High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The term Wirtschaftswunder (help·info) (German for "economic miracle") describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II (adopting a social market economy). The expression was used by The Times in 1950. Beginning with the replacement of the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark as legal tender (the Schilling was similarly established in Austria), a lasting period of low inflation and rapid industrial growth was overseen by the government led by German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his Minister of Economics, Ludwig Erhard, who went down in history as the "father of the German economic miracle." In Austria, efficient labor practices led to a similar period of economic growth. The era of economic growth raised Germany and Austria from total wartime devastation to developed nations in modern Europe. At the founding of the European Common Market, Germany`s economic growth stood in contrast to the struggling conditions at the time in the United Kingdom.