ABSTRACT
The economic growth of West Germany between 1945 and the early 1970s was outstanding. It was the period of the so-called economic miracle, because the public, after a rather gloomy outlook in the second half of the forties, was much surprised by the quick rise in welfare and living standards. The index of real weekly wages in industry (1962 = 100), for example, rose from 40 to 54 between 1925 and 1939, an increase of 2.2 per cent per annum. From 1950 onwards, however, real wages grew by more than 5 per cent on annual average from an index level of 53 to 145 in 1970. 1
