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The free market reforms and American aid very quickly resulted in the German Economic Miracle which trasformed West Germany. The German economy responded amazingly rapidly. To those who saw the emense piles of ruble which had once been thriving cities, the speed of change was breath taking. Amazingly the piles of rubble disappeared more rapidly in Germany than Britain. (Surprising because the damage in West Germany had been on a much more massive scale. Progress in East Germany was also slower.) The German consumer who once faced shortages and emply shelves, not only found increasingly well-stocked shops and had the money to buy all kinds of consumer goods. No time is this more apparent than at Christmas. We see family Christmas images with loads of presents under the tree. And the trees are larger and more heavily decorated. Often before the War, Working class families often had small rather basic trees for the home. Sadly many fathers and older sons are absent from these 1950s Christmas photographs. In some cases father took the snapshots, but many others were lost in the War. And notably this is not only middle-class family, but working-class families as well. By the end of the decade, not only had the damage in German cities been repaired and ecnomic activity resumed, but German workers were much more prosperous than they had been before the War. One subject we are not sure about is how Christmas was affected in the DDR (East Germany) by the Communist regime's athiest campaign. We note the Storre family in the DDR during 1958.
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