Nazi Germany - Four Year Plans
The term four-year plan [Vierjahresplan] emerged in the era of National Socialism, consisting initially of a political propaganda slogan of Chancellor Adolf Hitler from 1933 ( "Give me four years!"). Along the line sof the Soviet Five Year Plans, the Nazi regime implemented a series of Four Year Plans. The first began in 1933, but was superceded by the Second Four Year Plan, which began in 1936. The Third Four Year Plan began in 1940, but it is not clear anyone noticed. The Germans began with a blueprint of a controlled economy in which labor, equally with raw materials, was looked upon as a resource needed for armament expansion.
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power in Germany in January 1933, as the head of a coalition government. But on March 23, 1933, the Reichstag passed an Enabling Act giving him permanent emergency powers, freeing him from the limitations imposed by a parliamentary system. Hitler started his program, directed to an all-out war effort, in March 1933, during a major trade depression when unemployed reserves were markedly large. In August 1934, following the death of President von Hindenburg, Hitler merged the office of Chancellor and President together and required to armed forces to swear an oath of loyalty him.
Agricultural-labor shortages appeared as early as the spring of 1933, coinciding with the Nazi attempt, as the first step in armament, to increase agricultural production to the point of economic self-sufficiency. The Nazi government ushered in the armament program by compulsory cartelization of industry in the fall of 1933, 3 months after extensive building of roads, factories, and airdromes had been started on a public works basis.
At least at first, Hitler left economics to Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank from May 1933 and Minister of Economics from August 1934. (Schacht later disagreed with Hitler's policies, resigning as Minister in December 1937 and Bank President January 1939. Subsequently he was put into a concentration camp). Schacht continued the measures begun under Chancellors von Papen and von Schleicher to stimulate production and reduce unemployment by government spending These measures, which came to be known as the First Four-Year Plan, were largely the work of Dr. Hans Luther, Reichsbank President from 1923.
In the spring of 1933, labor organizations were transformed into a single government agency, the Labor Front, under the control of the National Socialist Party. Membership in this organization became compulsory for all workers. Government control of production policy was inaugurated in the fall of 1934, when employer competition for skilled workers in the metal trades was beginning to disturb the continuity of employment in armament industries. In November 1934 the Minister of Economy, under the first Four Year Plan, assumed direct supervision over the compulsory trade associations by setting up a National Economic Chamber and regional economic chambers to centralize economic planning. By the end of 1934, compulsory trade associations existed in virtually all branches of economic activity.
The War Ministry played a significant role in the conception and execution of the Four Year Plan. It laid especial stress upon the management of labor under war conditions, a subject to which it is known that the War Ministry had devoted considerable thought in the realization that the improper handling of the labor situation during the years 1914–1918 constituted an important element of weakness and was a mistake which at all costs must be avoided in the future. Probably no one realized this better than General von Schleicher, who sought to build up a strong military state with the parliamentary backing of the trade unions.
The Four Year Plan for autarky and a war economy, often called the 2nd Four Year Plan, came into existence on 16 October 1936. It was designed to make the German economy, particularly the agrarian economy, able to withstand any possible crisis, and to help Germany to become as self-sufficient as possible in case of war and blockades. The industry blueprint adopted by the first Four Year Plan, to combat future scarcities of labor, raw materials, and power, called for development of large-scale mass production by concentrating armament efforts in large concerns, most of which were government operated. These concerns were to receive orders directly from a unified military-supply administration. As the necessity arose, labor and raw materials were to be transferred to them from less efficient smaller plants.
Hermann Wilhelm Göring was a highly decorated and well known pilot during the Great War. In 1922 he joined the NSDAP and was immediately appointed commander of the Sturmabteilung (SA – Brownshirts or Storm Troopers). Göring held many positions within the NSDAP government -- Reich Minister without Portfolio, Prussian Minister President, Reich Commissioner for Air, and Prussian Minister of the Interior. On March 1, 1935 he was made Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (Commander in Chief of the Air Force). By 1936, Hitler had made him a full general and appointed him as Plenipotentiary for the Implementation of the Four-Year Plan. This gave Göring enormous power to acquire property and direct industry as he was essentially an economic dictator for the Reich.
