HITLER’S NAZI GERMANY

The Economy in Nazi Germany

1933: Work to Do

• The Task at Hand

• Hitler’s Aims– Maintaining popularity– Preparing for War

The RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst) - National Labor Front

• Organizing Men for Work

• Public Works

• Militarizing Labor

Hitler in Need of Economic Support

• Industrialist Support• Hjalmar Schacht - Reich

Minister of Finance (1934-1937)

• Ignoring Socialist Promises

• Getting into Bed with Big Business

No Coherent Economic Plan

• Lack of a Plan

• Adoption of Approaches– Autarky– Deficit Financing– Wehrwirtschaft

• Nothing Extraordinary

The Attack on Unemployment

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1933193419351936193719381939

Unemployment (inmillions)

The Attack on Unemployment

• How Was Unemployment Tackled?– Public Works– Expansion of Industries– Massive Re-armament– Conscription

Results on Labor, Output, GNP, and Wages

• Shortage of Labor

• Rise in Industrial Output

• Rise in GNP

• Wages?

The German Labor Front

• Elimination of Trade Unions

• The German Labor Front - Dr. Robert Ley

The German Labor Front

Workers! Your institutions are sacred to us National Socialists. I myself am a poor peasant’s son and understand poverty…Workers! I swear to you we will not only keep everything which exists, we will build up the rights and protection of the workers even further.

- Dr. Robert Ley

The German Labor Front

• Labor Improvements

• Loss of Negotiating Power

• Few Complaints

3,740 HOURS: LEISURE IN NAZI GERMANY

• German Labor Front Control Over Leisure

• Kraft Durch Freude (KDF) - Strength Through Joy

Strength Through Joy

• Massive Leisure Programs Established

• Travel Tours, but for whom?

• Control over Entertainment

Strength Through Joy

The Volkswagon

• KDF Selling Cars – the Volkswagon

• VW Beetle Purchasing Scheme

• No Workers Ever Got a Beetle

The VW Beetle

The Four Year Plan (1936)

• Problems with Re-armament

• Problems with Finance

• “Guns or Butter?”

The Four Year Plan (1936)

• 4 Years for Autarky– Impatient with Trade

Deals and Schacht• Enter Goering-

Commissioner Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

• Turning Inward

• Gearing up for War

The 4 Year Plan - Rearmament

• 1933 vs 1939

• Massive Arms Spending form 1936-1939

• Ready for War?

The Nazi Economy – Historical Debate

• Did Hitler Plan Full Mobilization of the Economy?

• Richard Overy: “Hitler miscalucated.”

• Tim Mason: “Worker discontent and failure of wages influenced war.”