I recently emailed a Harvard History professor asking how Hitler was able to finance the construction of a military capable of taking on all of Europe considering that the German reparations post WWI nearly collapsed the deutschmark.

This was the reply that I received...

-----Original Message-----
From: ozment@fas.harvard.edu [mailto:ozment@fas.harvard.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 7:38 AM
To: adam
Subject: Re: mein kampf

Armaments and war preparation were key factors in creating jobs and uniting Germans around the Nazis, and of course defense was Job 1 post WWI. If you want a real expert's commentary ask Charles Maier: csmaier@fas.harvard.edu.

SO

As professor Ozment suggested, I asked professor Meir the same question but added the additional question of "How did Germany afford to finance the construction of their industrial military construction?"

I never got a reply.

According to my research the Weimar Republic was so bankrupt post reparation payments, that people were actually burning deutschmarks to stay warm as it was more cost effective than buying wood or coal.

So who financed Germany's military construction?

quote:

Originally posted by 18153500:

So who financed Germany's military construction?

Gnomes -

. . . . . they're evil.

Oh, this target is too fat...

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

In addition to killing Jewish people, Hitler took their money.

So the answer is, they stole it.

quote:

Originally posted by Killswitch_Engage:
In addition to killing Jewish people, Hitler took their money.

So the answer is, they stole it.

Its true that the Nazis stole Jewish assets and even the gold from their teeth, but Hitler's rise to power and the growth of their military began before the first concentration camps. I have read some people say he used the money from Mein Kampf sales but that is just ridiculous considering how much it costs to construct such a massive army and the R&D behind their military machines.

According to this article Henry Ford was one of Hitler's fist Foreign backers.


http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/cha...t%20Foreign%20Backer

Well then he robbed Peter to pay Paul, what's your point?

That America funded the Nazis?

quote:

Originally posted by Killswitch_Engage:
Well then he robbed Peter to pay Paul, what's your point?

That America funded the Nazis?

True.

quote:

Originally posted by Thud357L:

quote:

Originally posted by Killswitch_Engage:
Well then he robbed Peter to pay Paul, what's your point?

That America funded the Nazis?

True.

Hitler put the Nation on a war economy funding it partially, the exact same we are funding our economy, and partially by internal currency manipulations. He put it on a tab.

According to William Shirer in "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," when asked by Mussolini to compromise on Poland, he replied, "Our economy will collapse in a few years, it's now or never (Rough paraphrase from memory)"

So, while some Americans were happy to add their little bit to the Third Reich, their role was minor.

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by Killswitch_Engage:
Well then he robbed Peter to pay Paul, what's your point?

That America funded the Nazis?

The money trail appears to lead to America business interest. And like Thud357L pointed out the money trail also leads to GW Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush who had his assets temporarily seized in the Trading with the Enemy Act.

quote:

Originally posted by Grachus:

quote:

Originally posted by Thud357L:

quote:

Originally posted by Killswitch_Engage:
Well then he robbed Peter to pay Paul, what's your point?

That America funded the Nazis?

True.

Hitler put the Nation on a war economy funding it partially, the exact same we are funding our economy, and partially by internal currency manipulations. He put it on a tab.

According to William Shirer in "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," when asked by Mussolini to compromise on Poland, he replied, "Our economy will collapse in a few years, it's now or never (Rough paraphrase from memory)"

So, while some Americans were happy to add their little bit to the Third Reich, their role was minor.

Dave

Don't we barrow our money from the Federal Reserve every time Congress votes to print more money?

Moving to the history forum here shortly.

quote:

Originally posted by 18153500:

quote:

Originally posted by Killswitch_Engage:
Well then he robbed Peter to pay Paul, what's your point?

That America funded the Nazis?

The money trail appears to lead to America business interest. And like Thud357L pointed out the money trail also leads to GW Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush who had his assets temporarily seized in the Trading with the Enemy Act.

