Posted on 05/26/2019 5:02:34 PM PDT by LS
Recently we had a spirited debate here over the strengths and weaknesses of top-down totalitarian systems, such as China and Nazi Germany, when it came to economic growth.
In "Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State," Gotz Aly, a leading German historian of the Holocaust, sheds new light on the Nazi "Economic Miracle." In a nutshell, Aly argues that "The Nazi leadership established a framework for directly sharing the spoils of its military victories with the majority of Germans," and that it was Hitler's ability to---until late 1944---keep the average German family on the home front well fed and supplied.
Yet Nazi Germany was "extremely unstable" economically from the outset and the "mystery is how it managed to stabilize itself . . . [and] surive for twelve spectacularly destructive years." The answer was that aside from its approach to the Jews, the Nazis were "remarkably friendly toward the German lower clases, soaking the wealthy and redistributing the burdens of wartime to the benefit of the underprivileged."
In short, Nazi Germany behaved just as any SOCIALIST country would. Aly points out that "it is necessary to focus on the socialist aspect of National Socialism, if only as a way of advancing beyond the usual projections of blame . . . ." Hitler after all promised . . .
ready for this? "a socially just state." Shades of Occasional Cortex.
While the Nazis fought the most expensive war in world history, "the majority of the Germans bore virtually none of the costs." Quite the contrary, German programs of occupation were designed to plunder, whose "cascade of riches and personal advantages . . . led the majority of the population to feel that the regime had their best interests at heart." Aly shows how everyday people acted on ordinary calculations of self-interest to become cimplicit in the government program of genocide.
Aly also shows that National Socialism was a YOUNG movement (Heydrich 28, Speer 27, Goebbels 35, Eichmann 26, Mengele 21, Himmlier and Frank both 32.) "Nazism was a natural extension of the youth movement," a 'dictatorship of youth" which "developed into the most destructive generational project of the twentieth century." The author also quotes extensively from prominent Nazis and their socialist impulses (Eichmann: "My political sentiments inclined toward the LEFT and emphasized socialist aspects every bit as much as nationalist ones.") Eichmann went on to say that Nazism and Communism were "quasi-siblings." Before Hitler demonized the USSR, prominent Nazis had been praising the industrial achievements of Stalin.
Aly makes the interesting observation that precisely because the German public believed the Reich was working for them, not nearly as much of a police state was needed as often thought. For example, East Germany would later employ 190,000 official spies and an equal number of "unofficial collaborators" to watch over 17 million; the Gestapo in 1937 had about 7,000 employees including staff watching over 60 million.
The "Nazi miracle," Aly notes, was "largely an illusion. Total wages paid dropped from 1928 levels by 9m reichsmarks in 1935. But Hitler spent 45m reichsmarks between 1933 and 1939 on the military, financed almost entirely by borrowing. The Nazi regime required the constant military destabilization of the periphery in order to maintain the illusion of financial stability at the center of the Reich." But by 1938, one of the top financial experts bluntly told Hitler that they would run out of money in a month. Germany's financial situation got worse by the day.
Already a massive confiscation of Jewish wealth was under way through taxes, special taxes, elimination of all Jewish savings in anything except German bonds, confiscation of all Jewish-owned works of art, jewelry, or other assets, all of which were sold immediately with all money going back to the Reich. These and other "atonement" payments increased the German treasury by 6% but Aly's calculations show that ultimately a whopping 9% of ALL Germany's budget came from the Jews. Bank directors acted as illicit intermediaries, "fencing stolen goods by turning them into available cash" for the Reich.
At the same time that the Third Reich began to conquer and shift the burden of paying for the war onto the territories, Hitler resisted all requests to raise taxes at all on ordinary Germans. There were some "soak-the-rich" taxes on the richest Germans---which suited the middle class and poorer Germans just fine and convinced them even more that Hitler was their friend. EVEN TOWARD THE VERY END OF THE WAR HITLER REFUSED TO ALLOW HIGHER TAXES ON THE GERMAN PEOPLE. As Hitler repeatedly said, "the costs of occupying a given area are to be borne by the area itself."