Once Hitler placed Hermann Goering in charge of the Four-Year Plan, he instructed him to develop a "blockade-free" economy where vital war materials would be produced in Germany instead of imported. Hermann Göring presented the memorandum to a cabinet meeting on September 4, 1936. He discussed the plans with the words: "It is based on the basic idea that the confrontation with Russia is inevitable." He closed the cabinet meeting with the note: "All measures must be carried out as if we were in the stage of imminent danger of war." [7] Goering's slogan was "Guns before Butter", but, in fact, Germany was producing "guns AND butter" [Britain was preparing for a total war, with all production geared to the war effort].
Following the policy of adapting the total economy to permit maximum utilization of available manpower for armament purposes, Germany, as labor reserves dwindled, progressively extended labor control over all fields of economic activity. During the 1936-1938 period Goering initiated expensive investments programs in basic chemicals, synthetic fuel oil and rubber, aluminum and iron-ore extraction, as well as initiating an improved agricultural program. Between 1936 and 1939 almost two-thirds of all industrial investment was devoted to the implementation of the Four-Year Plan. Along with this economic strategy, Hitler greatly increased military expenditures.
Hitler's “Confidential Memo on Autarky, August 1936” directed that the German army must be fully operational [einsatzfähig] within four years; and the German economy must be fit for war [kriegsfähig] within four years. Hitler’s proclamation of 09 September 1936 at Nuremberg stipulated that the new economic plan proposed that Germany must in four years be “completely independent from other countries in regard to all materials which can in any way be produced by German skill, German chemistry and German mining.” This plan will, Hitler declared, be carried out with Nazi energy and action, and the necessary regulations have been decreed. Having said this, however, neither in Nuremberg nor subsequently had either the broad outlines or the details of how this program will be put into effect were initially revealed.
A close reading of the proclamation divulged that evidently Hitler himself did not expect that the program will altogether free Germany from the necessity of importing, as he immediately modified its scope by expressing the belief that through this plan Germany will be able to “increase still further the national production in many spheres” and thereby “reserve the proceeds of exports …29 for the provision of raw materials which will even then be lacking.” These limitations, combined with the present state of uncertainty as to the details of the program, tended to take the edge off the latest Nazi economic sensation which was delivered with the customary party and press packing.
On the afternoon of 17 December 1936, there was held in the Preussenhaus in Berlin a semi-secret conference on the Four Year Plan. The assembly, which in all numbered some 300 persons, was composed of representatives of industrial groups, of high Party leaders and officials from the Economic and Labor Ministries as well as from the Labor Front. On the evening of the next day the semi-official Deutsches Nachrichten Büro issued a somewhat unilluminating communiqué to the effect that Göring had stressed the mission of the German economic system to serve the interests of the whole community and that therefore in contrast to outmoded individualistic economic principles this aim compelled universal obedience. It is reported that the Führer made a surprise visit to pay Göring a tribute as a man who did not know the word “impossible”, and to appeal to all groups to align themselves behind him in the task of fulfilling the Four Year Plan.
Göring actually spoke about two hours in his most unrestrained style. He declared the government’s determination to proceed with the re-armament program to the full limit that was possible, that the need for effective military self-sufficiency transcended considerations of the economically practicable, and that therefore industry as well as the workers and the people must be prepared for further sacrifice. In the course of one of his numerous digressions he declared with that fanatical irresponsibility characteristic of many of Germany’s present day rulers that “the day would come when the Austrians would deem it an honor to be given the Hitler salute”. It is understood that this remark was at once reported back to Vienna where it had the reaction that might be expected in Austrian government circles.
From 1937 onwards Göring amassed vast wealth through the Reichswerke – Hermann Göring and at the same time began to acquire a large personal art collection which grew as the Reich occupied Europe. Unlike the collection Hitler amassed for his Führermuseum, Hermann Göring accumulated artworks as a testament to himself as he was known to think of himself as a “Renaissance man.” In his capacity as Plenipotentiary for the Implementation of the Four-Year Plan, Göring controlled several agencies well suited for plundering -- Haupttreuhandstelle Ost, Devisenschutzkommando, and the Abteilung Feind Vermögen.
