In no other phase of the German post-war period were perceptions of social structures so intensely negotiated on a visual level as between 1945-1948. In particular, images depicting subjects such as hygiene, health, nutrition and housework functioned as 'projection screens' for the transition from symptoms of deficiency and exception over to a 'normal' social life and traditional gender roles. With the aid of publicly available images from women's magazines, advertizing, exhibitions, propaganda signs, and film case studies, Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska and Anna Labentz illustrate the multi-faceted and often contradictory process of the return to normality.
