The marriage prohibition between U.S. soldiers and German women remained in force longer than the general order against fraternization – until December 1946. A survey conducted in 1955 in West Germany counted 66,730 children born out of wedlock during the occupation, 37,000 of whom had American fathers. Over 10% of them were the children of African-American soldiers, children often subjected to racist discrimination. Against the background of racial segregation in the U.S., military officers were usually reluctant to permit African-American GIs to marry their German girlfriends, which meant that nearly all children resulting from these relationships were born out of wedlock.  According to German law at the time, children lacking a male guardian became wards of the local or state youth office or were raised by foster parents. This photo taken in Munich in 1949 shows German foster parents with children from a German-American relationship.