Once WWII had ceased, Germany was occupied by all four of the Allies, the Soviet Union, US, UK, and France. Under their direction, Germany would be transformed into pasture lands. However, this did not work out as intended because the conditions in Germany more than two years after the end of the war remained the same. The Soviets still inflated the official currency into worthlessness, food continued to be evasive, and cigarettes were, as before, the best, and sometimes only, way to purchase goods or services. For far over 365 days, Germany lingered at a year zero state. After viewing the devastation of Germany, Lucius Clay, military governor of the American occupied zone, and three German Libertarian thinkers convinced the US and its allies to repeal Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) 1067, which was the law that the victors had instated to oppress the conquered, and helped jump start Germany.
Clay feared that if the Allies persisted in hindering the recovery of Germany, there would be a communist revolution to deal with. The three Germans who had aided Clay with persuading the US to avert a communist disaster and help the suffering country were Wilhelm Röpke, Ludwig Erhard, and Konrad Adenauer. Röpke, a professor of economics, decided that there must be some morally acceptable way of governing the people and enforcing laws. His advice, which was indeed followed, was in contrast to the Nazi regime, where the entire structure was utterly immoral. Wilhelm believed in liberty for the individual to interact with others without interference from the government. Erhard, who was deeply influenced by Röpke, created a solid currency, and together with the reopening of factories and the restarting of industry, called these actions the German Social Market Economy. This was the way in which the Germans could freely manufacture and exchange goods. Having been mayor of Cologne and vehemently resisting Hitler during the war, Adenauer proved himself a worthy politician to lead Germany as its first president under the new laws. He also shared beliefs about the German recovery with Erhard, as he was a student of Röpke, too.
On the other hand, the Soviets abhorred the economic reform, as it would encourage private property and the associated rights of the individual. Therefore, to prevent any monetary reform from reaching the Russian’s occupation zone, the Berlin Wall was erected. But the free Germans in West Berlin were still starving to death and stuck in year zero because the whole city of Berlin was smack dab in the middle of the Soviet’s zone. To aid the malnourished people on the independent side of the infamous barrier, the Allies dropped food from aircraft into the walled off portion of the city in the Berlin Air Lift.
In the end, there was no communist revolution in Germany because of Governor Clay, Röpke, Erhard, and Adenauer’s smart actions. By convincing the Allies to repeal JCS 1067, they saved Germany. The country was then able to fix itself with the three brilliant Germans at its head. This new Germany became a powerhouse of Europe by the 1950s and is still going strong today.