Yes, I know. Do you have something more to add to these facts? Some new nugget of information? A smoking gun? A mushroom cloud perhaps? Please share with us.

The Nazis also got a lot of work done for barely subsistence wages, including for example, the labour on grand projects like the autobahns. This reduced unemployment and boosted the economy at a stroke

They borrowed a hell of a lot of cash off the Swiss, much of their modern kit was bought on the never-never.

Don't forget that the Wehrmacht's apparent technical superiority was often only a surface shell - while the Panzer divisions were mechanised most of the infantry still walked and much of the logistics and artillery was still horse-based, in direct contrast to the all-motorised British and largely mechanised French. So while the blitzkrieg units were expensive the vast majority of the army was quite cheap.

I don't believe that anyone who has made a comment on this thread has read "The Arms of Krupp" by William Manchester. If you had you'd be able to answer the question, with out coping out and just blaming us, the Americans.
The Armes of Krupp is the story of the rise of the German steel industry, but more importantly it is a history of the rise of the unified German nation from the 1870s thru the 1960s.
Afried Krupp AG, had as its head Gustav Krupp von Bolen und Halbach who had married Fritz Krupp's oldest daughter Bertha. Fritz had died without a male heir so Wilhelm the Second chose Gustav to marry Bertha. Upon marrying her he took her name Krupp to legimatize his role as head of the works.
In the thirties the Naziis had gained a majority in the Reichstag but were at their political peak, so to say, the next election they began to decline and were runninhg out of money, they lost several important reichstag seats. One of the prominant German industialists called for a meeting of the Reich's richest men, in a club they had started just for indurtrialists and businessmen. The speaker for that meeting was to be Adolph Hitler. Hitler oulined his and the party's plan for a greater Germany and made promises to these industrialists. At the end of the meeting Krupp stood up and told the men to "Pony up!" He himself pledged a million marks and others made contributions to hrelp finance the Naziis. It was Gustav Krupp, I.G. Farben and the men of German industry who pledged money, support for the Naziis in return for the influx of orders to build up their businesses and make money.
I have no doubt that there were American as well as other foreign interests that helped the Naziis, but after this meeting Goebbels made the comment, "We were broke and facing ruin, when all of a sudden we had money again, it came pouring in with out end."
So you can say that the German industrialists helped finance the Naziis on the promise of large orders of material for the military and the greater Reich.
My strongest suggestion is to get a copy of the Arms of Krupp and study it VERY closely. It is a wealth of information about the nation of Germany, its rise and fall.

Guy, I don't know where you're getting your figures on mechanization of the main armies in WWII. The British were never largely mechanized.
Their Infantry walked just like the others. As for the Germans the figure agreed upon is 50%. All their artillery was NOT horse drawn. A good many units were mechanized with prime movers and trucks. The French also used alot of horsepower to move things, such as guns and supplies. Large numbers of mules and horses were evident in the French Army. Later in the war when the Free French forces were equiped with American equipment, then yes they did achieve a high mechanization rate for their forces.
That oculd also be said for the British units later in the war also, when the equipment ratio climbed to 80 percent American equipment.
Have you heard in the late summer,early fall of 1944, the diversion of over three hundred American trucks to the British because they found out that that many of their three ton trucks had faulty pistons and had to be withdrawn for service?
It has been said that the German units that achieved the highest rate of mechanization were the Waffen SS units which is understandable since they were given priority on men and equipment, that rate was about 72 to 74%.

Many of the people early in the thread make a bad assumption; that a poor economy means a poor country. Germany was not poor. It had extensive and cheap industrial fuels (the coal fields of the Ruhr), a large industrial base (again, the Ruhr), extensive raw materials, one of the largest steel industries in Europe, and a relatively large, well educated population. Due to war reparations (that they paid in full) their economy was in shambles.

