Transcript Document

Hitler's Economic Policy
How Hitler Transformed the German Economy
By Mr Walker
http://gcsehistory.cjb.net
www.SchoolHistory.co.uk
07/07/2015
Weimar and Nazi Germany
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Objectives
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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The size of the German army grew massively
Hitler became more confident and started to
openly break the Treaty of Versailles
Austria
1938
Czechoslovakia
1938
Poland 1939
World war broke out!
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Was the 4 year Plan a
success?
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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?
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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
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07/07/2015
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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