The Effects of World War II on German People Social Life

The Second World War was a devastating incident indeed and it affected many aspects of the

German people life, but this study will investigate the effects of this devastating war on German

peoples’ social life. The main cause of the war was Hitler’s invasion of Poland, which he thought

that it was his right to have because of the treaty of Versailles, which gave Danzig, a part of

Germany to Poland, and of course restricted a lot of Germany's rights such as making an army

and a lot of other rights. In his book MEIN KAMPF, my struggle in English, he clearly states his

mission, which is to conquer France, destroy the peace treaty of Versailles and conquer what

he calls Lebensraum or living area. He states that German people are much more in numbers

than the French are so he intends to gain that area for the German citizens (Adolf Hitler).

During that war, Germany improved a lot whether it was industrial or economical. An example

of the industrial improvements is the Panzer IV tank. or the first jet in the world which was

made by German factories in the closing days of World War 2 ( according to Alfred price). or

even the first missile ever used that was made and developed by the great German engineer

Robert Lusser and were later used vastly on the allied forces (according to Hickman). World

war 2 indeed was devastating because of the use of new and modern weapons and a lot of

people died," It is hard to say with exact certainty how many people were killed during World

War II, but estimates vary between 50 million to over 80 million"(history on the net). This was
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by far the most violent war that ever happened not only because of the number of deaths but

also because of the weapons that were used and the circumstances that the soldiers had to

face starting by the diseases from the trenches and ending with the harsh winter in Russia. In

her famous book. A Woman in Berlin, Marta Hillers describes the harsh conditions in Germany

during and after the harsh last days of the war, she describes how that they were always

running away from the soldiers and that she was always afraid of the American bombers.

Indeed World War 2 had a lot effects on our modern world and many countries were reformed

and many countries were destroyed but they rose again from their devastation. This study will

investigate the social effects of World War 2 on German people social life.

Germany’s conditions after World War 2

In the ending days of World War 2, the German defenses were in its weakest levels and the

allied powers airplanes were stronger and were mostly able to reach the German lands and

bomb them easily producing devastating effects and killing thousands of civilians. While

Germany's loss was obvious to everyone, but Hitler, the brave soldier that he was, refused to

surrender by any means. “By all surviving accounts, Hitler was a brave soldier: he was promoted

to the rank of Corporal, was wounded twice, in 1916 and 1918, and was awarded several

medals”(USHMM). Essential goods were expensive and even if you had enough money to buy
those goods you were always only allowed to buy a certain number of goods and each family

unit wasn’t allowed to buy more than that amount. Germany was divided into 2 parts after the

war, East Germany, and West Germany. East Germany was given to the Soviet Union, Russia

nowadays, It was greatly affected by communism and the Russians made much more laws than

the Nazis making the life of the eastern people harsh. Because of that, the Easterns wanted to

move to the western part. The western part was given to Britain and France. Unlike eastern

Germany, the western part was having more rights and a much easier life and the United States

initiated the marshal plan. The marshal plan was a plan that was made to help Western Europe

rise from the war that tore it apart. “The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery

Program, channeled over $13 billion to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948

and 1951” (history on the net). The plan was named after Secretary of State George C.

Marshall. “The plan is named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who announced it in a

commencement speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947”(history on the net). Fortunately,

the marshal plan succeeded and economic losses were recovered. “The Marshall Plan

successfully sparked economic recovery, meeting its objective of ‘restoring the confidence of

the European people in the economic future of their own countries and of Europe as a

whole”(history on the net).

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Effects of World War 2 on German people social life

Women’s Role

After the war ended many things changed in the German people social life, starting with

women roles. World War 2 brought about a changing attitude towards women in Germany,

women were now much more respected and valued because of their great contribution to the

war. Women made great efforts in the war they started making the stahlhelm, or the steel hats

in English, many of the soldiers wore these helmets. “Members of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-

SS, and auxiliary formations of the Third Reich wore the famous Stahlhelm or 'Steel

Helmet”(Axis history) .these hats proved to be the best during the war. “The German Stahlhelm

proved to be probably one of the best protective headgear of the Second World War”(Axis

history). Women also replaced most of the jobs that were male dominated because most of

the healthy or young men already died during the war and men that were no more able to

work. A lot of people think that women in Germany didn’t participate in war. “popular myth

that German women were not recruited to war work as they were in other warring powers an

assertion that rests largely on a statistical illusion”( Richard Overy). The fact is that women

played the same role as all the women in the whole world they used to work as nurses, factory

workers and all the desk offices that were used to be occupied by men “women in Germany

played a major part in keeping the war effort going “(Richard Overy).
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Changes in family structures

Also, the war changed the structure of family units in Germany. Mothers and fathers were

separated from their children because of the harsh conditions after the war women had to start

working even if the father was present, both parents were usually at work or tired from work

which meant that they used to spent much less time with their children resulting in family

disturbance. “this atomization of population into ever smaller ‘communities of fate’ continued

beyond the end of the war, as did the progressive redefinition of the family, with neither wives

nor adolescent children prepared to subordinate themselves to the returning father”(Michael

Burleigh). Due to the absence of the father a lot of things are affected, one of these things is

education. “lack of education, of supervision and of authority often result from the absence 0f

fathers, either captive or laboring in Germany; the mother who takes over as head of the family

has no time and often must work outside home”(Othman Puteh).

Psychological effects

Also, another effect of the war was the psychological effects, a great number of

German men suffered traumatic experiences during the second world war, and those

men who couldn’t accumulate with these experiences turned crazy. A lot of the German

kids during that era recall that their parents always refused to talk about their

experience. The war did leave a lot of physical damage to people indeed, but the

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physical damage was not the only damage that happened because of the Second

World War. ”People survived World War 2 were 3 percent more likely to have diabetes

as adults and nearly six percent more likely to suffer depression”(the Telegraph).

“Experiencing the war was associated with a greater chance of suffering from diabetes,

depression and heart disease as older adults”(science2.0). it wasn’t only men who

were affected by mental damages even women suffered from mental damage. “There

was a period in the beginning when my wife could not function at all, she could not

cook, she could not play with the boy, she could not eat and hardly slept. This extreme

condition lasted for about three weeks; she then became pathologically indifferent, she

did everything like an automaton”(Sereny).

Demoralizing effects

Also, there were a lot of Demoralizing effects after the second world war. One of these

effects was that a lot of German families were afraid of the allied power so once they

realized that it was the end of the Nazi empire they started killing their children. One of

those people was Magda Goebbels, the wife of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph

Goebbels when she started to realize that the war was over and that they have lost she

killed her children and committed suicide afterward. “The children were knocked out

with morphine by an SS doctor and then had cyanide capsules crushed between their

teeth, Afterwards, Goebbels shot his wife and then himself."(the telegraph). The

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Goebbels family was just one example of the many families that killed themselves.

“Disillusioned and scared, hundreds of Germans took their own lives on May 8,

1945”(Deutsche Welle ). German people attitude towards war also changed a lot in the

First World War German men were all angry and upset and wanted their vengeance,

but not this time nobody hoped for anything like that all they hoped for was a peaceful

life

Conclusion

War indeed changed a lot of things in the German life starting from their family

structures ending with the women role changes. German people took a really harsh

lesson but the German people learned their lesson and this time they learned to forgive

other than hold in their anger such as they did in the first world war. Wars only destroy

people social life and as this study investigated almost all the social effects were bad

and caused a lot of changes in the German modern shape. “All wars are civil wars

because all men are brothers”(Francois Fenelon)

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