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Using available data from different parts of the city, Klesse [15] infers a steeper increase in TB mortality from 1939 to 1944 within Berlin districts predominantly inhabited by working class people compared to those where the more affluent preferred living. For instance, in the whole of Greater Berlin, TB mortality increased by 53% during this period, whereas in the Neukölln district it rose by 68%. Moreover, Neukölln was not among the poorer city areas; in fact, it was rather by averaging richer and poorer districts that Klesse concluded that some poorer districts had more TB than other more affluent ones. The same was true for Vienna, as mentioned by Daniels [3], where the highest TB mortality was in the working class boroughs (up to 322 per 100,000 inhabitants).

Fig. 3. TB mortality in selected European cities, 1938–1947, adapted from Ref. [3].

An interesting explanation for the faster elimination of infectious sources in the Soviet zone (GDR) during the first years after WWII in comparison with the western zones of Germany (FRG; Fig. 7 at the end of chapter 5 has been presented by Ferlinz et al.: the twofold higher TB mortality of infectious sources after the war – presumably due to the lack of TB drugs and the worse economic situation – reduced the spread of the TB bacilli to the population. Additional factors were the less favorable conditions in the FRG due to the substantially larger proportion of foreigners (immigrants as well as asylum seekers) from countries with high TB incidence [16].