The numerical strength of armies was limited by the availability of industrial workers able to keep them equipped not only with munitions but with the latest models of airplanes, tanks, and motorized transports. Pressure to secure labor for armament needs had been greatly augmented. During former wars, labor shortages, primarily of un-skilled labor, eventually developed as a result of the demand for munitions. The need for mass production of mechanized combat units, combined with the military requirements for mechanical maintenance, changed the nature of war-labor demands.
In the spring of 1938, in the interests of simplified administration, the major functions of the second Four Year Plan, primarily concerned with raw materials and industr y control, were transferred to the Ministr y of Economy. Henceforth, the functions of the second Four Year Plan were confined to the regulation of prices, forestry, and transportation, and the solution of food and labor supply problems. The Ministry of Economy assumed the major responsibility for formulating and directing industrial policy and the distribution of raw materials.
Reserves of unemployed metal workers were virtually exhausted early in 1937, less than 3 years after the first official reporting of local shortages in metal trades. In January 1939 the national labor shortage was estimated at 1 million. Durin g 1940 those conditions were somewhat relieved by the importation of foreign workers and prisoners of war, but by the fall of 1941 the shortage had grown more acute, undoubtedly as a result of the military-labor demands of the Russian campaign. The unfavorable turn of events in the winter campaign in Russia introduced even greater labor scarcity and necessitated increased use of German women and foreign labor and the paring down of labor requirements in all branches of the national economy.
Dwindling of total unemployed reserves below 500,000 and full mobilization of the armed forces, coupled with the need to build the West Wall fortifications with the greatest possible speed and at the same time continue the expansion of armaments, forced increasing reliance on planned reallocation and control of employed workers. During 1938 and 1939, control of hiring was applied progressively to wage earners, salaried workers, works managers, and paid and unpaid learners, then extended to occupations in all industries, except agriculture, mining, and domestic service in homes with children under 14.
In September 1939, following the declaration of war, the last vestige of competition between government departments was removed by transferring to the Ministry of Economy the remaining administrative functions of the second Four Year Plan. At the same time, a National Economic Council was established under the leadership of Reichsmarshal Hermann Goring to determine the policy of the war economy. This Council comprised the Minister of Economy, the Minister of Labor, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Interior and Forestry, the Price Commissioner, the Chief of the Military Economy and Armaments Administration of the High Command, the Under Secretary of the second Four Year Plan administration, and a representative of the National Socialist Party.
Hitler's letter on the appointment of Goering to the representative of the third four-year plan was signed 20 September 1940. "My dear field Marshal. In order to give you the legal basis for the continuation of the four year plan, I have today, my decree on the tasks of the Commissioner for the four year plan, you are given orders and powers of attorney be extended until the end of the war. So it will be as possible, their successful activity on the victorious termination of the war, so important important area to continue."
During 1941 and the first half of 1942, dearth of labor reserves of any description led to a tightening of compulsory controls. Despite the disadvantages of this form of service, the volume of labor conscription increased. As compared with the 350,000 conscripts of October 1940, there were 630,000 persons working on a conscript basis in January 1942. In March 1942, employers submitting false reports on their labor forces and labor requirements were made subject to imprisonment, or death in especially serious cases. The extreme scarcity of labor and the increase in the numbers of potentially dangerous foreign workers necessitated increased application of the police power in matters of labor discipline. During 1941 there were instances of heavy penalties for insubordination
By 1940 — following agreements with countries allied to Germany, the application of compulsory service to occupied territory , and utilization of prisoners of war—foreign labor became an important source of labor reserves. Special efforts were made to utilize their skills in industry, even at the risk of lowered production. At the beginning of 1941, 52 percent of this group were used in agriculture, as compared with 95 percent at the beginning of 1940. By 1942 an estimated minimum of 5 million foreigners including war prisoners were employed in Germany. Thus, of a total of 24 million employed persons, women and foreigners constituted approximately 14.4 million. Other less important sources of labor include minors, pensioners, and Jews.
German and Austrian Jews began being deported to ghettos in eastern Europe in the fall of 1941. Extermination of the Jews began at the Chelmno death camp in occupied Poland on December 8, 1941. On January 20, 1942 a group of 15 Nazi leaders met at Wannsee (section of Berlin) to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." During the year Nazi death camps in occupied Poland at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, and Majdanek-Lublin, began the mass murder of the Jews and others.
