Aftermath by Harald Jähner

Author:Harald Jähner [Jähner, Harald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780753557891
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2021-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Not even the pride that was felt at having the right to free elections could compete with the satisfaction at once again enjoying the status of ‘customer’. Going shopping normally also represents a moment of freedom that can only be considered trivial by someone whose right to shop has never been compromised. Certainly, the rationing of all foodstuffs did not end with the currency reform, and many people suffered under a wave of price increases, but the sudden presence of a ‘world of commodities’ at least gave them a clear vision of the future. Things were noticeably improving, and anyone who was not yet profiting from the upturn felt confident that they would soon be able to do so. The rage that inspired the last general strike of the post-war years, called on 12 November 1948 in response to profiteering, was fed by the hope that there might soon be more to distribute than mere scarcity. When, on 1 January 1950, only sugar was still rationed, one Cologne newspaper crowed:

We’re breathing out. […] Many disagreeable points of contact between the population and public offices, burdensome even to the administration itself, are on the way out. We can eat what we want once more, the shopkeeper no longer needs to collect our stamps and worry about his shrinking income. Those days are behind us. All in all it was 160 months – 4,600 bitter days! There is butter again – and we are talking about sugar again.8

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