Germany

Post-World War II Work and Economy

The German economy recovered rapidly after World War II, with a steady growth in GDP. From the 1950s until the early 1970s, the unemployment rate was very low. The dominant cultural role model of this period was the employed white urban male, with his wife doing the housework and taking care of the children. This period was characterized by a low unemployment rate, a stable currency, steady economic progress, and a positive trade balance, and has been termed the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle). Because this came with rising wages, expansion of social security by the social state, upward educational mobility, and a general increase in purchasing power, some research suggested that the formerly distinct classes had merged to become one broad middle class. Others criticized that, even in times of progress, class is still a dominant factor for social inequality. Even if conditions for the lower classes (and for the other classes) improved, class could be identified in Germany in terms of different levels of income or amount of property.

However, during this period, social and labor conflicts were seen more as an issue of redistribution and less as a subject of clashing differences in political and economic interests, as was the case in the prewar Weimar Republic. In the Weimar Republic, the Rhineland model was developed. The characteristics of the Rhineland model are still important for current economic and political regulations in Germany. This is true for the political participation of workers on national, company, and workplace levels. After the end of Nazi terror, workers’ participation in political processes grew. Work relations and conflicts became more institutionalized by companies and workplace co-determination laws, as well as by the development of huge sector-specific trade unions, organized in the German Trade Union Federation and by legal regulations in economic and social policy at the national level. The social security systems are based on the principles of insurance subscriptions, and they are self-governed. The welfare institutions are based on contributions by workers and employers.

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