FAMILY LIFE
[This is nearly-final version of this web page. A small amount of information is missing. This is highlighted in italics.]
Families
It was always intended that, as soon as conditions permitted, British wives and families would join their husbands in Germany. German houses were therefore rapidly requisitioned to accommodate them. It was hoped that accompanied postings would attract more family men to apply for CCG jobs, who were deemed to be more suitable for the job of rebuilding Germany, and who would cause fewer disciplinary headaches than young, single males; unattached females do not seem to have been considered as much of a problem.[1] But there were immense practical challenges to be overcome: family accommodation, schools, transport, medical facilities and social amenities would be needed on a huge scale, and at considerable financial and administrative cost. The arrangements were brought together in a scheme titled ‘Operation Union’, preparations for which began in early 1946.[2] Some Ministers were opposed to sending children to Germany, but the proposals were strongly supported by the Service Chiefs and the Minister responsible for the Control Commission, and Operation Union was approved by Cabinet six weeks later, on 20 June 1946.[3]
The first wives and children started arriving in August 1946 and, by December, 1,553 families had been brought over. Men were required to serve for a full year to qualify for family accompaniment, but there were many more applications than could be accepted, partly because of the severe shortage of suitable housing and furniture, but also, it seems, because of counter-claims by single personnel, who felt that their needs were being neglected in favour of their married colleagues.[4] The still incomplete Table 1 below shows how the number of families grew until, by 1949, 12,000 families with more than 12,000 children were living in the British Zone.[5]
CCG was anxious to prepare families for conditions under a military government which, they cautioned, would be very different from daily life in the UK. The July 1946 'A Pamphlet for the Guidance of BAOR Families' explained to departing families the conditions they would face.[6] In 1949, by which time conditions had significantly improved, the revised Guide still warned that: “we cannot transport your hometown facilities to your own military station out here”. Guidance was periodically supplemented by further information and instruction in the monthly CCG Routine Orders. Aimed at wives, and written in Q&A format, the Guide attempts to answer their most frequent questions, covering housing and furniture, food, shopping, servants, leave and travel, cars and road transport, medical, money matters, and return to the UK.
Housing
Between 1945-1949, most married quarters were in requisitioned German houses, as well as some flats. The housing stock in cities and large towns in the British Zone had been substantially reduced by bombing and, although the smaller towns had been less badly affected, they were nevertheless overcrowded with homeless German relatives or friends from the cities, as well as refugees from the east. This created immense pressure on the remaining available housing. As a concession, owners of larger properties requisitioned for senior British officials and military officers, could, with the agreement of the British occupant, move into a cellar or attic in their own home; otherwise, they were evicted. The Requisitioning Chapter [to come], describes the resentment this caused, and the resulting friction between the British and the Germans. The problem was only gradually resolved once purpose-built housing came on stream in the 1950s and requisitioned properties were returned to their German owners.
Accommodation was categorised according to the number of rooms and allocated according to the rank or notional military rank of the occupant. There were eleven categories, ranging from ‘Special’ and Type I for the most senior officials, down to Type VII for other ranks and their civilian equivalents, as shown in Table [x]. In theory, occupants could refuse to accept the quarter allotted to them if they were not satisfied with it, but refusal without a justifiable reason risked cancellation of all Operation UNION facilities, so was perhaps not often invoked. Families could, however, ask to change their quarter for a more suitable one with the approval of the Commanding Officer.
In the first years of the occupation accommodation was provided free of charge, CCG personnel were promised that this would continue until 30 June 1948.[7] From [when?] families started to pay rent, as well as charges for fuel, water, electricity and gas. [In May 1947 FO ‘provisionally’ agreed that rents for married quarters would be paid according to the class of the quarter, not the grade of the occupant.[8] The rent covered furniture and furnishing, with an additional 2/6 per month for fuel, water, electricity, gas, the part-time services of a boilerman/gardener, and SSAFA services, as shown in Annex A.[9]] [to be checked].
