Wolf Time

Surviving in Ruins. Harald Jähner's extensive history of mentalities in the post-war period showcases the Germans in all their diversity: from the "re-educator" Alfred Döblin, who sought to regain the trust of his fellow countrymen, to Beate Uhse, who challenged all notions of morality with her "mail-order business for marital hygiene"; as well as the nameless black market traders with their mythically charged Lucky Strikes in their pockets, and the stylish housewives at the no less symbolic kidney-shaped tables of the emerging fifties. It is a social panorama of a decade that was crucial for the Germans and, in many ways, quite different from what we often believe.