Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject History of Germany - Postwar Period, Cold War, grade: 1, 7, University of Applied Sciences Zwickau (Fakultät Sprachen), language: English, abstract: There are very few times in history when a country got itself to a place of economic wealth like post-war Germany. From being a threshold country in the 19th century to becoming the most important nation economically in Western Europe, Germany has a history that is not only very interesting but also not all as fancy and sparkling as it seems. This paper will give you a short timeline of the key events that happened in the German economic history between 1945 and 1973 that lead to the success of the nation. You will see that most of the miracle was made possible only with the help of the United States and that the economic growth was not exclusive to Germany. In the end, you will find multiple approaches that all do their bit to explain why Germany and other countries in Western Europe were able to get this massive economic boom.