A passing Berlin double-decker bus carries the advertising message “the good way to smoke milder” – an everyday sign of the emerging consumer culture in West Berlin during the economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder). In the background, a modern, brightly plastered high-rise with horizontal window bands and a distinctly rounded roof structure dominates the scene; it belongs to the Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung and was erected in 1954/55 with Marshall Plan funds. The flagpoles at the left edge of the frame point to the representative character of the complex. The image unites two symbols of Western renewal: modern housing construction as visible evidence of reconstruction and advertising as an expression of a normalizing consumer society. The Ernst-Reuter-Siedlung was simultaneously a statement in urban design by West Berlin – as the “showcase of the West” in contrast to the eastern part of the divided city.