Food in occupied Germany

American food policy in occupied Germany refers to the food supply policies enacted by the U.S., and to some extent its dependent Allies, in the western occupation zones of Germany in the first two years of the ten-year occupation of Western Germany following World War II.

Food relief shipments to Germany had been prohibited by the U.S. until December 1945, since "they might tend to negate the policy of restricting the German standard of living to the average of the surrounding European nations".

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II the German government instituted rationing which resulted in the restricted availability of food. Occasional shortages of food occurred during the war, and a black market developed. However, supplies were generally adequate, especially in comparison to the situation in some other European countries. In part, this was due to the ruthless exploitation of occupied countries by the German government. These policies included the "Hunger Plan", which resulted in the deaths of millions of people in German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union when food supplies were redirected to Germany and the German military units operating in the USSR. Inadequate food rations also formed part of The Holocaust, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths in Warsaw alone, and around two million Soviet prisoners of war were starved to death by German forces over the winter of 1941/42.

Widespread food shortages first began to occur in Germany following the end of the war in May 1945. The production of food was disrupted by the effects of the war, including the destruction of farmland, livestock, and machinery. In addition, labour shortages developed when the slave labourers who had been forced to work on German farms returned to their homes. The situation was worsened by a period of poor weather. As a result, the output of German farms was sufficient to provide city residents with only 1,000 calories of nutrition per day. At this time, food supplies were limited across much of Europe, including the United Kingdom and France, resulting in continued rationing.

After the German surrender the U.S. chose to designate large numbers of German prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces (DEF) instead of using the Prisoner of War status under which the captives would have been under the protection of the Geneva convention and, therefore, would have been entitled to the same quantities of food as U.S. troops.

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