Hitler Test 2

Nazi Economic Policy

• 25-point plan

• Wehrwirtschaft (war economy)

• Job creation plans

• “Windfalls”

• Foreign debt

25-point plan

(1920) was pro-farmer, pro-small business… but Hitler later reached out to big businesses, middle class

June 1933 law

• govt spending on public works

• subsidies for private construction

• pro-industry tax/loan policy

MEFO bills

fake currency that stimulated industry, infrastructure, housing

Hjalmar Schacht

• July 1934: stopped debt repayment

• creditor nations received bonds

• All debts would be paid in reichmarks (would encourage trade w/GER)

New Plan of September 1934

• regulation of imports

• increase trade with some countries for some materials/products—which?

“Windfalls”

• No more strikes (DAF)

• Propaganda

• seizure of Jewish, Austrian assets

Nazi preparedness for war

• 1936: Four Year Plan

• Speer’s wartime economy

Totalitarian control

Eliminate political/social opposition and make loyalty to Hitler central

Economic goals

Reduce unemployment, achieve autarky, prepare Germany for war

Social goals

Create a racially defined Volksgemeinschaft

Women/children

Produce and indoctrinate the next generation of Nazis

Education

Control what young Germans learned and believed

The Big Picture

Hitler’s Nazi regime aimed to create a racially unified, economically self-sufficient, militarized, obedient Volksgemeinschaft (“people’s community”) under Hitler’s absolute leadership.

Culture

Eliminate “un-German” influences and promote Nazi values

Minorities

Exclude Jews and other groups from German society

Economic policies: 3 main goals

1. Reduce unemployment

2. Prepare Germany for war

3. Achieve autarky

1. Reduce unemployment

• Public works

• Autobahn construction

• Reich Labour Service

• Military expansion

• Conscription

2. Prepare Germany for war

• Wehrwirtschaft = defense/military economy

• Four Year Plan = prepare Germany economically for war

• Ministry of Armaments and Munitions = organized military production

• Conscription = compulsory military service

• Autarky = economic self-sufficiency

3. Acheive Autarky

Germany did NOT become completely economically self-sufficient.

• Reich Labour Service (RAD)

Young men were required to participate in labor service.

New Plan — 1934

Hjalmar Schacht.

• Managing imports

• Increasing exports

• Controlling foreign currency

• Supporting economic recovery

Four Year Plan — 1936

Hermann Göring

• Prepare Germany for war within four years

• Increase production

• Increase military preparedness

• Promote self-sufficiency

Key distinction

Schacht → New Plan → economic recovery/foreign trade

Göring → Four Year Plan → preparation for war/autarky

Cultural policies

control German culture and eliminate ideas he considered incompatible with Nazism.

Nazi culture

• Promote Nazi ideology

• Glorify Germany

• Promote racial ideas

• Encourage obedience

• Create Volksgemeinschaft

• Remove Jewish and other “un-German” influences

Historian Bracher

“no consistent economic or social theory”

guns vs butter

the choice between spending resources on military weapons or on civilian goods and welfare

July 1934

Schacht stopped debt payments

-creditor nations recieved bonds

September 1934

-regulation of imports

-increase trade with some countries for materials

-Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Argentina and Brazil

• Petroleum

• Grain

• Rubber

• Manganese

• Copper, nickel, and chrome

Factories produce in 1936

• chemicals, synthetic fuels

• steelworks using GER ore

Speer

Ministry of Armaments and Munitions in 1942

-transition to long-war economy

-Hitler wanted to avoid this

Central Planning Board

Worked amazing in all ways

Women mobilization

• 1936: women recruited into factories

• 1939: compulsory agricultural service

• 1942: conscription for war service

• all of Germany was now the “home”

Nazi youth

1936: compulsory membership in Hitler Youth

Very regimented, competitive

“race science,” and health education and physical training

Ordensburgen

(elite military training)

Asocial

compulsory work

Work-shy

concentration camps, black triangles, possible sterilization

1940: youth concentration camp

“unreformable” were sterilized

“Biological outsiders” - 1933

compulsory sterilization of those with genetic illnesses ▪ 350K sterilized, couldn’t marry fertile partners

1935 Nuremberg Laws

banned marriage between Aryan/Non-Aryan

Euthanasia program

1939-45

-Aug 1941: 72,000 dead

-1941-43: program

-14F13 gassed, 30-50K more in camps