Word: germanism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Once Germany is reunited and peace treaties are signed, Berlin becomes the German capital, and the need for keeping allied troops in West Berlin is ended. Western powers would then offer the East treaties safeguarding against any new menace of German imperialism...
...warmth of spring, the Mercedes, BMWs and Opels streaming along the Autobahnen have to dodge ever more midget cars of workers, piled high with blanket rolls and suitcases, headed for weekend campsites along the Rhine. The West German Hausfrau roams through gleaming supermarkets to choose such exotic imports as avocado pears and Chinese litchi nuts, along with the regular order of Wurst. Her leather-jacketed, blue-jeaned offspring, the Americanized German youth, seeks his fun in ice cream shops or "Jazz Bar'' record stores, or atop his own noisy motorbike...
Fourteen years after the war, his nation restored to world councils, his society surprisingly stable and democratic, the German no longer lives just to work; he works to live-and to forget the grim existence before 1948, the year West Germany's struggling economy was remodeled and started on the road to today's success. After this Economic Year One, Germans spent their money in distinct waves. First came the food wave. A year or two later. Germans went on a clothing spree. As the hunger for these basic things was satisfied, demand focused on household goods, then...
...kept low to compete in international markets. Now workers and salaried white collar people are sharing in the benefits of the economic "miracle." Since 1948, wages have more than doubled, but they still average only $27 per week. The traditional 48-hr, work week is gone: Germans work 45 hours, are heading toward 40. To supplement family incomes, wives often work (one-third of Germany's labor force are women), as do children past 16. If salaries sound low, there are also the vital "fringe benefits" provided by the federal government. Steered by the "social free market" philosophy...
Among other items of prosperity: ¶One-third of all German families now own their own homes...