Furnishings
‘Quarters’ were provided complete with furniture, curtains, floor coverings, tableware, linen, and kitchen and household equipment, specified in accordance with BAOR Barrack Accommodation schedules for military quarters in UK Army bases: the same or similar items would have been seen in UK military housing around the world. There was no choice about what was provided. Although families could bring their own furniture at their own risk and expense, few did; Bill Yeadell and his wife possessed no furniture when they eventually returned to the UK after 30 years in Germany.
Items left behind by the evicted German owners were designated as ‘chattels’ and counted against the occupier’s CCG furniture entitlement. Owners were instructed to remove valuable possessions or place them securely in a locked room within the house, and to deposit the keys with the occupation authorities. Otherwise, as the Lübbecke chapter describes, owners were permitted to take with them only a a few personal possessions: food, personal clothing, toiletries and towels, jewellery, and bedding. In addition, they could take a knife, fork, large and small spoon, large and small plate, and a cup and saucer for each person, plus cooking utensils, except for one kettle and a large cooking pot, which were to be left for the British occupants.[10] Exceptions were sometimes made, and the list was later expanded to include beds, mattresses, crockery, glassware, and radios. All other items had to remain in situ, usually large, heavy items of furniture too difficult to move, or left because evicted owners were moving in with friends or relatives. British occupants could use any items that had been left including, in some cases, pianos, but were responsible for looking after them, and having pianos periodically tuned.
In the first few months of the occupation, no proper record was made of the contents of requisitioned properties, which caused problems when the houses were eventually derequisitioned.[11] Moreover the British did not know how many keys remained in the owners’ possession so, not surprisingly, many owners whose properties had been requisitioned – or who feared that they might be – were sometimes able to remove items cover of darkness, or to replace them with items of lesser quality.[12] The Lübbecke chapter describes how this sometimes led to street confrontations, with British troops being deployed to restore order.
A detailed, 260-item furnishing inventory, described by the Military Governor in March 1947 as ‘modest’, and reproduced at Annex B, offers something of a contrast to the few possessions permitted to evicted German owners.[13] It also provides an insight into the domestic life of the occupiers.[14] Chamber pots, wash-stands in the bedrooms and ‘sitz’ baths bespeak the limited bathroom facilities of the era, even in substantial houses. And there was not much in the way of labour-saving equipment: refrigerators, electric irons and vacuum cleaners were supplied only to officers and, even then, not to all; others had to manage with meat safes, carpet sweepers and hob-heated irons.[15] More substantial German properties had central heating radiators, and the Guide advised that chimney sweeps were rarely required, but open coal fires were still a common feature in many UK houses, so it is not surprising to see ashbins, flue brushes, fireguards and coal boxes on the itinerary.
The type and quantity of furniture and furnishings depended on the rank of the occupant. Except for babies’ cots and servants’ bedrooms, which were furnished similarly for all ranks, the difference between officers’ and other ranks’ homes could be seen at a glance. An Officer’s quarter would contain items such as table lamps, settees, mirrors, clocks, feather pillows, bookcases, writing tables, card tables and tea trolleys, that were not available to other ranks; moreover, Majors and above were entitled to additional furniture for a study and a dressing room. Officers were supplied with champagne, claret and liqueur glasses, while other ranks had to be content with beer glasses. But all ranks were provided with the same quantity of port glasses, fish knives and forks, and fruit knives and forks – were these regarded as essential items on every dining table of the period? And everyone had a meat chopper and mincer to tackle the meat ration, and a toasting fork too, since toasters were not yet everyday items.
The huge demand for furniture and soft furnishings provided welcome opportunities for local German suppliers, whose businesses had dried up during the War. Furnishing tastes were different, but German suppliers were happy to switch from their usual styles to make chintz curtains and loose covers if that was what their British customers demanded. Visits to requisitioned homes to measure and fit carpets and curtains were often the first time that individuals of the two nationalities encountered each other face to face. Waldemar Biermann, a saddler and upholsterer, was contracted to supply soft furnishings to 145 houses in Lübbecke. His teenage apprentice son, now over 90 years old, remembers being offered tea and biscuits by the reserved but polite British wives. He also recalls thinking it was bizarre – ‘etwas skurril’ – that they wore their hair in curlers round the house.[16]
Domestic Servants
British wives in Germany did not undertake their domestic chores unaided. In the immediate post-war years labour was plentiful; with record unemployment, many Germans were more than willing to work for the British, especially if there was the possibility of additional food and access to prized items like coffee and cigarettes. The situation gradually changed when jobs became more plentiful as the German economy began to recover but, during CCG’s lifetime, almost all the British employed servants. The CCG system for organising domestic labour was based, as usual, on entitlement by rank, as shown in Table 2 below. Servants were supplied through CCG Unit Civil Labour Units, working with local the Arbeitsampt (employment office).
