Figure 1.--Modern Socialists want to pretend that the NAZIs were a Capitalist creation. Nothing disproves this more than the NAZI Four Year Plan, controlled by NAZI leader Herman Göring, not capitalists. In fact, the Dour Year Olan as designed to control capitalists. It was virtually identical to the Communist Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union. This NAZI propaganda poster reads, "Gebt mir 4 Jahre Zeit" (Give me 4 years time). Herman Göring was one of the three most powerful figure in the NAZI Reich, the others being Hitler and Himmler. He was the most important figure in the ecomomy. Hitler himself had no interest in the economy other than he wanted low unemployment to keep the population supportive and expanding production of weaponry. Hitler thus gave Göring total authority and contol over the NAZI economy and ordered the creation of the Four Year Plan to enforce NAZI control (1936). Germany was in act a command economy just like the Soviet Union. The objective was autarky as part of the preparation for war. Click on the image to see another NAZI Four Year Plan propaganda poster. It reads, "Help Hitler build. Buy German goods." This was the autarky element of the Four Year Plan. The war making element was kept from the German people.

The Four Year Plan was the second NAZI economic recovery plan. Hjalmar Schacht was Hitler's President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics. He this oversaw the first NAZI economic recovery program. This involved borrowing large sums, much of which was used to finance rearmament. The level of borrowing was hidden to the public and international lenders. Schacht had the skills needed to do this. Schacht was actually aware that if the level of debt became know that Germany would have to declare bankruptcy with disastrous economic consequences. He tried to convince Hitler to scale back military spending. Hitler would not hear of it. Thus a year after resuming conscription and announcing the creation of the Luftwaffe, he put the second NAZI economic program in the hands of Reich Marshal Herman G�ring. He was given enormous power, including the authority to: 1) acquire property and businesses, 2) issue orders to industrial concerns, 3) rechannel financing, and 4) direct policy. Hitler replaced Schacht with Walter Funk. Hitler no longer needed a man with skills and ideas, but only someone to follow his orders. The second NAZI economic recovery program became known as the Four Year Plan. It was a series of economic reforms with the purpose making Germany self-sufficient (1936�40). Unannounced was that the reason self-sufficiency was so important was that Hitler planned to go to War and wanted Germany to be less vulnerable to a naval blockade that so weakened the World War I effort. The NAZIs also believed that making Germany self sufficient and less dependent on imports would reduce unemployment. A high priority was building up the nation's military capability and rearming the military forces. It was the beginning of placing the German economy on a war footing. This meant violating Versailles Treaty ending World War I. Other goals included increasing synthetic fiber production, increasing automobile production; initiating building and architectural projects, and developing the Autobahn system. Public works projects under the direction of Fritz Todt, a Hitler intimate. G�ring used the Four Year Plan to enrich himself personally. He directed enormous sums toward military preparations. G�ring was a heavy handed, if somewhat chaotic, administrator. He make huge demands of his staff. He fired civil servants with no explntion. He created and absolutely controlled a General Council. He determined allocations of foreign exchange, raw materials, and labor. He had his hand on the foot levers of economic policy: controlling agricultural policy, setting price controls, determing industrial investment, and managing foreign trade. The decesions he made were often based on personal whim and benefit rather than informed assessments. While heavy handd, he did not involve himself in detail or devote the time to the many tasks that such enormous responsibility demanded. More importantly, however, what he did not do was to prepare Germany for total war. He did not address the diversion of resources for the pet projects of local NAZIs. And he often made appointment based on Party loyalty and not competence. These and other inefficiencies would not be addressed until Hitler appointed Albert Speer armaments minister (1942). G�ring created the Reichwerke to increase pressure on industry to cooperate with the Four Year Plan and to operate the industrial assets of countries seized by the NAZIS, beginning in Austria (1937). Schacht resigned and largely withdrew from public service.

Created: 11:09 PM 8/4/2019
Last updated: 11:10 PM 8/4/2019