By the end of the 1950s, the Federal Republic was the second most powerful economy in the world after the United States. This period saw the beginnings of a widespread consumer society in which ever larger segments of the population were able to participate. The pathway from a postwar economy of scarcity, in which everything was in short supply, to a consumer society of plenty, in which everything was coveted, extended into the 1980s. This photo shows a fashionable customer buying new shoes in a Hamburg shop. Photo by Will McBride.