Sven Reichardt and Malte Zierenberg:

Then, After the War: A History of Germany, 1945–1949

Summary: Black markets, occupation zones, women clearing rubble: looking back at the first years immediately after the end of the Second World War reveals chaos and suffering, but also a moment when Germany’s present and future seemed unusually open. In Then, After the War, Sven Reichardt and Malte Zierenberg portray the first postwar years that laid the foundations of both the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. Numerous contemporary witnesses speak, creating a vivid and precise picture of this extraordinary period directly after the war.

A Berliner returning home from a performance at the Deutsches Theater in the summer of 1946 might have become hopelessly lost in the ruins of his native city had he not been able to orient himself by the remains of the Reichstag. Streets and buildings were scarcely recognizable. The landscape of rubble became one of the defining features of this difficult period immediately after the war. Reichardt and Zierenberg offer an impressive and lively view of everyday postwar life by giving voice to numerous eyewitnesses. How did the first encounters between the German population and soldiers of the Allied armies unfold? What did daily life look like? And how did people deal with the “shadows of the past,” with German guilt? People were torn between coming to terms with the past, simply carrying on from day to day, fear, and perhaps hope for an uncertain future.

Press: “Reichardt and Zierenberg’s history offers an excellent, informative and profound insight into German society in the first postwar years — a combination of professional history and individual stories that can only be recommended.” (Literaturkritik.de, No. 3 / 10 March)

“One of the book’s strengths is the large number of eyewitness accounts gathered in connection with the television project. The book accompanies the ARD series and makes the presentation come alive. Using oral-history methods, it creates sources for the history of everyday life.” (Damals)

“It is important from time to time not to forget this period. Reichardt and Zierenberg do so unobtrusively, vividly and with welcome clarity, which alone makes their book worth reading.” (Die Welt)

About the authors: Malte Zierenberg, born in 1975, worked at the German Historical Institute in London and, after completing his doctorate in Cologne, became a research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam.

Sven Reichardt, born in 1967, has taught modern German history at the University of Konstanz. He is a co-editor of Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus.

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