1939–1953: Food Stamps

During the war and in the post-war period, state administration tried to suspend the mechanisms of the food industry through ration stamps and by organising a “just” distribution of scarcely available staple food items. Introduced when the war started in 1939, and phased out between 1949 and 1953, ration stamps shaped daily life for more than a decade and, as a consequence, also people’s memories of the war and post-war years. For peasant producers, food rationing meant restriction: as of 1939 they had to hand over all of their surplus, and even following a relaxation of the delivery requirement in 1947, were still required to hand over a portion of their surplus at officially fixed prices. Consumers also saw cuts: in stores they only received the types and quantities of food assigned on the stamps at officially fixed prices. Food rationing divided society into different classes: members of peasant households who could cover their food needs on their own were regarded as “self-sufficient persons”; therefore, they did not receive any stamps. Those with “non self-sufficient person” cards fell into the category of “normal consumers” and in groups with increased caloric requirements: children, occupational groups with high exertion, expectant and nursing mothers and the sick. During National Socialism, citizens who were regarded as “Jews” and foreign forced labourers received reduced rations. The initially sufficient rations were considerably lowered in 1942 and sank even before the end of the war in 1945 to under 1000 calories per person per day; only in 1948 did rations increase  once again to a sufficient level. Parallel to official rations, an unofficial “black market” was created, where food was traded at higher prices. In everyday life during the war and in the post-war period, it was mostly the women who, in the absence of men, organised the nourishment of the family.