Ruinenschleicher und Schachterleis – München nach 1945

Munich after 1945: The city lay in ruins. More than half of the buildings had been destroyed. Roads, railroad tracks and factories were also destroyed. Especially in the city center, there were piles of rubble several meters high. There was a bitter housing shortage. Families lived, cooked and slept in one or two rooms. There were no bathrooms. Hot water for the weekly bath in the zinc tub came from the "Grandl", the water tank in the coal stove.
Hunger was a daily companion. Food was scarce. The black market flourished. The future was uncertain.

What was it like for children and young people at that time? What shaped their everyday lives? Did they perceive the Americans as occupiers or liberators? With what feelings, hopes and dreams did they experience the burgeoning economic miracle and the young democracy? And how did they deal with the shadows of the past?

36 women and men, most of them real Münchner Kindl, talk about their childhood and youth: about survival, deprivation and beatings, about strict rules at home and the great freedom outside. Of schools without books. Of the "Schiebewurst" and the first chocolate.

But they also talk about the rapid reconstruction of the city, its rise, which they experienced and helped to shape. About the first collective Ramadama and the Alter Peter reconstruction association. Of the longing for security and an intact world after the terrible years of war and the Nazi dictatorship.

The film conveys a portrait of the post-war generation and this important era of the city with a mixture of interview sequences, photos and original film clips from 1945 to 1960. Get to know the children of the 1950s and find out what it was like to grow up with ruin creepers and Schachterleis.

Munich Time Travel Project

A film by Michael von Ferrari, Angelika Wimbauer and Lutz Eigel
Dramaturgy and editing: Ursula Ambach
Camera and sound: Josef Pröll
Narrator: Udo Wachtveitl