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The years 1945 to 1955 were a raw, wild decade that found many Germans politically, economically, and morally bankrupt. Victorious Allied forces occupied the four zones that make up present-day Germany. More than half the population was displaced; 10 million newly released forced laborers and several million prisoners of war returned to an uncertain existence. Cities lay in ruins--no mail, no trains, no traffic--with bodies yet to be found beneath the towering rubble. Aftermath is the first history of Germany's national mentality in the immediate postwar years. Using major global political developments as a backdrop--and including eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters--Harald Jhner weaves a series of life stories into a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change.