ABSTRACT
It is no exaggeration to say that replenishing the labour force of the Ruhr collieries after 1945 was the single most important prerequisite of West German economic recovery. The recruitment and productive deployment of new labour was the key to reviving coal production after the war and amongst contemporaries there was no doubt that the revival of coal production was in turn the sine qua non of West German economic recovery. From the start there was clear recognition on the part of the British agency which ran the mines, the North German Coal Control (NGCC), that well over 100,000 men would have to be found to bring production up to pre-war levels. Important preparatory work, carried out during this period, made a swift expansion of output possible. Moreover once the self-imposed obstacles to a successful manpower policy in the mines had been removed, the British, in cooperation with the United States, made an important contribution to German industrial recovery.
