Editing History of Germany (section)

====Economic miracle====
[[File:1000000th Beetle.jpg|thumb|The [[Volkswagen Beetle]] was an icon of West German reconstruction.]]
West Germany enjoyed prolonged economic growth beginning in the early 1950s (''[[Wirtschaftswunder]]'' or "Economic Miracle").<ref name="weber">{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Jurgen |title=Germany, 1945–1990 |publisher=Central European University Press |date=2004 |pages=37–60, 103–118, 167–188, 221–264}}</ref> Industrial production doubled from 1950 to 1957, and gross national product grew at a rate of 9 or 10% per year, providing the engine for economic growth of all of Western Europe. Labor unions supported the new policies with postponed wage increases, minimized strikes, support for technological modernization, and a policy of [[co-determination]] (''Mitbestimmung''), which involved a satisfactory grievance resolution system as well as requiring representation of workers on the boards of large corporations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fürstenberg |first=Friedrich |date=May 1977 |title=West German Experience with Industrial Democracy |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=431 |pages=44–53 |doi=10.1177/000271627743100106 |jstor=1042033 |s2cid=154284862}}</ref> The recovery was accelerated by the [[Deutsche Mark#Currency reform of June 1948|currency reform of June 1948]], U.S. gifts of $1.4 billion as part of the [[Marshall Plan]], the breaking down of old trade barriers and traditional practices, and the opening of the global market.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1968 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2004 |editor-last=Junker |editor-first=Detlef |volume=1 |pages=291–309}}</ref> West Germany gained legitimacy and respect, as it shed the horrible reputation Germany had gained under the Nazis.

West Germany played a central role in the creation of European cooperation; it joined [[NATO]] in 1955 and was a founding member of the [[European Economic Community]] in 1958.