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From the late 1950s, West Germany had one of the world's strongest economies. The East German economy also showed strong growth, but not as much as in West Germany, due to the bureaucratic system, emigration of working-age East Germans to West Germany, and materiel sent as reparations to the USSR. Unemployment hit a record low of 0.7–0.8% in ...
Borders of post-World War II Germany (1949). West Germany is shown in blue, East Germany is shown in red, The Saar protectorate under French economic control is shown in green. The Ruhr Area, the industrial engine of West Germany, is shown in brown as it was to some extent under the control of the International Authority for the Ruhr.
The country's economic recovery under the newly formed democratic government was, once it was permitted, swift and effective. During the mid-1950s, the unemployment rate in Germany was so low that it led to an influx of Turkish immigrants into the country's labor force .
After World War II ended, the main four Allied powers – Great Britain, The United States, France, and the Soviet Union – jointly occupied Germany, with the Allied occupation officially ending in the 1950s. During this time, Germany was held accountable for the Allied occupation's expenses, amounting to over several billion dollars. [21]
As of December 2023, Germany is the fourth largest economy in the world after the United States, China and Japan and the largest economy in Europe. It is the third largest export nation in the world. [ 137 ]
Economic recovery in the East was much slower than in the West, resulting in the formation of the shortage economies and a gap in wealth between East and West. Finland, which the Soviets forbade from joining the Marshall Plan and was required to give large reparations to the Soviets, saw its economy recover to pre-war levels in 1947.
However, with post-Soviet Russia facing severe economic hardship, President Boris Yeltsin ordered Russian troop deployment in Germany to be reduced to levels significantly below those permitted in the Treaty. The last Russian troops left Germany at the end of August 1994, four months before the treaty deadline.
After World War II, many countries adopted policies of economic liberalization in order to stimulate their economies.. The period directly after the war did not see many, the most notable exception being" West Germany's reforms of 1948, which set the stage for the Wirtschaftswunder in the 1950s and helped inform many of the liberalisations that were to come.