Jobs were categorised, as shown in Table 3 below, and paid accordingly. Families could also choose to employ additional servants. Officers’ allowances were reduced by 1/6 per day to pay for one (or the first) servant to which they were entitled, and all servants had to be paid for according to the type of job. Warrant Officers and other ranks had to pay for all servants.
This table shows the rates of pay in 1949. 1946 rates, and a comparison with German pay rates, are to be added.
“Domestics”, as the Guide calls them, could be asked to work up to 10 hours per day with one day off a week. As monthly-paid workers they were not eligible for overtime, but were to be given time off in lieu of additional hours worked. They could live in or out at the employer’s discretion. If they lived in, German law prescribed that their wages would be reduced by 15DMs a month, although this did not reduce the amount paid by the British employers [to be checked against 1946 Guide]. Although many employers provided their servants with food, they were advised that there was no obligation to do so, because servants could bring their German rations with them. Holidays and sickness arrangements were governed by German employment regulations.
For many British families and their German servants, this was the first close encounter with individual members of the other’s country.[17] Many successful relationships were formed and sometimes long-lasting friendships. One such was the bond between the wife of a senior British officer serving in Lübbecke, and Lieselotte, nanny to their daughter Jocelyn, and her younger brother. Lieselotte was a ‘DP’ (displaced person) from Stettin, one of the thousands who had fled from the Russians into the British Zone at the end of the War. She remained with the family for 8 years and returned with them when they were posted back to England. Without a family of her own, she was dearly loved by the children, and formed an almost sisterly bond with their mother. Lieselotte settled in England after the children grew up, never returning to Germany or Stettin. There are many similar stories.
But sometimes things did not go so well. Apart from the language barrier, and differing culinary and housekeeping norms, many British wives had no previous experience of employing domestic servants. Moreover, most Germans who took jobs as servants did so because there were no other jobs, and they were not necessarily skilled in housework, or childcare. Many were girls in their teens looking forward to a little enjoyment after the long war years, who probably chafed against restrictions imposed by some of their British employers. When problems occurred, as they not infrequently did, wives were advised that their husbands should take the matter up with the Unit Civil Labour officer who, it was promised, would intervene if required. This could result in the servant losing their job. They could be dismissed for “forging personal documents, leaving work, obstinately refusing to fulfil a duty, using force against or insulting a superior, or for theft, pilferage, fraudulent conversion or fraud”.[18]
The realities of daily life for British wives and their live-in German helpers was sometimes challenging for both, as was the case with Girda and Wilma, who worked for Bill Yeadell’s family. Bill had a sickly and temperamental young wife and three children under the age of 5, who he describes as ‘quite out of hand’. In June 1948, within six months of the family’s arrival, when Bill’s wife was pregnant again, Girda announced that she wanted a better job, and two months later went absent without permission. Threatened with the sack, she returned, but then went sick following a polio scare which, thankfully, turned out to be false. Girda was eventually discharged in September and replaced by Hanni. Meanwhile Wilma had started staying out late, and in March 1949 both she and Hanni stayed out all night. Both were told to leave.[19] Despite the doubts these incidents must surely have raised about the girls’ reliability and suitability, Bill and his wife frequently left them to mind the children when they went out for the evening, and even left their 18 month old son in their care for a week while they went to Sylt on holiday with their two daughters.
