The Second World War left Europe in hunger, misery, unemployment and a housing crisis. The income for most people was largely destroyed, and a deep depression spread among the population. At the war’s end, not only did the economy of the countries lie in ruins; the entire framework of the European economies had been upset by the war and its aftermath. As a result of a decline in production in Europe, and the disruption of normal trade relations, 1947 saw the threat of world-wide economic crisis (Hemmling, H D).

Destruction was particularly great in Germany. The surviving production plants were dismantled and removed as a part of reparations. Nearly all of Germany’s cities had been destroyed; the transport system was in ruins; hunger was rampant everywhere. In addition, millions of refugees driven from areas in the East flooded into the Western part of Germany, whose economy was not capable of supplying day-to-day essentials (Hemmling, H

- encouragement of economic cooperation among the European countries, including the international payments system;

The Paris Conference led to the setting up of a Committee for European Economic Cooperation (CEEC). In this Committee, which was the pioneer of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), 16 European states were represented: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey (Kissinger, T L).

Without the Marshall Plan, in fact, today’s Germany still has that economic and political impulse which this aid provided. The fact that Germany’s economic reconstruction and its positive consequences were due largely to the Marshall Plan is not only the judgment of historians; its recognition has penetrated into the general public of Germany (Kissinger, T L).

“In a celebrated speech delivered before students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Caliett Marshall proposed that the European States themselves should set up a program for the reconstruction of Europe” (Delong, J E.) The United States would contribute towards this program (Hemmling, H D).

The first task of the OEEC was to coordinate the reconstruction programs of its member countries in preparation for the star of American aid. “Its aims were:

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