ole sarg Loc: south florida

You realize that an E5 with over 4 years only earned $154 per month and if in base housing did not receive a housing allowance. So that $20 per month for a cook was too much for a Sgt to afford.

Domestic help was supplied to boost the german economy. On Okinawa in 1960 had a person assigned to polish my shoes and make the bed, etc for 75 cents a month and that was to boost the economy.

Steve_m Loc: Southern California

They rebuilt with the help from US and from whatever they looted during the war throughout the Europe.

Steve_m Loc: Southern California

Here is a link to one of way too many examples.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2600801/German-recluse-hiding-1billion-Nazi-art-collection-including-work-Picasso-Matisse-Dix-given-pictures-back.html

JustMePB Loc: Currently Indian Trail, NC.

I was a dependent living in Ansbach, Germany 1957-61. Lived in gov't quarters, no maid or gardner, etc. No restrictions on mingling with the Germans... was just asked to dress cleanly and be polite. Lived in Bad Aibling, Germany 1972-76.... everyone in our building contributed funds to pay a German laborer to clean the stairwells, mow the grass, etc.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your info, JustMePB. The period covered by my series of reports ran from 1945 to 1949, during which time Germany was occupied by Allied Military Government. The West German democratic Bundesrepublik (BRD) government was seated on Sept. 20, 1949, replacing the American, British and French Military Governments in their respective Occupation Zones. At the same time, the Russians sponsored the establishment of the communist East German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). Your stays in Germany were much later, when the U.S. Army was a "guest" of the Federal Republic of Germany. All of the "perks" for dependents had vanished by then, together with the black-marketeering and currency manipulations of those early postwar years.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your compliments, Mike. They're much appreciated.

William J Renard

The Germans had it ruff, the Americans easy, The Volks deutche,
had it realy bad. I lived there, deportations, land grabs, and
just plain murder occured every day in the Eastern areas. Titos'
partisans killed germans after the war, the Rommanians sent the Germans to Gulags to starve to death. It was not so great for
those who where caught there.

JustMePB Loc: Currently Indian Trail, NC.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I was not trying to say you were wrong. Just inserting that it did not continue to this day. I was an MP during my last stay and let me assure you that the blackmarketeering was still going on. We were still using ration cards for cigarettes, booze, gas, etc. I may still have one somewhere amongst my belongings, just don't know where at the moment.

Jackel Loc: California

Richard Q - Almost a year before families of American soldiers started arriving in Germany, US military personnel were housed in German family homes and apartments that had been "requisitioned" by the US military.

American troops arrived in my German War Bride's hometown of Weinheim, Germany, (near Heidelberg and Mannheim) in late March of 1945. Her town had escaped any bombing or damage during the war. Too, there were no Geman troops or military facilities in her hometown.

After abandoning their tent compound initially set up in a large park area, the American troops moved to German family homes and large apartment complexes in the town, after the German families were summarily kicked out.

Several months later, I arrived in Weinheim, Germany, as a US soldier, to join the HQ 15th Constabulary Regiment Headquarters (formerly a part of Patton's 3rd Army). I had an army bunk in the small upstairs bedroom of a German family home located on the Wienkoopstrasse (strasse = street) in Weinheim. (see pictures) Several other US military personnel also lived in the home.

All home facilities, including bathrooms, were available to us except kitchen facilities, so we all ate in the military messhall, formerly a large living|dining area in another residential home.

A residential mansion formerly inhabited by one of the town's rich businessmen, Carl Freudenberg, (earlier the beloved Jewish owner, Hirsch, had been kicked out and, wisely, moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin) became our Constabulary Headquarters, and I served there in several clerical capacities until our unit was transferred to nearby Seckenheim where we occupied former German military facilities.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your interest, Rickyb. There were plenty of apprehensive Germans in the early Hitler years, but they quickly learned to keep their mouths shut. If they were not beat up for criticizing "Der Führer", they were tossed into a concentration camp for "re-orientation." The propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, made certain that the photos and films circulated to the outside world reinforced the idea that all Germans were wildly enthusuastic about Hitler. All the elections and referendums were rigged. Of course, the situation in Russia seems to be a repeat of those times, down to the annexation of the Crimea and the hustle on the Ukraine, all of which Putin views as traditionally Russian.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for your comment, Earnest.

drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

I really enjoy reading your posts! Thanks, Barry

Steve_m Loc: Southern California

Well, who started that mess? What would happen those Romanians, Serbs, Czech, Polaks, Russians if you guys have won? You demonstrated how you can do killing in the big way. Don't try to get sympathy!!!! There is none.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Hi, Doddy! Glad you dropped in, sir.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

Thank you for tour comments, SmittyOne. I never got to Berlin, although I enjoy the Berlin sense of humor and entertainment. During the 1960s there was a comedy group on German TV named "Die Berliner Stachelschweine", which translates into "The Berlin Hedgehogs". My family loved them.