Chapter 10: Post-war housing.

The article focuses on the housing developments in Germany after 1945. The German housing structure in 1945 was in nothing less than ruins. Much private ownership had simply vanished in rubble. By 1945 there were six people per dwelling compared with 3.6 in 1936. This represented a loss of maybe 5.5 million dwellings, although the vast population and property upheavals of the early post-war years make the accuracy of any figures questionable. From the extreme post-war situation, the West German social housing system emerged into a new and more broad-based approach. Any landlord, whether private owner or limited dividend company, became a social landlord if they accepted nominated households in exchange for financial help. After the war, Germany put the lion's share of its effort into the production of small rented flats in major urban areas, where displaced households were crowded into chaotic remnants of pre-war housing. Individual property rights were over-ridden by huge social needs.