961 have been divided into 28 sections. The first looks at Allied planning in the final months of war and Allied policies after Germany's defeat. Then follow various sections on the re-emergence of political and economic life in East and West Germany. Among other subjects, these sections introduce the major domestic and international issues that the two Germanies, together with the occupying powers, grappled with throughout the 1950s, right up to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
Roughly speaking, the first half of the volume deals with economic and political history, foreign and security policy, and population movements, while the second half focuses more broadly on the social and cultural history of East and West Germany. Gender and sexuality, consumption, popular culture, and so-called modern lifestyles are just some of the topics covered. The volume concludes with a selection of West German public opinion polls. These surveys constitute a fitting endpoint insofar as they show how contemporary Germans responded to various questions relating to a host of issues raised in the preceding sections.
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