4.15 Economic Policies Flashcards
Mefo bill?
Scheme were German gov paid by credit notes
Economic autarky
Economic independence or self sufficiency
Unemployment was 6mill in 1933 by 1935 had fallen to?
2 million
When Hitler became chancellor what was his short term economic aims?
Reduction of unemployment
Recovery from Great Depression
What was Hitler’s long term economic plan?
Create an economy capable of sustaining a major rearmament programme and geared to the needs of a future war-need to be self sufficient in production of food and raw materials
When was Schact president of Riechbank?
1933-36
When does Schact become economics minister?
August 1934
6 ways Schact promoted economic recovery?
-pumping money into economy to build homes and autobahns
-tax concessions and grants to grips to stimulate consumer demand
-subsides to private firms to encourage them to take on more workers
-control on wages and prices to control inflation
-‘new plan’ 1934 to control foreign trade and improve balance of payments
-first step towards rearmament financing the expenditure through Mefo bills
What are Autobahns
Roads
Shows 1000s of workers on a project,shows economic revival (propaganda)
In reality only 125,000 employed at its peak
Very few Germans had cars so was underused
How did the Nazis reduce unemployment
Created projects of building roads,public buildings and increased industrial production stimulated through loans and tax reliefs to private companies
1935 Reich labour service introduced were unemployed men had to do 6 months in farming or construction helped by economy recovery anyway
Military conscription was introduced for men later that year
What was the new plan of 1934
As economy revived 1933 and 1934: foreign trade increased and led to imports growing faster than exports-led to a shortage of foreign currencies which was needed to buy imports
Schact placed controls on imports and access to foreign currencies-supplying South American countries could only buy Reichmarks with trade
Describe Schact and the use of the Mefo bills
To finance rearmament Nazis needed to borrow money whilst avoiding inflation
Mefo bills could be exchanged for cash at Reichbank ensuring confidence private companies would ge their money companies were given an incentive to defer asking for fill payment due to 4% annual interest, rearmament could be started in 1935 without gov financing it -expenditure for it not appearin Gov financial accounts (kept a secret)
What was the new 4 year plan of 1936
Striving for full economic autarky as food had become scarce and people were becoming disillusioned. Schacht opposed the move so control was given to Goering
What was the aim of the 4 year plan of 1936
Germany ready for war within 4 years (quest for Lebensraum or living space)
The priorities of the 4 year plan of 1936 was economic Autarky and rearmament how was this supposed to be achieved?(5)
-create a managed economy with controls on labour supply, prices, raw materials and foreign exchange
-settling production targets for private companies
-establishing state owned industrial plants such as Hermann Goering steelworks
Increasing production of key commodities such as steel and chemicals
-encouraging research and investment in production of substitute products such as artificial rubber and extracting oil from coal(reducing dependence on imports)
