REBUILDING A DIVIDED CONTINENT

Borders were redrawn and whole population groups were moved by force. The Western Allies accepted the westward shift of Polish borders and the Soviet Union’s control of the Baltic States. Other border changes were made in Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Germany and Austria were divided into occupation zones.

An acute shortage of men means that reconstruction work relies heavily on women, young people and prisoners of war.

Bread queues are common, and resourceful people re-use whatever they can get their hands on for heating, clothing and other necessities.

Sharp ideological differences between Western liberal democracies and Eastern communism resurfaced, increasing the chances of a new world war.

Marshall Plan funds were offered to most Western and Eastern European countries but the Soviet Union instructed governments in countries under its influence to reject the offer, contributing to a widening of the continental divide. By the time the Plan ended all recipient countries had surpassed their pre-war economic levels.

The Western and Eastern blocs were determined to present their particular model of society as being superior. The East adhered to Communist ideology supplanting Capitalism and relied on state-planned economies and single party rule. These economic and political characteristics were presented as merely an intermediary step to a classless and stateless society.

The S-shaped plastic chair created by Danish designer Verner Panton is a typical product of this era. Designers in communist countries were equally keen to demonstrate their design credentials, with East Germany producing its own Z-shaped chair shortly afterwards.

Enormous changes occurred in European education systems in this period. State funding increased at all levels thanks to booming economies and the welfare state, meaning better access for more children and young people – education was no longer just for the privileged minority.

Satellite cities and large estates were built following the principles of modernist architecture. Mile upon mile of identical grey cement blocks developed alongside transport and social service hubs. The negative effects of such extreme functionalism and harsh aesthetic standardisation on people’s lives and social fabric would only be recognised later.

This chair from the Eastman dental clinic for children reminds us that healthcare in pre-war Europe was largely dependent on the generosity of private donors such as the American businessman George Eastman. In the 1930s he founded and sponsored several dental clinics in Europe, which after the war were incorporated into public health services.

Owning a car, formerly the preserve of the rich, now became a possibility for increasing numbers of people and signified European prosperity. In the Eastern Bloc, however, where production never met demand, they were luxury items, sometimes with years-long waiting lists.  Iconic models such as Italy’s FIAT sold licences in other continental states.

In Western Europe, the hope of a united Europe grew in popularity as it felt increasingly caught between the two superpowers. Slowly, the idea of the continent as ‘the Third Force’ paved the way for intensified cross border cooperation

If you are going to have a ‘United States of Europe’ you need concrete elements such as a passport and a common currency. As early as the 1940s, an independent association calling itself the European Movement was campaigning for this by distributing mock identity cards and banknotes.

Look at the spelling of EUROP on this iron ingot from 1953. It omits the final letter ‘E’ as normally spelt in French, and ‘A’ as normally seen in German, Dutch and Italian. A striking example of the compromise at the heart of the new European Coal and Steel Community.

The artists Ritula Fränkel and her husband Nicholas Morris created the artwork Josef’s Coat in 2001. The coat had belonged to Ritula’s father, Josef Fränkel, a survivor of the Shoah.