Numerous beauty contests manifested the "Frduleinwunder." The political orientation of the government in Bonn toward the Western world, namely the United States, not only resulted in a fierce controversy on the issue of rearmament, it also provided the Germans with fashions like the "hula-hoop fever."
But life in the 50s was not limited to happy consumption. For many Germans, the debris of the war as well as the miseries of refugees and repatriated POWs remained a daily reality for a long time. Additionally, the situation in East Germany and the rising east-west conflict kept the German question open. The dissatisfactory results of the denazification, and the general helpless handling of the recent past put a strain especially on the relationship between intellectuals and the state.
The photographs from the archive of the news agency Schirner, taken over by the German Historical Museum in 1992, present the 50s as a lovable and bizarre world of consumption made of nylon, person and "Trevira." And yet, the pictures also show the fractures and mutual rejections of the two separate postwar Germanys.
Some of the photographs, like the "Stones vs. Tanks"-shots of 17 June 1953, have been an integral part of public memory -- others amaze by their unusual perspectives of the life of the 50s.
The following publications are available at the bookstand in the entrance hall of the museum:
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