Michelle Skillman

Mrs. Daly

Global II

27 April 2009

          Prior to World War II, the entire world went into a world wide depression after the Stock Market Crash in the United States. People were desperate for a strong leader that would bring their country out of hard times. Germany turned to one leader who is more known for his crimes against humanity than his economic reform. Adolf Hitler’s economic policies were successful in making Germany one of the first countries to pull out of the Global depression and paved the way for his military conquests.
          The Global depression and harsh punishments from the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, caused Germany’s economy to have one of the worst economic conditions in the 1920’s. Part of this was Germany’s colonies being taken away. As many countries were during this time period, ones country was only as strong as its resources. Raw goods from colonies were needed to keep a country going. Germany was no exception to this rule. Due to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost all of its overseas colonies, and part of its own land (Trueman).Land lost was Alsace-Lorraine, Eupen, Malmedy, Northern Schleswig, Hultschin, West Prussia, Posen, and Upper Silesia (Trueman).These lands were given to France, Belgium, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Poland (Trueman). Overall, this meant less raw materials for the country to manufacture into more useful necessities, and more expensive ones. This would include the loss of produce, food, from outside countries with a variety of foods.
          Germany also had to give up more than just land and colonies. Germany had to pay reparations due to the war guilt clause (Trueman). This was article 231 in the Treaty of Versailles that stated that it was the responsibility of Germany for “causing all the damage” that the winning powers had suffered from (Newton). This meant that Germany had to pay for all of the damage during the war to be repaired (Trueman). This totaled at £6,600 million (Trueman). The German people felt betrayed that their country had to agree to such things as reparations and “war guilt”, leaving the people with a need for revenge. This left people wanting a strong leader that would carry out the needed actions for such revenge.
          Next was Germany’s military. Fearing another world war, victorious nations decided to restrict Germany’s military, and did so with the Treaty of Versailles. Germany had its army reduced to just one hundred thousand men (Trueman). Germany’s air force was reduced to absolutely nothing (Trueman). The navy was stripped of its submarines and allowed only six capital naval ships (Trueman).. For further protection, for the victorious countries, the Rhineland was made into a buffer zone. No German soldier or weapon was to be allowed into the Rhineland (Trueman).
          Needless to say, with loss of jobs in the military, navy, and air force, the economy wasn’t doing too well. Reparations that were needed to be paid for brought Germany in deeper debt. Raising money to pay off the reparations only made it worst (Roberts 21). Businesses soon began to shut down, resulting in an increase in unemployment (21). Bt 1932, more than six million German people were unemployed (Elson 94). The German people felt such a great need for someone to bring them out of this horrible condition. Germany in a poor economic state allowed Adolf Hitler the chance to make a dramatic change to Germany’s economy and lift the spirits of the German people.
          Adolf Hitler was able to create many jobs with his public work projects. Hitler had many goals to accomplish, such as fixing the road system and creating large buildings for various purposes and reasons. To do this, Hitler needed many workers for construction. He took in workers, skilled and unskilled to raise his building from the ground (Scobie 129). He also supported building the autobahn, which is a superhighway that reached out many miles (“German”). Not only did it help stimulate Germany’s sluggish economy, but it also provided him with popular propaganda (Scobie 129). Such propaganda showed the progress happening by Hitler’s hand and brought more supporters. This could also be used in Hitler’s future military plans and raise the self-esteem of the German people. One would be able to feel some sense of pride knowing that they’ve contributed to their country and supported their families.
          With jobs in construction available, unemployment decreased greatly. People were finally getting back into the workforce. This meant that not only will debt be decreased, but the production of goods increased as well. The pig iron output in 1936 was 15, 303,100 tons compared to just 12,841,900 tons in 1935 (“Germany”). This is a big increase in just a year. Also with surprising success, the unemployment in Germany decrease to just over a million in just a year. The year 1935 had 2,508,000 people unemployed in Germany in the month of December(“Germany”). The following year the unemployment dropped to 1,478,000 unemployed(“Germany”). It is easily seen that for so many to get jobs in just a year, someone was doing something right. Adolf Hitler, the ruler at the time, was being successful in bringing his people out of a deep unemployment problem. People could soon rest at ease knowing that their country was working hard to get them the jobs they needed. Even though Hitler created jobs through his public works, he also improved the economy by rebuilding the German Army to its former, and new, glory.
