More fascinating stats extracted from the historical statistical yearbooks of Germany published online.
Between the 1939 and 1950 censuses, the population of Germany (Weimar + Saarland + Danzig in 1939 ; East & West Germany + Saarland in 1950) went from 69,705,707 to 69,172,508 inhabitants. That was a loss of 500,000 inhabitants over 11 years, and of course a much bigger loss when one takes into accounts what the German population should have been in 1950 if natural growth had taken place normally (Germany had a natural growth of +480,000 per year before WW2, so its population in 1950 should normally have been something like 75.0 million people without the war, instead of 69.2 million).
The population of the current Germany (2014 borders), however, greatly increased between 1939 and 1950, due to the relocation of millions of Germans from eastern Europe to the current Germany after 1945. At the end of the war, Germany (within its 1937 borders, i.e. Weimar + Saarland) lost 113,932 km² of land east of the Oder-Neisse line. This is the size of Scotland + Wales + Northern Ireland + half of Cornwall combined. At the 1939 census, there lived 9,630,221 people within those 113,932 km² east of the Oder-Neisse line, i.e. 14% of Germany's population (within its 1937 borders).
On top of these people, one also needs to add the 391,607 inhabitants of the Free City of Danzig as well as the 3.4 million inhabitants of the Sudetenland. So in total, that's territories inhabited by 13.4 million German people whose populations relocated essentially to the current Germany (2014 borders), and to a lesser extent to Austria. And on top of it, several hundred thousands of Germans from outside the Reich (i.e. from pre-war Poland, Bohemia-Moravia, Slovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, etc) were expelled and relocated to the current Germany (and to a lesser extent Austria).
As a result of these massive relocations of population, the population of the current Germany (2014 borders), despite the millions of German lives lost during WW2, swelled from 59,683,879 in 1939 to 69,172,508 in 1950. For comparison, the population of Metropolitan France went from 41,550,000 in 1939 to 41,850,000 in 1950, and the population of the UK went from 47,760,000 in 1939 to 50,280,000 in 1950.
Here is the population increase between the 1939 and 1950 censuses by German states. Württemberg-Hohenzollern, Baden, and Württemberg-Baden merged in 1952 to form the current state of Baden-Württemberg. States within the Soviet occupation zone in
red, US occupation zone in
pink, French occupation zone in
blue, and British occupation zone in
green.
Population growth between 1939 and 1950 (within constant borders):
- Lower Saxony: +2,257,700 (i.e. in 1950 Lower Saxony, within its 1950 borders, had 2,257,700 more people than in 1939, also within 1950 borders)
- Bavaria: +2,100,400
- North Rhine-Westphalia: +1,261,700
- Schleswig-Holstein: +1,005,600
- Hesse: +844,700
- Württemberg-Baden (Stuttgart, Mannheim, Karlsruhe): +690,500
- Saxony-Anhalt: +638,573
- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: +634,947
- Thuringia: +407,841
- Saxony: +227,602
- Brandenburg: +193,012
- Württemberg-Hohenzollern (Tübingen, Reutlingen): +154,400
- Baden (Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Baden): +109,000
- Rhineland-Palatinate: +44,800
- Saarland: +35,100
- Bremen: -4,300
- Hamburg: -106,300
- Berlin: -1,006,647
Note that France, for geopolitical and administrative reasons, had an official policy of not allowing eastern refugees in its occupation zone, which explains the low population increase of the blue states (in parenthesis, the Allies were quite unhappy with this French policy, but the Germans living in the French occupation zone were quite happy with it as you can imagine).
Population growth by occupation zone (
excluding Berlin):
- British occupation zone: +4,418,700 (+22%) (i.e. in 1950 there lived in the British occupation zone of West Germany 4,418,700 more people than in the same territory in 1939, which means a growth of +22%)
- American occupation zone: +3,631,300 (+25%)
- Soviet occupation zone: +2,101,975 (+14%) (does not include East Berlin)
- French occupation zone and Saarland: +343,300 (+6%)
In terms of relative growth, some states really saw their population jump. The population of Schleswig-Holstein jumped by 63% between 1939 and 1950, that of Lower Saxony by 50%, that of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by 46%. I was quite surprised by the Schleswig-Holstein figures, as I, like many people probably, had not idea this tiny state had welcomed so many refugees, but I guess that's because of people evacuated by boat from East Prussia, Danzig, and East Pomerania who landed in the ports of Schleswig-Holstein and settled there.
Same for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and more generally East Germany. I didn't imagine so many refugees had settled there, under Soviet yoke. Obviously in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the big population increase is explained by the people from East Pomerania and Stettin who simply moved a few tens of miles west, and could not be bothered to move further west to Lower Saxony. Minato Ku also pointed out to me how strange it was that people settled in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and rural Brandenburg but not in Berlin, whose population declined, but I guess the city was far too destroyed to be a pleasant destination for the refugees, even 6 years after the end of the war.
As a result of this massive relocation of people, the density of the current (post-WW2) German states increased a lot. Schleswig-Holstein went from a density of 101 inh. per km² in 1939 to 166 inh. per km² in 1950! Lower Saxony went from 96 inh. per km² in 1939 to 143 inh. per km² in 1950. Bavaria, which before WW2 was a very rural state, went from 100 inh. per km² to 130 inh. per km². I knew about Bavaria, but I was really surprised how sparsely populated (relatively-speaking) was Lower Saxony in 1939.
Overall WW2 radically changed the way the German people were spread across their territory. This series of map shows the evolution of density from 1939 until today. The big surprise here is the fact that what would become the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was more densely populated before WW2 than West Germany!
The last map at the bottom is a glance into the future. Judging from the density of people under 20 y/o, it looks like in this century, East Germany, which was the densest part of Germany before WW2, will become less than half as densely populated as West Germany, and less densely populated than Austria and Metropolitan France, whose densities were very low compared to the current East Germany in 1939. It's a complete reversal of situation with very few examples in history. When looking at the last two maps, one can also question the choice of Berlin as the capital of the reunified Germany in the 1990s. Frankfurt would have been a more logical and practical choice.