Back in 1939, in the early days of the war, the Ministry of Economic Warfare was always in the headlines. Learn why and how Germany was divided after WWII. One lesson that was learnt from World War I was that although the navy could stop ships on the open seas, little could be done about traders who acted as the middleman, importing materials the Nazis needed into their own neutral country then transporting it overland to Germany for a profit. Those complications related to the problems of German unity and the future of Berlin. However, this miracle only applied to Western Germany, which was operating a capitalist economy became successful. [clarification needed] The ships were based in the Rhine port of Basel, which gave access to the seaport of Rotterdam, until Allied bombing of a German dam interrupted it. Loss of the Yugoslavian and other Balkan mines took away the last supplies of chromium and reduced the supply of lead by approximately 40 per cent the position being worsened by the loss of substantial amounts of scrap which were collected in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. However, negotiations for the return of looted gold allegedly sent to Sweden by Germany as payment for goods dragged on for many years. How did the Treaty of Versailles punish Germany after World War I Many fertile regions such as the Vexin, the Beauce, and the Brie suffered seriously from drought. Immediately after the end of the war, the Netherlands demanded 25 billion Guilders as compensation for among other things the Dutch winter famine of 19441945. With its economy and infrastructure ruined by the war with Italy, Greece was compelled to pay occupation costs and to grant Germany a "war loan", and was subjected to the same confiscation of food and raw materials practiced elsewhere. Germany began by targeting the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish pulp boats, sinking several before Sweden shut down its pulp industry and threatened to stop sending Germany iron ore unless the attacks ceased. In addition, about 45% of pig iron manufacturing had been lost, together with 40% of steel furnace capacity. and "the German state cannot close a case that has never (yet) been opened"[49], As a result of the Nazi German occupation, much of Greece was subjected to enormous destruction of its industry (80% of which was destroyed), infrastructure (28% destroyed), ports, roads, railways and bridges (90%), forests and other natural resources (25%)[50][51][52][Scholarly sources required.] Map of Allied-occupied Germany split into four militarized zones. How the Welfare State Transformed European Life. Heavy investment was made in ersatz (synthetic) industries to produce goods from natural resources Germany did have, such as textiles made from cellulose, rubber and oil made from coal, sugar and ethyl alcohol from wood, and materials for the print industry produced from potato tops. Albert Speer said later that this was a decisive turning point in the war.[16]. Elsewhere, the blockade began to do its work. [15] The works were located in the area bounded by Hanover, Halle and Magdeburg, which was considered safe from land offensive operations, and a programme was initiated to relocate existing crucial industries nearest the borders of Silesia, Ruhr and Saxony to the more secure central regions. In some cases, as with the crucial Swedish iron ore trade, it was done openly, but elsewhere, neutrals secretly acted as a conduit for supplies of materials that would otherwise be confiscated if sent directly to Germany. The work of the actual inspection of cargoes was carried out by customs officers and Royal Naval officers and men who, together with their ships, were assigned to Contraband Control for various periods of duty. After the first 6 months of the war, Norway had lost 49 ships with 327 men dead; Denmark 19 ships for 225 sailors killed and Sweden 32 ships for 243 men lost. . More disaster followed on 17 April during a daylight "precision" raid on the MAN diesel engine factory in Augsburg. The Undermining of Democracy in Germany. Occupying a Chernozem zone of seemingly inexhaustible thick humus, it produced 25% of Russia's wheat, and immense crops of rye, barley, oats, sugar beet, potatoes, sunflowers, flax, maize, tobacco and cotton. The German Problem first. Millions of Germans were homeless from Allied bombing campaigns that razed entire cities. However it would take a while for production levels to recovers as this operation took a great deal of time as the Soviets were often forced to reassemble whole factories in remote areas. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. France assumed it would become entitled to large volumes of German coal from the Ruhr as war reparations, but the Americans, who kept France and other countries going with a number of short-term loans and Marshall Aid, began to realise correctly that Europe needed the powerhouse German economy to restart growth and prevent the spread of communism, and refused to agree to reparations,[83] the very thing which led to German resentment after World War I and the rise of Hitler. The Soviet Union controlled East Germany. The speed of advance often meant there was no time to build up an orderly logistical structure and, despite the use of a truck system called the Red Ball Express, for 5 days at the end of August virtually the entire American and British advance came to a complete halt due to a lack of fuel. By this time, attacks on German fuel installations had been so successful that September's output was 8% that of April, and supplies were soon exhausted, just when fighter production reached its highest level. Former president Herbert Hoover, who had done much to alleviate the hunger of European children during World War I, wrote:[33]. Germany was almost entirely dependent on Hungary and Yugoslavia for bauxite, used in the production of Duralumin, a copper alloy of aluminium critical to aircraft production. They began by raiding airfields and railway stations in France and the Netherlands and badly damaged the Heroya aluminium centre near Trondheim in Norway which produced synthetic cryolite, used in the manufacture of aluminium. Germany had also forced ethnic Germans out of the country, and raped, and starved many of the German citizens. Foreign stocks of about 2.5 billion dollars were confiscated. Germany: Reluctant military giant? - BBC News In February 1945, they met at the Yalta Conference in the Soviet Union and decided the final partitioning