What did low ranking German soldiers do for money when they came home in 1946?

The weirdest thing about at the end of the World War 2 is that for a regular German soldier coming back home in 1945, No Troops Home was like a survival video game. The German Mark was worth almost nothing you could have a million of them and still starve because no one wanted to use them. To survive, these men were forced to stop thinking of money, and start thinking of basic needs.

The most important money was not gold, but American cigarettes. Records indicated that a single pack of Lucky Strikes equaled more than the whole official salary a soldier could make in a week. Soldiers would do any odd job for US troops such as fixing a jeep or hauling boxes just to get a few smokes. Neither did they even use them to smoke; instead, they traded them on the black market for eggs, bread or coal.

The British released thousands of prisoners just so that they could work on farms. They did not get paid in cash, but in potatoes and grain. A sack of flour was the best pay check there ever was. In cities such as Berlin, men carried heavy bricks by hand all day. Their pay was a special ration card which gave them a tiny bit of fat or bread extra.

For those who lost it all, many joined the French Foreign Legion. They traded their old German uniforms for French ones simply to get three meals a day even if that meant fighting a new war in Vietnam. It was not until 1948 that they finally saw any real money again. It’s crazy how a sack of potatoes could be worth more than suited with a sack of cash.