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The cost of war

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by U1969296 (U1969296) on Sunday, 13th November 2005

  Hi Guys
  How did the Nazis pay for there war? apart from the obvious Stripping the assets of countries captured. There must have been a huge war machine.
  Any suggestions?

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by arnaldalmaric (U1756653) on Sunday, 13th November 2005

  It's a pity that there isn't an Economics Board as I'd like to know as well. However here's what I've managed to work out.
  
  The inflation that Germany suffered during the Weimar Republic actually wiped out a lot of debt. German industry had borrowed money from international bankers to pay for the expansion post 1918, then repaid in worthless currency. (Most businesses run with a debt to the bank, they have no liquid assests).
  
  The American government (amongst others) and people financed the Weimar Republic through German Government bonds, paid for in US Dollars, repaid in worthless Marks. When Hitler came to power the German Treasury was actually in a very healthy state, thanks to the inflation. Hitler (et al.) spent all of this on establishing full employment and the military, and established several favourable trade deals with Russia, Turkey and Sweden amongst others. This then increased the amount of taxes that could be gathered. (Yes, it's a spiral that can only end one way unless there is something that can halt the spiral, in Hitlers mind this was quite easy, conquering new territory).
  
  Aside from this there was the obvious asset stripping that went on from overrun countries and the seizing of private assets.
  
  Also, if you look at a "democratic" country such as the UK or the USA and compare the amount of money that is spent in establishing and maintaining that democracy to that spent in a Totalitarian state you may be suprised how much democracy costs!
  
  In reality the Third Reich didn't have a huge war machine, the USA and Russia both easily outstripped them, even the UK could match them.
  
  The one person in The Third Reich who could answer these economic questions would probably be Speer. However in his memoirs he never mentions where the money came from. Probably because it wasn't his concern.
  
  Economics wasn't a strong point of The Third Reich. (Not mine either, as it is voodoo as far as I'm concerned).
  
  I hope someone else can shed some light onto this as I know how the UK financed WW2. (We'll repay our debt to the USA in December 2006 according to a recent Hansard answer). Apparently Germany, Russia, France and Italy have already managed to repay.
  
  Cheers AA.

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