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| 1950s |
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| During the 1950s, West Germany experienced spectacular economic growth. Real output climbed by about 8 percent per annum (a rate higher than anywhere else in Europe during the decade), inflation remained low, and by 1960 the unemployment rate had fallen to less than 1 percent. | 1 |
| German writers in the 1950s focused on events in the period between 1933 and 1945. A new generation of more aggressively critical writers experienced increasing popularity. The most noted works in this movement included Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum and Rolf Hochhuth's play The Representative. | 2 |
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| 1950, Jan. 16 |
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| The last rationing restrictions ended in West Germany. | 3 |
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| May 9 |
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| The Schuman Plan was welcomed by the Bonn government (See May 9). | 4 |
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| May |
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| The Socialist opposition, under Kurt Schumacher, strongly criticized the growing collaboration of the Bonn government with the West on issues of military security. Schumacher's opposition to remilitarization found strong popular support, as was shown in the Landtag elections in the American zone (Nov. 19–26) that resulted in noticeable Socialist gains. | 5 |
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