History Adolf Hitler and the German Economy

[Scandypandy 78]

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Name(s): Adolf Hitler

Position/Job(s): Chancellor and Fuhrer of Germany 

What did they do: Pulled Germany out of one of the biggest economic depressions 

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and ordered mass genocide

Why do you like them: Pulled Germany out of major economic depression, and its sorta inspiring in a weird way. One Austrian painter who turned to begging became one of the most powerful men in the world in the span of 30 years.

What country are they from or what country did they serve: Germany, duh

To quote this, I thought I'd like to open an actual discussion about the man everyone would try and meme to death.
I am under the impression that the "Hitler fixed the german economy" thing is an absolute myth.

For a start-he didn't really get them out of the Great Depression. The worst of the depression was already over by the time Nazi Germany came to power.
The Nazi German "Economy" was a house built upon matchsticks; it was basically waiting to collapse in on itself. I believe some weird form of currency (mefo-cheques or something was the name) were used which cracked up absolutely massive gaps in funding and deficits left right and centre. All of the rebulding and revitalising was done with money that didn't actually exist at the time, but rather money that was anticipated to appear later (and if it didn't, everything would fall to shit and the economy would implode).
The unemployment rate was horrendous (up around 28% or somewhere around there). 
As for all the "industrial plans" (motorways and public work programs) they were planned to be put in place by the previous government and absolutely were not an invention of Hitler or the Nazis. (W. Dick; A. Lichtenberg (4 August 2012). "The myth of Hitler's role in building the German autobahn").

German debt absolutely fucking skyrocketed right up to something close to 40 Billion Reichmarks due to heavy dependency on borrowing cash; more evidence to suggest that the economy's sudden growth and "success" was absolutely not sustainable.
One good thing that can be said is the massive amounts of funding-however unsustainable-put into welfare for the people. I don't have exact figures or statistics but I believe a lot of work was put into a welfare system which was-were it not so prone to collapse-absolutely unrivalled the world over. The German State looked after it's people, at that time.

However the dark overtones begin to creep in when we realise that the welfare helped only German citizens (a small foreshadowing of things to come) as homeless people and cripples/disabled people were bullied and oppressed en masse.
Hitler was very fond of talking about the state taking control of just about every aspect of the nation's industry and economy but then often weirdly went on to be very pro-privatisation; something I never really understood.
Another HUGE source of income was ridiculous fines-Nazi Officials would often massively push up the limit of fines for mistakes with tiny, everyday errors suddenly costing businesses millions upon millions upon millions of Reichmarks. (some book about a Vampire Economy, will add source later I guess)

Shortages of all sorts of things were everywhere in Nazi Germany-from strategic or rare resources like rubber or oil (yes, they had their synthetic oil but it really wasn't enough to fuel the country by a long shot) but also by everyday goods like butter. They were not in the slightest bit self sufficient.
Hitler's obvious anti-gommunism stance pretty much purged any and all semblance of trade unions or possibilities of strikes, however as we know Nazi Germany soon had massive amounts of what was essentially slave labour propping up swathes of its industry. The Labour front therefore became this weird, awkward bubble which Whilliam Shirer stated was essentially entirely falsified and part of the Nazi Propaganda machine.

To re-iterate on forced Labour, all the lovely jubbly untermencsh (your fudge-packers, street-sleepers, criminals, ((())) and gommies etc) were forced into hard labour in the infamous camps, and became an instrumental part of Nazi Germany's industrial machine.

To sum it up, the German Economy was an absolute shambles in reality; the idea that Hitler or the Nazis created any kind of competent state industry or economy is utter lies, a myth spammed around because people forget the key thing about the economy; it relies on war.
Calling it a War-Economy might be pushing it, but the simple fact is that the Nazi Economy basically relied on the annexation of land with money or resources; any country that Germany invaded during the war would soon have all its gold eaten up to try and make up for the staggering gaps in the economy.

Basically, this magical and incredible economy that Hitler and the Nazis build was absolutely shite and relied on the almost constant annexation of territory and resources which Germany didn't have to make up for massive debts, deficits and shortages. I guess you could say "well they made the economy planning to go to war and dickfuck everyone until they were self-sustaining" but this doesn't seem to be the case as the infamous tankmeme blitzkreig started by using Panzer 1, a tank intended for training and little else, I believe horses were still widely used in the German military for support and logistic purposes.

Hitler's story is certainly interesting, but the myth that he-or the Nazis-built a good (or even a working/competent) economy and industry is basically a myth.

 

[goose 0]

Good points.. I'm going to read more into this.

 

How to Destroy Other People on Forums: 101  

 

[Scandypandy 78]

Just now, goose said:

Good points.. I'm going to read more into this.

 

How to Destroy Other People on Forums: 101  

 

Not destroying! It's always good to learn new things, but it is amazing how many "facts" or "common knowledge" are actually outright lies.

[goose 0]

Gut point