Hitler's Economic Policy

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Hitler's Economic Policy

• How Hitler Transformed the German Economy

By Mr Walker www.educationforum.co.uk
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Objectives

• At the end of this lesson you should be able to
• Understand Hitlers priorities on coming to power
• Evaluate the Schacht period of economic
  management 1933-5
• Understand the importance of Goering and the 4
  year Plan 1936-40
• Evaluate the success or otherwise of Nazi
  economic policy

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Unemployment

• During the election campaigns Hitler had promised
  to solve unemployment. This was only one of his
  aims

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Hitlers economic priorities

• 1. Drag Germany out of the world recession
• 2. Solve unemployment (which he had promised to
  do)
• 3. Make Germany an autarchy self sufficient
• 4. Get rid of Jewish industrialists and give
  their businesses to Aryans
• 4 Transform the economy to focus on rearmament
  and war

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Hjalmar Schacht

• Schacht was President of the Reichsbank who
  directed German economic policy
• He believed in steady growth and a stable
  currency
• He promoted trade agreements with developing
  countries trading manufactured goods for cheap
  raw materials
• He was against spending out too much on
  rearmament before the German economy was strong
  enough
• His New Plan of 1934 aimed to reduce imports into
  Germany and to strengthen the currency
• He fell out with Hitler over the speed of
  rearmament and was replaced by Hermann Goering in
  1936

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Hitlers Ideas

• German economy can be converted into a war
  machine
• Germany must rearm quickly, conquer countries by
  Blitzkrieg or lightening war, takeover their
  economies and move on
• Conquered countries would give the master race
  Lebensraum
• By exploiting conquered countries living
  standards could be maintained at home despite all
  the money being spent on war
• In 1936 Goering was appointed to introduce a 4
  year plan to put Hitlers ideas into action

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Solving Unemployment

• How Hitler increased employment
• Hitler introduced many policies to fulfil his
  goal of full employment
• He stopped paying reparations and invested the
  money in German companies.
• He began a huge programme of public works
  including planting forests, and building
  hospitals and schools. He also built public
  buildings such as the 1936 Olympic Stadium. The
  construction of the autobahns created work for
  80,000 men.
• Rearmament created jobs in the armaments
  industry.
• The introduction of national service meant all
  young men spent six months in the RAD (The labour
  service in which young men in Germany had to do a
  six-month compulsory stint), and then they were
  conscripted into the army. By 1939, 1.4 million
  men were in the army, so they were not counted as
  unemployed.
• Many Jews were sacked and their jobs given to
  non-Jews.
• Many women were sacked and their jobs given to
  men.

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The aims of the 4 year Plan

• Speed up rearmament and make Germany ready for
  war
• Make Germany self sufficient in raw materials
  autarchy by developing home grown substitutes.

In 1933 total money spent on the military was 1.9
million marks by 1939 it was 32.3 million!
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What were the results of this?

• The size of the German army grew massively
• Hitler became more confident and started to
  openly break the Treaty of Versailles

Czechoslovakia 1938
Austria 1938
Poland 1939
World war broke out!
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Was the 4 year Plan a success?

• Unemployment dropped quickly 4.8 million in 1933
  to 0.5 million in 1938
• Wages rose slightly but were still lower in 1938
  than they had been in 1928
• Working hours went up to 49 hours per week in
  1939 52 hours in 1943 to over 60 hours per week
  by 1945
• There were fewer consumer goods (personal and
  household goods
• Trade unions were replaced by Beauty of Labour
  and strength Through Joy who organised better
  conditions and leisure activities

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Were people better off under the Nazis?

• Unemployment fell everywhere not just in Germany
• Some people were forced to work on public works
• There were disadvantages to SDA and KDF workers
  had no representation
• Workers put more into the economy than they got
  out
• If you were Aryan and of no strong political
  beliefs life was relatively good

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Tasks

• 1. Research a short case study factfile on
  Hjalmar Schacht and Herman Goering
• 2. Following further research answer the
  question, Was Nazi economic policy a success?