GERMANY AFTER WORLD WAR II
GERMANY AFTER WORLD WAR II
The reconstruction of Germany was a long process. After World War II, Germany had suffered heavy losses, both in lives and industrial power. 7.5 million Germans had been killed, roughly 11 percent of the population (see also World War II casualties). The country's cities were severely damaged from heavy bombing in the closing chapters of the War and agricultural production was only 35 percent of what it was before the war.
At the Potsdam conference, the victorious Allies ceded roughly 25 percent of Germany's pre-Anschluss territory to Poland and the Soviet Union. The German population in this area was expelled by force, together with the Germans of the Sudetenland and the German populations scattered throughout the rest of Eastern Europe. Between 0.5 and 2 million are said to have died in the process, depending on source. As a result, the population density grew in the "new" Germany that remained after the dismemberment.
As agreed at Potsdam, an attempt was made to convert Germany into a pastoral and agricultural nation, allowed only light industry. Many factories were dismantled as reparations or were simply destroyed (The Morgenthau Plan). Due to these policies, large numbers of German civilians died in the years following the unconditional surrender in what would eventually become West Germany. Millions of German prisoners of war were used for forced labor, both by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.
Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the United States pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how, as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion in his book, Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Post-war Germany, that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to 10 billion dollars, equivalent to around 100 billion dollars in 2006. ( Operation Paperclip).
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The reconstruction of Germany was a long process. After World War II, Germany had suffered heavy losses, both in lives and industrial power. 7.5 million Germans had been killed, roughly 11 percent of the population (see also World War II casualties). The country's cities were severely damaged from heavy bombing in the closing chapters of the War and agricultural production was only 35 percent of what it was before the war.
At the Potsdam conference, the victorious Allies ceded roughly 25 percent of Germany's pre-Anschluss territory to Poland and the Soviet Union. The German population in this area was expelled by force, together with the Germans of the Sudetenland and the German populations scattered throughout the rest of Eastern Europe. Between 0.5 and 2 million are said to have died in the process, depending on source. As a result, the population density grew in the "new" Germany that remained after the dismemberment.
As agreed at Potsdam, an attempt was made to convert Germany into a pastoral and agricultural nation, allowed only light industry. Many factories were dismantled as reparations or were simply destroyed (The Morgenthau Plan). Due to these policies, large numbers of German civilians died in the years following the unconditional surrender in what would eventually become West Germany. Millions of German prisoners of war were used for forced labor, both by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union.
Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the United States pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how, as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion in his book, Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Post-war Germany, that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to 10 billion dollars, equivalent to around 100 billion dollars in 2006. ( Operation Paperclip).
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