Examining the Goal of Nazi Economic Policy: Reducing Unemployment
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‘Reducing unemployment was the main aim of Nazi economic policy.
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The claim that reducing unemployment was the main aim of Nazi economic policy is a complex and contested issue that requires careful analysis. While unemployment was certainly a significant problem in Germany during the interwar period and played a role in the rise of Nazism, it is not accurate to suggest that full employment was the primary goal of Nazi economic policies. Instead, the Nazi regime's economic policies were driven by a mixture of ideological, military, and geopolitical aims that extended far beyond simply reducing unemployment.
When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Germany was grappling with the devastating effects of the Great Depression, which had resulted in high levels of unemployment and economic hardship. The Nazis harnessed popular discontent with the existing economic conditions to gain support for their regime, and reducing unemployment was indeed a key component of their economic promises. The implementation of public works projects, the establishment of the Reich Labour Service, and other initiatives aimed at providing jobs were intended to alleviate immediate economic suffering and bolster public support for the regime.
However, it is important to note that the Nazi regime's economic policies were not solely focused on reducing unemployment. Hitler's broader economic vision was centered on achieving economic self-sufficiency, known as autarky, and preparing Germany for military expansion and territorial conquest. The rearmament efforts and militarization of the economy were fundamental aspects of Nazi economic policy, with the goal of building a military machine capable of ensuring German dominance on the world stage.
The prioritization of rearmament and military expansion over full employment became increasingly evident as the 1930s progressed. Hitler's dismissal of Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics in 1937 signaled a shift towards more aggressive economic policies geared towards preparing for war. The Four-Year Plan, introduced in 1936, focused on maximizing Germany's economic resources for military purposes and expanding the country's industrial capacity.
While some aspects of Nazi economic policy did have the effect of reducing unemployment, such as the mobilization of women into the workforce and the expansion of public works projects, these measures must be understood within the broader context of Nazi economic goals. The primary aim of the Nazi regime was not simply to achieve full employment for its own sake, but rather to use economic means to advance its militaristic and expansionist ambitions.
In conclusion, while reducing unemployment was a significant concern for the Nazi regime, it was ultimately subordinated to larger ideological and geopolitical aims. The drive for economic self-sufficiency, rearmament, and territorial expansion were central to Nazi economic policy, with full employment serving as a means to these broader ends rather than an end in itself.
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Reducing unemployment was the main aim of Nazi economic policy. Discuss this view.
The rise in unemployment was a major reason for the growth in support for Nazism and could not be ignored when Hitler gained office and power. Despite the use of force, the new government had to deliver on its economic promises but full employment was part of a wider economic aim to increase production to allow for rearmament to fulfil wider foreign policy and geopolitical aims which would lead to an expansion of the Reich to ensure self-sufficiency. Full employment would be a result of this projected expansion, so it was both an aim and a means to wider economic aims – autarky and military expansion.
Also, in the period before war preparation became a much more central and overt aim, economic policy was directed towards more than simply providing direct projects to reduce unemployment. Schacht was concerned less with deficit finance and public works than more orthodox plans for recovery through trade and private enterprise. The new Plan might have had unemployment reduction as an aim as part of a general economic recovery but did not target this. So measures such as the reduction of women workers and Jews in employment and policies towards department stores had ideological aims and while might have created some jobs did not play a major role in unemployment which was falling in any case as a result of a cyclical upturn.
The creation of a Reich Labour Service and some public workers schemes did target disguising and reducing unemployment. Also financing schemes for rearmament like the famous Mefo Bills and then the Four-Year Plan and moving away from fiscal orthodoxy with the dismissal of Schacht might have reduced unemployment in practice – indeed there was a labour shortage from 1936 in some areas and women returned to the work place. However, it is more plausible to see these policies being driven by concern about the dependence of the Reich on foreign imports which had been seen as one of the reasons for the loss of the Great War. Also, the mobilisation of the economy for a future war was more of a priority for Hitler who was explicit in his view that the economy is there to serve the state and not the other way round. So, neither full employment in its own right or even economic stability which might have protected full employment was the aim by the late 1930s, as the economy overheated with rearmament pressuring the supply of labour and raw materials.