When Hitler was defeated by the Allies in World War II, he left behind few postwar plans. Under the Nazi regime, even mentioning the possibility of defeat was considered treason, and in the end, virtually every available resource was poured into the war effort. What remained after Germany’s surrender was a grieving population mourning the loss of millions of its citizens and a country that had been bombed and trampled by tanks and soldiers for years.

Life in post-war Germany was very, very difficult for a very long time, and there is a special word in German for the country’s rise from this brutal era: the “economic miracle.”

Their situation after the Nazi defeat was so dire that only a miracle—and the grueling efforts of the Allies and the courageous Berliners themselves—could have saved the country. It was also one of the most unprecedented situations in world history; no city has experienced anything comparable to what Germany experienced after World War II.

These amazing photos by Apfelauge show what Berlin, the German capital, looked like in 1946, shortly after World War II.