Food
With food supplies scarce in both UK and Germany, CCG families initially relied on Army rations, which provided a fixed range of food on scales determined by age and gender:
Scale 1 Husbands and boys over 14
Scale 2 Wives and children over 12
Scale 3 Children 5-11
Scale 4 Children 1-4
Scale 5 Infants 0-1
[This section will be updated following further research, including into what amounts were provided for each scale, and how Army rations compared with UK weekly rations listed below.[20]]
Bacon & Ham 4 oz (113g)
Other meat 2 chops or equivalent value
Butter 2 oz (57g)
Cheese 2 oz (57g)
Margarine 4 oz (113g)
Cooking fat 4 oz (113g)
Milk 3 pints
Sugar 8 oz (227g)
Preserves 1 lb every 2 months
Tea 2 oz (57g)
Eggs 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg)
Sweets 12 oz every 4 weeks (340g)]
However, it seems that “overdrawals” could not be checked, and rationed goods were disappearing and finding their way on to the black market (see Black Market chapter). So in October 1946, ration books and personal points cards were introduced: the arrangements would not have been unfamiliar to CCG personnel and their families, who were still living with rationing introduced in the UK in the early years of the War.[21]
Coupons and points could be redeemed in CCG shops [detail inc. numbers to be added]. There were also more than 30 NAAFI shops, which were not permitted to sell rationed goods, but offered non-ration food, as well as beer, wines & minerals, pharmacy items, baby food, hardware, soap, cigarettes, confectionery, cakes & pastries, as well as gifts. The larger shops also sold footwear & clothing, and a few offered sportswear.[22] CCG personnel were permitted to buy goods from German shops, except for items which were rationed to the German population, which usually included bread, cereals, meat (excluding fish, game and poultry), fat, cheese, milk and sugar. However, until the 1948 currency reform, German shops had little to sell, and shopkeepers were reluctant to accept worthless Reichsmarks as payment.
Additional transport and distribution costs meant that some NAAFI items were more expensive than in the UK, but alcohol and cigarette prices were duty-free, so significantly cheaper: [23]
CCG price UK price
Cigarettes 9d for 20 2/4 for 20
Beer 6d per litre (1¼ pints) 1/4 per pint
Whisky 8/6 per bottle 25/9 per bottle
Gin 6/6 per bottle 24/9 per bottle
(1 d = 1 old penny. 12 old pennies = 1 shilling. 8/6 = 8 shillings and 6 old pennies.)
Cheap alcohol and cigarettes helped to fuel the black market, with cigarettes becoming a virtual currency in the British Zone. Cheap alcohol was also frequently cited as contributing to CCG’s perceived corrupt and hedonistic lifestyle (see Black Market and Perceptions of CCG chapters).
The bulk of CCG food supplies came from UK, and were controlled by the Ministry of Food, which determined the quantities which could be sent to Germany, depending on the current availability of supplies for the UK population. But most fruit and vegetables were imported from the Netherlands and Denmark, and meat was shipped, deep-frozen, directly from Australia, New Zealand and South America to Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) depots in Germany, where it was cut into joints before being issued to individual families.
Reflecting dietary norms of the era, meat was regarded as one of the most important items in a family’s ration, and CCG went to considerable lengths to ensure it was equitably distributed. As late as 1953, meat was still rationed, and the amount varied by family member, as follows:[24]
Husband + boy age 14 5 ozs (142g) daily 2lbs 3ozs (992g) weekly
Wife + child age 12 4 2/7 ozs (122g) daily 1lb 14 ozs 793g) weekly
Child 5-11 years 3 ozs (85g) daily 1lb 5 ozs (595g) weekly
Child 1-4 years 2 ozs (57g) daily 14 ozs (397g) weekly
Families could not choose the type of meat they wanted: they received both good and poorer cuts in the proportion of three issues of beef to one of mutton; plus offal once a fortnight. Unit butchers recorded the type of joints issued to each family and issued joints in rotation as far as possible. The 1953 version of the Guide for Families devotes two pages, including illustrations, to explain how carcasses of beef and of mutton and pork were cut up, the weight of the resulting joints, and the recommended ways of cooking them.
With periodic outbreaks of diphtheria, polio and other life-threatening diseases (see Health section), health was a constant worry in the early post-war years in Germany, and food safety was a serious concern. Families were warned that “worm diseases” were commoner in Germany than in the UK, but that these could be prevented by thoroughly cooking food, especially pork and pork products such as sausages: fresh pork should be cooked so that it was white all through and no red portions remained, and uncooked smoked ham should not be eaten. Raw vegetables must be washed in running water for five minutes before eating.