Once their economy was righted with a stable currency (the Reichmark), the National Socialists used large deficit spending to support extensive public works to reduce unemployment (near 30% at the worst). Through price controls, they kept the inevitable inflation usually caused by such actions under control. In short, they took the Keynesian route out of the Great Depression many years before anyone else did (Economist John Maynard Keynes was the first to predict how bad the Great Depression would be and how to recover from it).

Several years later, America would do the same, only we called it 'the war effort' but it took the start of the war in Europe to trigger it, and the Japanese attack to really kick it into high gear. It had the same effect: reduced unemployment, huge resurgence in industrial output, yet very little subsequent inflation. Our national debt was consequently sky high by the end of the war, but our economy and industrial complex was booming. We had some lean years immediately after the war, but with little foreign competition (Japan and Germany and most of Europe on their knees economically), the 50's saw some of our greatest increases in economic power.

It was exactly what the Germans were hoping for: being on the winning side of the war with little damage to their own industrial base while everyone else's were in ruins.

Same scenario, same result. I don't understand the need for any wild conspiracy theories. It's basic Keynsian economics (albeit in the German case it was mixed with a very severe Realpolitik outlook for world domination).

The only practical difference was that the Germans lost.

Sullivan013

Interesting question. I've wondered about that for years. Many of us have seen photos of german folks with a wheelbarrow full of paper money on the way to the market to buy a loaf of bread, during the Weimar Republic years.

JPope gave some good input about the "Arms of Krup". That would be a good source. Sullivan's Post had some good info (but I sure don't agree with Keynes!! boo-hiss.)

BTW---Speaking of Keynes and other bad economic policies/plans/theories, read the link that I found (which I'll post below) about the Economy of the Nazis. Interestingly, the German government was thrilled when we went off the "Gold Standard" in the early 1930's. Without a set Gold Standard for a nations treasury then institutions/banks/governments can "make", "print", "invent" money.

I also (by search engine) found a title which sounds like it might have some answers to the Thread Question. The title is "Doing business with the Nazis: Britains Economic and Financial Relations with Germany 1931-39" by Neil Forbes.

If any of you have read Sir Winston S. Churchill's books about the Second World War (and also a TV show about him called "The Wilderness Years") you may recall that for years in The British House of Commons, Churchill was the only guy that kept speaking out and warning that Germany was rearming and expanding their military which was supposed to be limited by the Versailles Treaty.

Seems from what I've read over the years is that many banks and corporations and investors had a part in building up the Third Reich. Just as they did with the Soviet Union.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nazi_Germany

Switzerland financed the Axis and the Allies. And that is how they stayed neutral and were not attacked. Then the nations put more money in Switzerland - and it repeats all over again.

BTW (617) 495-4303 x273 is the public listing for Maier's office.
.

Don't confuse Swiss Banks recieving and holding deposits from international customers (including U.S. customers) with "financing" the Nazis. Hitler and his mouthpiece Goebbels called Switzerland:..."That filthy little State"... and had plans to invade it after the fall of France.

They did not invade because the Nazi intel types did their "homework" and realized that if the Nazis had tried to invade---the Swiss would have done to them what the Finns did to the Red Army Soviets in 1939-40. Why..? Because the Swiss male/militiaman was/is armed with his own Infantry weapon at home and they were on instant mobilization status. The Swiss to this day practice with their weapons both reservists/civvies/regulars at annual matches.

The Swiss were well aware of the "Nazi Pigs" and had no wish to be overrun by the beer hall boys of Munich. {BTW-Jews were enlisted and Officers in the Swiss Armed Forces.}

There was a famous quote penned by a reporter when he asked the Swiss commanding General about the situation. He said: "Sir, the Nazis have 5 million troops in Uniform, whereas you have 1 million troops. What will you do if you are attacked..?!? The Swiss general replied: "Issue each man 5 rounds of ammunition."

http://en.wikipedia.org/Military_of_Switzerland

http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/switzerland.html