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Germany: Democracy and Dictatorship c.1918-1945

The Nazi economy: recovery, rearmament and total war

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 2 and A2 Unit 4

Overview

Hjalmar Schacht's role in the Nazi economy, autarky and how the Nazis pursued it and guns or butter debate.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What did Speer achieve?

Key term

What part did foreign and forced labour play?

Numbers

What was Hjalmar Schacht's role in the Nazi economy?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was Hjalmar Schacht's role in the Nazi economy?

    Model answer

    He was president of the Reichsbank from 1933 and Economics Minister from 1934, responsible for financing recovery and rearmament without inflation or a balance of payments crisis.

  2. 2

    Explain what Mefo bills were.

    Model answer

    Credit notes issued through a dummy company and guaranteed by the state, which allowed rearmament to be paid for off the books and kept its scale hidden.

  3. 3

    What did the New Plan of 1934 do?

    Model answer

    It gave the government control of imports and foreign exchange and steered trade towards bilateral deals, particularly with south-eastern Europe, which paid for German goods in raw materials.

  4. 4

    How did the Nazis reduce unemployment?

    Model answer

    By public works including the motorways, by the compulsory Labour Service, by rearmament and conscription, and by removing women and Jews from the figures.

  5. 5

    Why should the unemployment statistics be treated with care?

    Model answer

    Jews and women pushed out of work were not counted, those in the Labour Service and conscripts were removed from the total, and political prisoners disappeared from it altogether.

  6. 6

    What was the aim of the Four Year Plan of 1936?

    Model answer

    To make Germany's economy and armed forces ready for war within four years, and to reduce dependence on imports by developing synthetic substitutes.

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AUniversal male suffrage was kept.
BCandidates were officially sponsored.
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Wilhelm II succeeded in 1888 and dismissed Bismarck in 1890.
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