The layer of foam visible in this 1958 photograph of the Niers River in the heavily industrialized state of North Rhine-Westphalia makes clear that the negative effects of West Germany's postwar industrial reconstruction and the ecological downsides of the German “Economic Miracle” [Wirschaftswunder] were already apparent in the 1950s. However, it took until the 1970s for the general public to recognize these problems and for politicians to react to them.