German milk and cream production was considered unsafe unless boiled, and families were strongly advised against drinking it. The Americans imported fresh milk from Denmark but, in the British Zone, importation was rejected as too costly and logistically difficult, so British families were supplied with tinned evaporated milk instead, which they were told was safe and just as nutritious as fresh milk. It could be diluted for use in tea and coffee, and for schoolchildren’s compulsory daily 1/3 pint. However, it tasted nothing like fresh milk and many people disliked it intensely; children especially hated being compelled to drink it. Some, however, became inured to the taste, and even came to prefer it to fresh milk. The author’s parents continued to use evaporated milk in their tea even after they returned to England in 1978.
Money
CCG salaries and allowances were paid into individuals’ UK bank accounts, against which they could draw cash in Reichsmarks and, later, Deutsche Marks, from one of the 29 Army Cash Offices located throughout the British zone, [25] But it soon became clear that the virtually worthless currency was fuelling the black market on a major scale. As the authorities put it: "the amounts of certain Allied Currencies and Marks received by Paymasters from Canteens, Post Offices etc and in exchanges from personnel leaving BAOR boundaries in North West Europe have for a long time exceeded the [amounts issued] as pay. It is therefore clear that black market trading in goods and currency is taking place on a large scale at the expense of the British taxpayer.”[26]
So 1 August 1946 saw the introduction of British Armed Forces Special Vouchers (BAFSVs). From that date, only BAFSVs were accepted for payment in all official and military establishments; they were denominated in £1, 10/-, 5/-, 2/6, 1/-, 6d, 3d notes; and 1d. 1/2d tokens, and could be exchanged for Reichsmarks, but not re-exchanged, and were not legal tender outside the British Zone. BAFSVs were issued only to service personnel and civilians; Germans were forbidden from possessing or even handling BAFSVs, except for employees such as mess waiters.[27] But the black market problem did not go away, and a second BAFVs issue was released on 6 January 1948. Further issues followed, and BAFSVs continued in use until the 1970s.
It was the recovery of the German economy, underpinned by the launch of the Deutsche Mark and the abolition of prices and wages controls which, alongside the implementation of the Marshall Plan, eventually put an end to the black market. Currency reform was badly needed to replace the worthless Reichsmark but, unable to reach agreement with the Russians on a new currency, the western Allies went ahead with the launch of the Deutsche Mark in the three western zones on 20 June 1948. The Russians responded on 24 July by introducing the Ostmark in the Soviet Zone. The impact of the Deutsche Mark was immediate: hoarded goods became available overnight; black market prices fell temporarily, and absenteeism dropped. The Economist reported that: German “[h]ousewives strolled down the streets gazing in astonishment at shop windows – at shoes, leather handbags, tools, perambulators, bicycles, cherries in baskets, young carrots tied in neat bundles’.[28]
Alongside the new currency, price and wage controls, relics of the Nazi era, were abolished, and the Economic Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan) prompted modernisation of business practices and removal of bottlenecks which enabled the expansion of German exports. These events transformed west Germany’s economy; by 1955, a pattern of rapid and sustainable growth had been established - what became known as the Wirtschaftswunder (Economic Miracle ).[29] But the road to achieving this was bumpy. Inflation soon followed the launch of the Deutsche Mark, and hoarding and barter reappeared at the end of 1948 as confidence in money fell. Unemployment, already high, increased with the introduction of deflationary measures to restrain domestic demand and encourage firms to seek foreign export markets.[30] When prices shot up, average Germans could not afford to shop, especially since, while prices were uncontrolled, wages were still fixed by law. In the summer of 1948 a wave of strikes and demonstrations swept over West Germany, leading to an incident in Stuttgart in October where strikers were met by US troops and teargas. Once wage controls were abolished, the population came to accept the Deutschmark and the ending of price controls.
Initially CCG personnel could exchange the new currency at DM13.40/£1, reducing to DM11.76/£1 at the end of 1949. With more goods available, CCG personnel began to shop more frequently in German shops, albeit paying higher prices than they had been used to, but otherwise the economic changes did not greatly impact them. Later, as the German economy recovered and employment levels rose, British families found themselves having to pay higher rates for their domestic staff and, together with the shift from large, requisitioned houses to smaller, purpose-built accommodation, live-in maids tended to be replaced by a daily or weekly ‘putzfrau’, paid by the hour.
