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3 - Germany’s Postwar Housing and Export Miracles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2025

Alexander Reisenbichler
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Chapter 3 explores the origins of German housing programs in the post-WWII period, arguing that these programs reinforced the country's export-oriented economy and contributed to its economic miracle. Facing severe housing shortages after WWII, German policymakers adopted extensive housing programs, including tax subsidies and social housing programs for both rental housing and homeownership, savings subsidies, and rent controls. These programs aimed to establish low-cost housing for workers and the middle class, which improved industrial productivity by alleviating labor shortages in industrial centers and limiting wage demands and inflation detrimental to export-oriented growth. Unlike American housing programs focused on boosting domestic demand, German supply-side initiatives were designed to overcome the immediate post-WWII housing crisis and support the country's manufacturing sector. These efforts thus made housing programs a pivotal element in Germany's coordinated, export-oriented postwar economy.

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Chapter
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Through the Roof
Housing, Capitalism, and the State in America and Germany
, pp. 68 - 108
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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