Hitler's pre-war economic turn-around, just how did he do it?

DublinWriter

One thing that always fascinated me and that I could never get a proper answer for was how the German Nazi party managed to turn around the economy from the hyper-inflation days of the Weimar Republic to the powerhouse economy that was Germany in 1939.

Having worked in Germany and broached the subject with a few Germans (always tricky!) they always maintained that Hitler basically adopted the plans already in place from the Weimar days, especially the Autobahn and labour schemes, and had very few original ideas of his own.

In school I was always thought that it was Hitler's increased militarianisation of the country that secured full-employment and made the economy bounce back.

Opinions anyone?

ejmaztec

It seems that Germany borrowed vast sums, using bogus bonds and non-existent companies, this way funding it's economic turnround and re-armament. It doesn't look like any of the lenders ever got their money back. I think that, had they not gone to war, they would have been bankrupted anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany#Economic_policy

Wikipedia might be correct.

mike65

Interesting read about Wall Street financing of German industry after ww1

http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_01.htm

http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/index.html

Mike.

jmayo

ejmaztec wrote:

It seems that Germany borrowed vast sums, using bogus bonds and non-existent companies, this way funding it's economic turnround and re-armament. It doesn't look like any of the lenders ever got their money back. I think that, had they not gone to war, they would have been bankrupted anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany#Economic_policy

Wikipedia might be correct.

Maybe that was why the German industrial companies e.g Krupps, Siemens etc were quickly resurrected after WWII, rather than preventing Communisms spread.

Weren't the Bushes involved with German companies during the 1930s and 1940s up until US declared war?

I just hope some of the banks lending the money were the Swiss, because as sure as hell they did all right out of the war. Also they continually supplied the Germans with precision instruments during the war.
Maybe the Americans should have properly bombed then instead of the accidental raids that occurred.

brianthebard

DublinWriter wrote:

In school I was always thought that it was Hitler's increased militarianisation of the country that secured full-employment and made the economy bounce back.

Opinions anyone?

This is at least partly right. And of course the big industries like Volkswagen and the Autobahn as you mentioned also helped. But as well as that there was a huge drive to put women back in the home and out of employment, freeing up spaces for men to work and moving women out of the employment sector, also bringing down unemployment levels. Germany also had a series of four year plans (might have only been two) similar to the soviet set up, except Germany only took four years to do what took the soviets five, obviously.:rolleyes: By 1939 there had been another slow down and unemployment was again on the rise, which may have had some bearing on the decision to go to war.