Meanwhile, "Supplemental benefit payments for rent, insurance, coal, potatoes and other daily needs were paid out with minimal bureaucratic delay." The state offered household assistance to families with large numbers of children and added supplements for dental bills and children's education costs.
Aly dedicates more than two chapters to analyzing the lives of ordinary Germans, who were suddenly thriving with "lightbulbs, children's toys, bed and table linens, furniture, and household effects" all seized from the Jews and/or captured peoples. Soldiers were allowed to bring massive amounts of plunder back home with no questions asked. Jews' apartments and houses were immediately made available for occupation by Germans.The Wehrmacht instituted a rotation policy from the East Front to France where soldiers participated in the looting.
One technique used to plunder France, Holland, and other countries was the introduction of a new money system only in the occupied territories. All exchanges had to be made in new "RKK certificates" which were convertible into francs but not reichsmarks. This eliminated the need for massive amounts of IOUs and requisitions and kept inflation in the occupied country. (In all the occupied countries, inflation soared while it remained under control in Germany itself).
Aly points out one last item, which is ominous given the US's recent difficulty with passing actual budgets: in 1935, Hitler prohibited the publication of the budget---because by then he was borrowing extremely heavily and already was seeing the necessity of conquest to keep the German economy afloat.
This gave rise to a predictable problem: "However vast the amounts of loot and the size of territories annexed, the revenues derived fell short of expectations. The Nazi state could never develop and cultivate what it had conquered." At the same time, slowly Hitler convinced the German people that a change in direction was impossible, and that with all aligned against them, it was literally victory or death.
And this is Aly's final key point: "The Nazi leadership did NOT transform the majority of Germans into ideological fanatics who were convinced they were part of the master race. Instead it succeeded in making them well-fed parasites. Average Germans became "unscrupulous profiteers and passive recipients of bribes . . . . Men from the simplest walks of life suddenly owned things they hadn't known existed a few years previously.
Aly this disagrees with authors such as Daniel Goldhagen, who saw a largely Christian ideological Jew-hatred driving, as he called them, "Hitler's Willing Executioners." Rather, Aly shows that by capturing the "experts" especially in the budgetary and financial areas and forcing them to enact his program, he by extension controlled the ordinary Germans, who saw the Nazis as serving the interests of the people.
Aly's is an eye-opening (if mind-numbingly boring in spots) book that goes further than does Adam Tooze ("The Wages of Destruction") in portraying the German economy as a version of blitzkried itself, always rapidly exporting its failings before they came home to roost in Germany itself. It's a worthwhile read if only for the first 3-4 chapters and the conclusion.
My hat’s off to you. Everything you say, I agree.
People are willing to “follow orders” when it means they keep their jobs, and their pensions. Not really talking about concentration camp goons here, just everyday functionaries and bureaucrats.
When the local politicians say “stand down” for example time and again we’ve seen the law enforcement stand idly by as normal people are assaulted. Sound familiar? It should.
Strangely our universities have the tenure system, ostensibly they cannot be fired for holding certain positions, or saying certain things - yet they have rolled over en masse for all kinds of crazy stuff. That makes no sense.
Especially when the horrific stuff is taking place hundreds of miles from your cities.
Out of sight, out of mind.
I liked your review and agree with it. I read another book some years ago, “Hitler’s Willing Accomplices” proving that the majority of German civilians backed Hitler’s actions against the Jews and turned a blind eye towards the 10,000 concentration camps where million were murdered.
So, how about we -
1/ Forgive the college loan debts of the current tribe who are living in mom’s basement, then
2/ Supply dope at wholesale cost and put ‘em on the welfare roles.
3/ Then, increase for welfare benefits by 50% for both the domestic and “undocumented” types.
At that point, have we reached critical mass to where it would be no big deal for the BDS and Antifa slime to agree to ship the “Evil Joosh” off to G-d knows where and confiscate their wealth?
