Essay on How successful were Nazi policies in achieving prosperity within Germany

Submitted By Bengreen246
Words: 868
Pages: 4

How successful were Nazi policies in achieving prosperity within Germany?

The treaty of Versailles left Germany in a bad state as they had a stupid amount of reparations to pay off, also the Wall Street crash effected them as well, and with Germany in an economic crisis it needed help especially if the Nazis had the intention of war. When the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 it had two main aims - to solve unemployment and to make Germany a strong economic and military power as possible, so that the devastating defeat of the First World War could never happen again. In order to do this, several areas had to be dealt with. Firstly, unemployment was massive and rising rapidly - in 1933 six million people were unemployed. Secondly, the Nazis had promised better conditions for workers, this had to be balanced with the good relationship that the Nazis had with businesses. As they contributed massively to the Nazi party as they were in fear of being nationalised. Lastly, the Nazis wanted to create autarky (making Germany self-sufficient), so that if another war came it would not be dependent on outside goods. By 1938 due to the policies that the Nazis had created, Germany had solved most of her economic problems. However Germany started to fall into another economic problem, as unemployment was tackled first, through public investments and work schemes this boosted industrial, economic confidence.

The abolition of the unions and banning of strikes meant that there was no legal way of complaining about pay or conditions should they worsen. The Nazis were keen to keep good relations with businesses and industrialists and these measures were welcomed by them. Hjalmar Schacht was made economics minister in 1934 Hjalmar Schacht was made economics minister in 1934 Hjalmar Schacht was made economics minister in 1934 Hjalmar Schacht was made economics minister in 1934, his aim was to tackle unemployment, he did this by investing in public work schemes such as the creation of the ‘Autobahn’. This did bring down the level of unemployment so this was a success for him, however Schacht was against the idea of rearmament and even though he was economic minister rearmament started, this is a failure for Schacht also food shortages were a big issue for him. This links back to the question as it shows that the economy was recovering. Even though there are still problems to be tackled. Schacht suspended debt repayments and reparations, leaving more money to be put into industry. By 1938 production had risen by 100% from 1933, and by 1935 exports exceeded imports, this is obviously a good thing because it shows that Germany is starting to become self-sufficient as they are not relying so much on other for support
Goering was in charge of rearmament this was Germanys attempt to Prepare itself for war (they argued that it was for protection, however the size of their military was big enough already just for self-defence), this meant Goering placing large orders of: warships, planes, tanks and guns, this gave work to factories which made them have to employ more people. Schacht introduced the ‘four year plan’ which included rearmament (includes preparing for war) and making Germany self-sufficient, so they do not need help from other countries during the war. A positive of this was that German steel industry increased which lead to more jobs for the unemployed.