The "white death" in the famine winter of 1946/47

The Second World War is over, Germany is occupied, the cities have been bombed. Then, in 1946, the coldest winter of the century set in. Several hundred thousand people die in Germany alone.

Around 55 million dead:That is the horrifying balance of twelve years of National Socialist dictatorship and the war of aggression that Germany started, the Second World War. The Soviet Union alone paid for its part in the victory over Nazi Germany with the deaths of 27 million people.

At the end of 1946, the first full year of peace, there was no recovery in sight in many war-ravaged European countries. Reconstruction is proceeding extremely slowly. A hot, dry summer has meant that crop yields in many places have fallen short of even modest expectations.

Coldest winter of the 20th century

An unexpected development makes the situation even worse:between November 1946 and March 1947, people have to endure the coldest winter of the 20th century. Temperatures drop below zero as early as November. A second wave of frost begins at the beginning of December and new minus records are also measured in January. The cold is not only fiercer than usual, it also lasts an agonizingly long time.

The people at that time called their misery "white death" and "black hunger". Not only Germany is affected, the situation of the population throughout Europe is dramatic. The Soviet Union was hit hardest. According to estimates by historians, the years of famine between 1946 and 1948 cost another two million lives here.

Hunger winter with hundreds of thousands dead in Germany

In Germany, it is primarily the inhabitants of the bombed cities who are fighting hunger. The number of those who die as a result of frost and starvation during the cold period can only be roughly estimated. According to projections by historians, there are several hundred thousand dead.

City dwellers suffer particularly

In large cities like Berlin, Hamburg or Cologne, the cold hits an already emaciated and weakened population. In Cologne, for example, people can count themselves lucky in the course of 1946 if their daily rations add up to more than 1,000 calories. 800 calories and under are by no means rare. The allotment periods of the food stamps become the all-determining measure of time. Everyday life is shaped by the effort to get hold of the bare essentials. That means:queuing for hours, long hamster trips, swapping, but also occasional theft.

Millions of refugees are looking for shelter and food

The causes of the extreme shortage are complex. The high human losses of the war mean that there is a lack of workers in agriculture, but also elsewhere. At the same time, millions of refugees and displaced persons are looking for a new home. They often come with absolutely no belongings and have to integrate into communities in which everyone is first of all their own neighbours.

In addition, the infrastructure is not yet working again. Around 40 percent of the transport links have been destroyed. This hinders the distribution of the little. In many places, machines and systems that are still intact are being dismantled - not only in the Soviet-occupied zone, but also, for example, in the coal mines of the Ruhr area.

Zones, states and new borders

Germany is divided into four zones under American, Soviet, British and French sovereignty and is divided into newly founded federal states between 1945 and 1947. Germans are responsible here, supervised by the responsible occupying power. But the administration is not well-coordinated and can only provide the necessary balance between better and worse supplied areas to a very limited extent.

The new borders have cut off traditional supply routes. The heavily industrialized Germany between the Rhine and the Oder had covered around 30 percent of its potato and grain requirements through imports from the former eastern regions. This source is now no longer available. But the division into zones also complicates the food supply - and not only between East and West, but also particularly at the border between the French and British zones. This in turn increases the distress of industrial areas and cities.

Icy cold causes infrastructure to collapse

In the winter of hunger, the cold and a lack of fuel and combustibles further restrict rail traffic. Important waterways also freeze over. In many factories, industrial production comes to a complete standstill. It is not uncommon for frost-sensitive foods, such as potatoes, to spoil.

In view of rampant homelessness in the cities - in Germany around 20 percent of the living space was destroyed by the end of the war - many people are happy to be accommodated in damaged living space. But poor insulation and often improvised heating systems mean that the long-lasting low temperatures endanger the health of the residents.

The church justifies mouth robbery

At the turn of the year 1946/47, the Archbishop of Cologne, Joseph Cardinal Frings, gave a New Year's sermon in which he justified the theft of food for personal use:"We live in times when, in times of need, the individual is allowed to take what he needs to preserve his life and his family needs health if he cannot obtain it in any other way through his work or through requests," it says. Organizing food and coal is now called "fringsen".

In April 1947 the long-awaited spring comes and with it the end of the great cold. However, the hunger in the cities is far from over. It was not until the summer of 1948 that the supply throughout Germany stabilized again. The currency reform, first in the western zones and then also in Soviet-occupied East Germany, marks the end of the famine period.