Economy under national socialism - hidden history

The Reichsnährstand uses a poster to point out the importance of freedom of food.

The Nazi economy was extraordinarily productive and yet social. After the disastrous state of Germany due to the consequences of the Versailles dictation (and the related policy of the Weimar politicians), exacerbated by the "Great Depression", the leader Adolf Hitler led Germany to a new size and economic prosperity. The National Socialist economic policy continuously reduced the number of unemployed from six million to full employment. [1]

Agriculture and food

In no other sector in the Third Reich was party and economy so closely intertwined as in agriculture. Richard Walther Darré, Reichsbauführer of the NSDAP, was elected President of the German Agriculture Council. As Reich Minister for nutrition and agriculture, he was able to eliminate the plight of German farmers through two basic measures. The Reichserbhof Act served to combat rural exodus by prohibiting the sale of a farm of a certain size by the owners or their heirs. This stopped the speculation on the property. Until 1937 fell round 45% of the agricultural area, about 700,000 farms, under the protection of the Reichserbhof Act. [2]

With the combination of the various branches of agriculture, the Reichsnährstandsgesetz created the basis for a comprehensive market regulation of agricultural products, eliminating capitalist food speculation. The newly established Reichsnährstand included forestry, horticulture, fishing and hunting, agricultural cooperatives, the agricultural trade and the processing of agricultural goods. Until 1945, the threads of the agricultural production and distribution systems converged there.

At the Reich Farmers’ Day in 1934, Darré announced the so-called production battle. This was intended to prevent the unbalanced increase in production [3] and to adapt agricultural production to consumption in the German Reich. (? Self-sufficiency) Wasteland areas should be made cultivable by the Reich Labor Service. In order to prevent an expected haphazard overproduction, a restructuring of the acreage was aimed at, so that the products could be planted everywhere that promised the highest yield according to the climatic conditions.

The plight of the German peasantry, which had been caused by the devastating consequences of the plutocratic economic order, could finally be overcome by the National Socialist agricultural policy. The sales proceeds and the purchasing power of the farmers (by lowering sales, property and slaughter tax, exemption from unemployment insurance and lowering interest) increased significantly. Recorded in 1939 the German Reich, now with the Saarland, Austria, the Sudetenland, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Memelland in the food sector an 83% self-sufficiency. The implementation of agricultural policy and the associated freedom of food was one of the most important goals of National Socialism to achieve political freedom.

Money management and banking

Money and credit served the national economy in National Socialism. In contrast to the plutocratic economic order, the state is given a dominant position in the monetary system. Thus, the state, the economy and the people in the National Socialist economic order are independent of capital. By escaping the dependency of the capital market, which was governed by liberalist laws, and by designing it according to the goals of national economic management, the great goal of job creation was successfully accomplished.

National Socialism calls for the conversion of the big banks on the principle of non-profit making, based on the example of the savings banks, since the savings entrusted to them are invested in a way that is economically beneficial. This is done by using the money to grant loans. Above all, the strata that are threatened by the existence of liberalist economic policies need loan assistance. This includes agricultural, commercial and commercial SMEs. In addition, it is above all the savings banks that give the municipality the necessary funds to finance transport facilities, schools, hospitals and electricity plants.

The term four-year plan initially referred to a slogan by Hitler from 1933 ("Give me four years!"). From April / May 1936 the four-year plan under Hermann Göring resulted in a large bureaucratic institution in the rank of Supreme Reich Authority. At that time, the agency’s policy consisted primarily of achieving economic independence within the envisaged four-year timeframe (self-sufficiency) and of rearmament in order to regain military capability after the targeted weakening of Germany by the winners of the First World War. In October 1936, Göring first presented his organization, which he commanded from the Prussian Ministry of State, to the public in his position as "Commissioner for the Four-Year Plan". In 1940 Hitler’s order was extended by Hitler for four more years.

Economy under national socialism – hidden history

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