Thank you for making us aware of this book. I have quite a few books on dictators and dictatorships, so I am eager to acquire books that examine the more quotidian aspects of life in those regimes.
So the Nazis started to lose the war when they ran out of rich people from whom to redistribute?
4/ Continue the illusion of growth via deficit spending and ever increasing national debt.
Does the author touch on the Nazi’s policy of looting the central banks of conquered nations and hauling the gold and other assets back to the Reich?
ROFL!!!
Bro if you dont know the history of The Versailles Treaty (which i mentioned) or the rampant poverty and inflation in Germany (which I mentioned) then I don’t have a month worth of course work to teach you.
You seem well learned so I kinda figure you know those.
Funny, everyone else who replied to my comment (besides the obviously biased poster of the thread) agreed with my presentation.
Enjoy your Memorial Day!!
To avoid such stringencies in World War II, Germany's Admiral Erich Raeder proposed taking the Mediterranean, then Egypt and the rest of the Mideast, and extending German bases down the east coast of Africa to South Africa. By the interdiction of air and sea travel, Germany would deprive the British of control of those countries and regions and endanger their dominant position in India and South Asia. This would have gained vast new resources for Germany while depriving Britain of them.
Moreover, with access to Allied supplies lost, the Soviet Union would have been weakened and might have been forced to accommodate to German demands. A German invasion of the USSR might have been unnecessary, or it would have been easier and more certain of success.
Yes. At length.
pretty much. Course, there were the real military defeats as well.
You are welcome. Warning, the middle 100 pp are really dry.
Yes. another good one.
“...The Versailles Treaty is more to blame for WWII than the average German....” [dp0622, post 4]
“Yep.” [mrmeyer, post 13]
Thoroughly misunderstands the First World War and misstates the aftermath.
Plundering the conquered lands was not some uniquely goofy notion that occurred to NSDAP leaders one morning, after yet one more dreary late night at the Berghof, watching American Western films, sipping tea and nibbling cake, and struggling not to nod off in the middle of Adolf’s monologues.
It was explicit Third Reich strategy and military policy, foreseen from the outset. It was also firmly grounded in German (Prussian) history & culture. Happened during WW One, to such an extent that Left-leaning History Channel/American Heroes Channel content providers have mentioned it repeatedly.
The Kaiser’s army and the German people lived high on the hog until the Allied naval blockade produced results. Unterseebooten of the Kaiserliche Marine attempted to starve UK out of the conflict, but failed to by a margin of a few weeks only.
1914-1918 illustrates the messiness and ambiguity that attend conflict between a maritime power and a land power. Blockades are unavoidably slow & relentlessly cruel.
The assertion that the 1919 Versailles Treaty was uniquely unfair and immoral is Progressive revisionist hoo-hah: conservatives ought to have better judgment than to be taken in by such propaganda.
Reparations & punitive demands had been a central feature of European conflicts, treaty negotiations, and political maneuvering for centuries - since before most people became literate there. What miracle in international affairs and Great-Power gamesmanship happened in the early 20th century that would have caused those countries to abandon the only rules they knew?
Forum members appear to have missed the fact that the Progressives were thoroughly in love with Italian Fascism, and, later, German National Socialism. They ached to bring about similar changes in the United States and Britain, flacking the New Deal, begging for more-radical policies, and later agitating for “peace.”
Until Hitler attacked the Soviet Union.
And Norway, and Denmark. Oh wait.
“Already a massive confiscation of Jewish wealth was under way through taxes, special taxes, elimination of all Jewish savings in anything except German bonds, confiscation of all Jewish-owned works of art, jewelry, or other assets, all of which were sold immediately with all money going back to the Reich. These and other “atonement” payments increased the German treasury by 6% but Aly’s calculations show that ultimately a whopping 9% of ALL Germany’s budget came from the Jews. “
Socialism based on race, sound familiar?
Cross out “jews” and write in “white males”...
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