Hitler's Economic Policy

How Hitler Transformed the German Economy

By Mr Walker
http://gcsehistory.cjb.
net
24/02/10
www.SchoolHistory.co.uk Weimar and Nazi Germany 1
 Objectives
 At the end of this lesson you should be
able to:
 Understand Hitler’s 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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 Hitler’s 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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 Hitler’s 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 Hitler’s ideas into action

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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
Austria 1938 Poland 1939
1938

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

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