A further significant change came on 1 December 1951 when, in an effort to reduce costs, CCG personnel were ‘transferred to the German economy’.[31] This required them to obtain themselves and pay in Deutsche Marks for goods and services that had previously been provided or managed for them, including food, domestic servants, private telephones, recreational facilities and holiday accommodation. Furnished accommodation, works services, and a rationed supply of utility services continued to be provided free. From the same date, the Control Commission and existing Foreign Service Allowances were replaced by a new tax-free Foreign Service Allowance, placing service in Germany on the same basis as Foreign Office service worldwide. FSA rates were calculated taking account of the cost of living, but were often perceived as inadequate, and were the subject of frequent grumbles.
Appendix A Accommodation categories and charges
Appendix B Furnishing Inventory
Footnotes
[1] Reference needed
[2] Operation Union: British Families in Germany, 1946, in Imperial War Museum Review No. 10, 1995, pp 74-83; and The Children of Operation Union. Sarah Paterson, 3 September 2019
[3] The Times, 21 June 1946. Cab file ref to be added
[4] CCG Monthly Report 1/7 December 1946
[5] A Guide for Families in BAOR, September 1949 IWM
[6] Pamphlet for the Guidance of BAOR Families 1946. National Archives file WO32/12011
[7] BAOR Orders No. 103, dated 7th September 1945. IWM
[8] CCG Monthly Report 2/5 May 1947. IWM
[9] CCG Routine Order 4/57, [July?] 1947. File FO1005/1877. National Archives
[10] 4.5.45 Letter from Major F S Gedye to Bürgermeister of Lübbecke. Lübbecke Stadtarchiv File D29 Bd1
[11] 12.11.46 Accounting for furniture in requisitioned houses. National Archives File FO1067/34
[12] Dr Bettina Blum
[13] Letter from Military Governor to COGA. National Archives File FO 1030/190
[14] 13.3.47 Appendix A to letter from Military Governor to COGA. National Archives File FO 1030/190
[15] Bill Yeadell’s diary Monday 14 February 1948: “Davenport rang to ask if we would like a refrigerator. After ZONCOS [meeting] Pope, representing (Deputy Chief Administration Officer) came up & spoke! Asked if I knew I was to be given a refrig[erator]. Based on number of children! Wait & see if we get it.”
[16] Memoir of Herbert Biermann, apprentice upholsterer in Lübbecke, interviewed on 9 May 2019
[17] These also included some refugees from the former Nazi-occupied countries of eastern Europe and from the Soviet Zone of Germany who had taken up jobs with CCG
[18] A Guide for Families in BAOR, 7 September 1949. IWM
[19] Diary of Bill Yeadell, 1948
[20] Source: Historic UK website
[21] 19.6.46 CCG Routine Orders RO85/573. National Archives File FO1005/1875
[22] NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes), is a Government-owned not-for-profit cooperative set up in 1920 to provide canteen and shopping facilities for service men and women serving in war zones
[23] 27.2.47 CCG Monthly Report. National Archives File FO 1067/80
[24] Guide for Families in Germany issued by HQ Northern Army Group September 1953, Part 12
[25] 21.5.49 CCG Routine Orders 262/49, Appendix A. National Archives File FO1005/1878
[26] 23.5.46 CCG Routine Orders 407/46. National Archives File FO1005/1875
[27] 13.6.46 CCG Routine Orders 433/46. National Archives File FO1005/1875
[28] The Economist, 3 July 1948, quoted by Wendy Carlin
[29] Wendy Carlin: Economic Reconstruction in Western Germany, in Reconstruction in Post-War Germany, edited by Ian D Turner, Berg Publishers Limited, 1989
[30] Wendy Carlin: Economic Reconstruction in Western Germany, in Reconstruction in Post-War Germany, edited by Ian D Turner, Berg Publishers Limited, 1989
[31] Ref needed
[32] A Guide for Families in BAOR, 7 Sep 49. IWM
