In summer 1955, workers in shirtsleeves dig and shovel paving stones on a busy Berlin street; piled stone rubble and excavated earth dominate the foreground. The broad, tree-lined avenue with its Gründerzeit and post-war buildings on both sides, as well as a cast-iron candelabra street lamp on the right of the image, point to an inner-city reconstruction site, possibly in the Tiergarten area. Contemporary motor vehicles and pedestrians in the background attest to ongoing city traffic. The photograph exemplifies the intensive infrastructure reconstruction of West Berlin in the mid-1950s, which was also advanced with Marshall Plan funds. The physically demanding, predominantly manual labor demonstrates that despite the beginning economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder), large portions of reconstruction work were still performed by hand.