I want to take a moment to discuss what life was like for the German people during WWII. This subject is often overlooked, especially here in the West,
The devastation of World War II created a series of long-term concerns, some of which linger through today. All of the combatants of the war felt they were fighting for valid reasons ranging from retribution for past wrongs, reclamation of territory, or the liberation of a conquered people. The final outcome is well known to anyone with the most basic concept of history, but the long term consequences to the human population which survived the war is more complicated. When the bombs finally stopped falling and the dust had settled, a new reality emerged; a world with a continent of people rebuilding from years of air raids, a new Cold War, and a burgeoning military-industrial complex.
To understand the long term psychological and economic effects on the German people it is important to discuss the destruction caused by four years of almost continuous bombing by allied warplanes. Early in the war when the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force was still working to rebuild itself from the devastating losses endured during the Battle of Britain, the bombing campaign against Germany was relatively light, that changed in early 1943 when the Americans began their daylight bombing raids on German targets (Biddle, 2002, p. 216).
The raids by American bombers were following what is known as the Pointblank directive which determined which targets would best destroy the German war machine (Biddle, 2002, p. 216). The directive directly named seventy six priority targets that British and American economists felt would be the most likely to slow down or stop the Germans from constructing much needed equipment (Biddle, 2002, p. 216).
On the ground the Germans had been handed a defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943, news of which trickled back to the citizens of Berlin causing some to begin questioning the effectiveness of Nazi leaders and the war in general. In an effort to contain this sudden increase in defeatism and pessimism the party began arresting those who demonstrated a poor attitude towards the war effort and holding propaganda rallies in an attempt to rekindle the enthusiasm once held by the German people (Beck, 1986, p. 38). Shortly after the final surrender of German troops at Stalingrad, Josef Goebbels gave a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast to a crowd of thousands of select individuals. The subject of this rally was to instill a new sense of duty in the German people, and to declare a *Totaler Krieg* or Total War against the allies (Beck, 1986, p. 38). Despite all of the party propaganda the truth was evident to everyone in Germany: they were losing the war.
Rationing had become more stringent and everyone, including high ranking party members, was beginning to feel the pinch. Houses which were under construction were ordered to be built with the cheapest materials and with the least amount of luxury possible (Beck, 1986, p. 45). New housing which was erected to replace what was lost to bombing raids were directed to be built in a dormitory style to accommodate as many people as possible (Beck, 1986, p. 45).
During this same time the bombing raids by the allies was becoming more effective and devastating. Earlier in the war people were not nearly as concerned about the constant drone of bombers overhead, but come spring of 1943 when the Americans had joined in, and the RAF had significantly more planes than before it all changed (Beck, 1986, p. 47). These bomb runs were made more accurate with the use of radar which allowed a more precise track to the target itself, and then back home again. In addition to this use of technology the British began using incendiary bombs against cities creating devastation at a level never seen before, and they were also targeting cities not previously on their target lists (Beck, 1986, p. 47). This ramped up effort by the allies to cause the most damage possible caused the German people to become war weary quickly, and the ruling Nazi party decreed more air raid shelters were needed (Beck, 1986, p. 47).
At war’s end, the destruction of many of Germany’s cities was complete with nothing to show there was once a rich historic heritage but a large pile of rubble where a city once stood. In many of these cities the only structures left standing were the air raid shelters and bunkers built by the Nazis during the war (Schmitz & Seidel-Arpaci, 2011, p. 59). Immediately following the war it was not uncommon for these shelters to be used as housing for families as their towns and cities were rebuilt (Schmitz & Seidel-Arpaci, 2011, p. 59). All of this would play into the Cold War in the years of reconstruction to follow.
Beck, E. R. (1986). Under the bombs: The German home front, 1942-1945. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.
Biddle, T. D. (2002). Rhetoric and reality in air warfare: The evolution of British and American ideas about strategic bombing, 1914-1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Schmitz, H., & Seidel-Arpacı, A. (2011). Narratives of trauma: Discourses of German wartime suffering in national and international perspective. Amsterdam: Rodopi.