?No fat Germans after World War One

World War One was a long and cruel war. It may have been bad for Britain but Germany suffered immense hardship and loss of the war involved major changes.

Germany was once a clean and polished place but now everywhere was shabby and dinghy. The fresh paint was no longer fresh. The once immaculately tidy streets were just like any other European street. Even first class railway carriages were now shabby. Their toilets which had every convenience provided for no had no soap, no towels and sometimes even no water.

The officials and military caste (junkers) were once rampant making their preescence felt everywhere. Ordinary civilians were treated with contempt. Everywhere they had got the cream of everything - the best places, priority of service, and a cringing defference which no one else could claim. Now officials walked the earth like mere mortals and treated the man in the street almost like "men and brothers".

There were changes in the physical state of men. Fat men were once so common in the Fatherland but now they were conspicuous by their abscence. A wide girth was seen as a sign that a man had done well for himself.

Source Scarborough Mercury, 28th May 1920.