to be considered acute from the point of view of housing, and additional construction and building materials were to be brought in to that locality. A sixmonth survey of housing showed, however, that there were very few places in the U. S. Zone of Germany or the U. S. Sector of Berlin in which density of occupancy was as high as two persons per livable room, a circumstance resulting from careful allocation and distribution of building materials under the established priority system and efforts on the part of the Germans themselves.

Building Control and Licensing

In order to carry out the Potsdam provision that the future standard of living in Germany would not exceed the average of her neighbors, excluding the USSR and the United Kingdom, and to prevent the creation of building which might become a war potential, the Building Industries Sub-Committee established a control and licensing system for the whole of Germany. Objects and purposes of this system were:

a. to insure that there would be no labor or material used for non-essential
or unauthorized construction, reconstruction or repairs of any kind, and
that the proper use would be made of material and labor for essential
and authorized construction, reconstruction or repairs,

(1) by imposing maximum standards of design and workmanship, and
(2) by permitting only such construction, reconstruction or repairs as
conformed to an authorized building program predicated upon the
needs of a German peace-time economy;

b. to prevent the re-establishment of a German war potential,

(1) by issuing instructions for the demolition of certain categories of buildings and civil engineering works following upon decisions by higher authority, and

(2) by preventing the construction of such categories of buildings and civil engineering works as would be capable of subsequent conversion to the development of a war potential.

This system was designed not only as an immediate but also as a longrange program, for it soon became obvious that the extremely curtailed production of building materials, due mainly to the lack of coal, would limit the immediate reconstruction of German cities. In addition, the control and licensing system provides for the equitable distribution of building materials among the four zones so that Germany can be reconstructed as a whole economic unit.