          By rebuilding the German Army, not only did Adolf Hitler violate the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler created jobs and rebuilt the economy in Germany. As previously stated, the Treaty of Versailles made it so the German Army was allowed only one hundred thousand men, six capital naval ships, no submarines, and no air force (Trueman). Hitler worked hard to bring the Germany Army back to its former glory and beyond that. He set out to make his army strong enough to fight a war, most likely for revenge of the harsh punishments from the Treaty of Versailles and to gain land. Before Adolf Hitler, there were volunteers for army serviced, but they were only in groups of less than a hundred men thrown together very loosely (“Reichswehr”). This didn’t help at all, since they weren’t being paid for volunteer work. Without income, there’s no possibility for outcome, making the economy frail. All in all, there was just an army of one hundred thousand men called the Reichsheer, an a small defensive navy called the Reichsmarine (“Heer”). This left a lot of room for Adolf Hitler to come in and create a larger military, creating more jobs.
          When Adolf Hitler came into power, the Third Reich was formed (“Heer”). With startling National Socialist German Workers Party now in power, the Treaty of Versailles was renounced in just two years of their empowerment (“Heer”). The Reichswehr, the name for the former military, became the Wehrmacht, which was later renamed as the Heer (“Heer”). This was made up of an army called Heer, a navy called Kriegsmarine, and a newly formed air force called the Luftwaffe (“Heer”). The Heer began small with just twenty-one Divisional sized units with three Army Groups to control them, not to mention numerous amounts of smaller formations (“Heer”). Starting in 1935, this force grew to have hundreds of Divisions, dozens of Army Groups, and thousands of smaller units to support it all by the year 1945 (“Heer”). Remembering that just one hundred thousand men were previously enlisted, it’s surprising to find out about how many served in the newly reformed military in such a short period of time. Close to thirteen million men served, greatly larger than what the Treaty of Versailles allowed Germany to have less than twenty years prior to the violation of the same treaty (“Heer”). With so many open positions in the military, German leaders were more than happy to allow any man to enlist into its power. This meant that millions of men gained employment  due to the limitless amount of open positions. With an increased amount of employment, the economy was able to recover from the depression it was facing. Adolf Hitler was successful to be able to create a country with such a strong economy from nothing, partly due to building the German Military to such a great strength. This made him able to then rage war on countries that have a history of being the strongest, but greatly struggled against the German Military.
          Pulling Germany out of the Global depression was successful using Adolf Hitler’s economic policies, which then paved the way for his military conquests. This should not have been an easy task at all. The German economy was in great debt due to not only the Global depression, but due to the harsh punishments of the Treaty of Versailles. Desperate unemployed German people needed a strong and firm leader, like Hitler, to bring them out of this horrible condition they lived in. They managed to get through this difficult time with the help of Hitler’s construction projects and his expanded military. The main idea was to give jobs. With working people, there’s money to be made. When people make money, they don’t need to hold onto it, allowing them to spend money on goods. Hitler’s plan was to build up his country with the help of his people. Hitler would have never succeeded without the corporation of the German people and the German people would have remained in unemployment without Hitler. It was a required balance. One can learn that you can’t succeed without help and you have to help for others to succeed. Without both, nothing could be accomplished. It is easy to see this with Hitler’s economic reform and how successful it was. To be so successful in bringing a country, like Germany, that has been struck down and made to be kept down up and out of hardships, one must have a well formulated plan. Adolf Hitler and his policies had to be very effective with its plans and actions, bringing Germany’s people out of the worst condition and become prosperous.






Works Cited

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