The years 1945 to 1955 were a raw, wild decade that found many Germans politically, economically, and morally bankrupt. Victorious Allied forces occupied the four zones that make up present-day Germany. More than half the population was displaced; 10 million newly released forced laborers and several million prisoners of war returned to an uncertain existence. Cities lay in ruins--no mail, no trains, no traffic--with bodies yet to be found beneath the towering rubble.

Aftermath is the first history of Germany's national mentality in the immediate postwar years. Using major global political developments as a backdrop--and including eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters--Harald J�hner weaves a series of life stories into a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. Poised between two eras, this decade is portrayed by J�hner as a period that proved decisive for Germany's future--and one starkly different from how most of us imagine it today. Aftermath helps to answer the question: How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more?