Trümmerfrau

thumb|upright 0.85|Trümmerfrauen at work in Berlin, July 1946

Trümmerfrauen ( rubble women, singular Trümmerfrau ) were women who, in the aftermath of World War II, helped clear and reconstruct the bombed cities of Germany and Austria. Hundreds of cities had suffered significant bomb and firestorm damage from aerial attacks and ground war, and with many men dead or prisoners of war, this monumental task fell to a large degree on women.