Abstract
“Nissen Huts,” named after their English designer P. Nissen, were
used after 1945 as emergency quarters for Germans who had been bombed
out of their homes and for refugees and expellees as well. They were
especially prevalent in the British occupation zone. They were made from
individual prefabricated sheets of corrugated tin and had no insulation
at first. (Up to that point, they had been built mostly in African
colonies and other warm environments.) This photo shows Nissen Huts in
Hamburg in 1946. There was a time when as many as 10,000 Hamburg
residents lived in these dwellings. The last Nissen Huts were removed in
1958.