successes and failures of four year plans

Question 1

Who was in charge of the economy during the four year plan (1936-1939)

Answer 1

Hermann Goering was put in charge of the office of four year plans in september in september 1936 to run the economy

Question 2

What is ‘Autarky’?

Answer 2

Economic self sufficiency, meaning a country provides all it’s economic resources and needs, thus not relying on imports

Question 3

How was Autarky initially achieved?

Answer 3

• Increasing Germany’s own production of key commodities, such as iron and food
• Developing substitute products, like coal using coal to produce oil

Question 4

What were the failures of achieveing autarky?

Answer 4

-by 1939, Germany still imported 1/3 of raw matierials for production, like iron, oil and rubber

Question 5

In order to achieve autarky, the Nazis set what for the production ofcommodities ? However, they were set too high or low?

Answer 5

targets, which were set too high

Question 6

Give an example of a commodity that was set a very high target in comparison to what it achieved.

Answer 6

• the target was Rubber production was set at 120 thousand tons but by 1938, only achieved 5 thousand tons.
• The target for oil production was at set at 13,830 thousand tons, but in 1938 only achieved 2,340 thousand tons

Question 7

Which key materials, despite not reaching their targets, had the production of greatly increased?

Answer 7

• aluminium rose from 98 thousand tons in 1936 to 166 thousand tons in 1938
• explosives production rose form 18 thousand tons to 45 thousand tons between 1936-38

Question 8

What was Goering’s attitude to big businesses?

Answer 8

When big companies failed to co-operate with him, Goering by-passed them and set up state-run industrial facilities
For example, in 1937 The Ruhr iron and steel companies refused to invest in expensive equipment that used German iron. Georing’s response was to build a state-owned steelworks firm which by 1940 had developed into a gigantic industrial corporation employing 600,000 people

Question 9

How agriculture affected by the four year plans?

Answer 9

Overall, it was affected badly.

• Many working in agriculture were drafted into jobs in factories to create weapons etc.,
• Often, people working in agriculture would move to the cities to seek better-paid jobs.
• Around 1.4 million workers left the land between 1933 and 1939
• Land was sometimes given over to the armed forces for barracks, airfields etc.

Question 10

How successful was the four year plan (1936-1939) in preparing Germany for war?

Answer 10

only partially successful

• By 1939, the Nazis had an army of nearly 4 million men and an air force of 3,000 planes
• However, the army officers were concerned over equipment. Due to shortage of labour and raw materials in the rearmament process, there were shortages in supplies such as ammunition and very often the army were still reliant on horse-back to travel.
• many officers also anxious about a long war with several enemies especially with a lack of guaranteed supplies.

Question 11

Overall, despite the high targets, did the production of commodities and materials (like oil, steel, aluminium etc.) increase or decrease?

Answer 11

increase