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German History in Documents and Images
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Employment Office in Frankfurt am Main (1975)
The oil crisis of 1973 and the resulting jump in energy prices sparked a severe economic recession in the Federal Republic. The poor state of the economy and the large-scale loss of industrial jobs – mostly attributable to the transition to a service economy and the beginnings of globalization – led to a sharp rise in unemployment. The photograph below shows job-seekers in the hallway of a Frankfurt employment office (January 1975). Photo by Abisag Tüllmann.