and division of Germany. [26][22][25][27][28][29], On 10 September 2004, the Polish parliament (Sejm) passed a resolution stating that: "The Sejm of the Republic of Poland, aware of the role of historical truth and elementary justice in Polish-German relations states that Poland has not yet received adequate financial compensation and war reparations for the enormous destruction and material losses caused by German aggression, occupation and genocide. Because Mefo bills did not figure in government budgetary statements, they helped maintain the secret of rearmament and were, in Hitler's own words, merely a way of printing money. [62] The Japanese began with a barely adequate 6.1m merchant tons which American submarines and aircraft gradually whittled away until only 1.5m tons remained. The first V1 flying bomb was launched against England on 13 June 1944, and soon 120 V1s per day were being fired at London, killing large numbers of civilians. Because of Germany's new proximity on the west European coastline and the decrease in shipping traffic, ships which would normally have been used for patrolling the high seas were diverted to more urgent tasks. In the former occupied countries, severe inflation caused in part by the large amount of money hoarded during the war, particularly by collaborators caused further spiralling food prices and a persisting black market. Nikita Khrushchev Career & Destalinization | Who was Nikita Khrushchev? The Allied response to the blockade was the Berlin Airlift, in which the Allies supplied West Berlin by bringing in food and supplies on airplanes. In total Britain sent more than 4,500 Valentine, Churchill and Matilda tanks, and 4200 Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft.[6]. A land route across the roadless 800-mile (1,300km) expanse of Canada, long discussed, now became vital, and so on 8 March 1942 the American army began construction of the Alcan Highway, a 1,671-mile (2,689km) long stretch from Dawson Creek in British Columbia, north-west through Yukon Territory to an existing road on the Canadian/Alaskan border. [53] Under the plan, the Germans agreed to supply 1m bushels (1 US bushel = 8 US gallons, about 27kg for wheat) of bread grains each month, and the committee was to provide 20,000 tons of fats, soup stock and children's food. This forced a rethink on the self-defending bomber formation and the curtailment of daytime attacks. Over the next few decades, these different economic philosophies would lead to huge economic disparities between the two Germanys - the West's economy eventually being far healthier than the East's. The United States, France and Britain maintained control of West Germany. WWII brought great devastation across Europe, especially to Germany. Germany after WWII | What Happened to Germany after WWII? - Video In many cases these cargoes proved useful for the Allies' own war effort Contraband Control also intercepted a consignment of 2 tons of coffee destined for Germany, where the population had long been reduced to drinking substitutes not made from coffee beans at all. During an early visit to the base, Churchill was unimpressed with the levels of protection against air and submarine attack, and was astounded to see the flagship HMSNelson putting to sea with no destroyer escort because there were none to spare. With no passenger trade, and with all Scandinavian and continental sea traffic suspended, the port was far less busy than normal, but as many as 35,000 men still filled the warehouses with grain, tobacco, flour, tea, rubber, sugar, meat, wool, timber and leather every day throughout August 1940. Up to the end of February 1940 about 70 had tried to get away, but very few reached Germany. Over the next few months, the ship delivered around 6,700 tons of supplies to Greece, but foundered on rocks and sank during her fifth voyage. After World War II both West Germany and East Germany were obliged to pay war reparations to the Allied governments, according to the Potsdam Conference. The economic war consisted mainly of a naval blockade, which formed part of the wider Battle of the Atlantic, but also included the bombing of economically important targets and the preclusive buying of war materials from neutral countries in order to prevent their sale to the Axis powers. Indeed, due to Germany's willingness to fight until the very last man and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin's insistence on Germany's unconditional surrender, the Allies had fought their way through the German heartland, wreaking devastation along the way. [3] Leith-Ross had represented British interests abroad for many years, having embarked on a number of important overseas missions to countries including Italy, Germany, China and Russia, experience which gave him a very useful worldwide political perspective. [8] In the case of Poland, the acquired territory was a compensation for the Polish Eastern Borderlands (Kresy), which were annexed by the Soviet Union. As 1940 drew to a close, the situation for many of Europe's 525 million people was dire. Allied estimates of the value of looted gold ranged between $18.5 million and $22.7 million, but although the British, US and French agreed that Sweden's gold reserves had increased during the war, they were unable to agree how much if any of these rises were due to looted gold. Once new supplies of oil, rubber, and tungsten began flowing from the newly occupied Far East, mutually beneficial barter agreements were agreed whereby the Germans would acquire these vital commodities in exchange for the precision tools, blue prints and ball bearings which Japan badly needed. Since before the war, pro-Nazi Spain had suffered chronic food shortages which were made worse by the blockade. Steel, iron and wood were so hard to obtain that the work of rebuilding Rotterdam came to a standstill. [1][2] The country's cities were severely damaged from heavy bombing in the closing chapters of the war and agricultural production was only 35% of what it was before the war. German soldiers got double rations, but this was still only a modest daily diet, similar to that served to inmates in American prisons. Blake Stilwell. Following the German defeats at Stalingrad and El Alamein, the war began to swing decisively the Allies' way. [41] In Germany herself, there was a chronic shortage of men to work the fields and 30,000 agricultural labourers were brought in from Italy along with thousands of Polish slaves. The situation in Germany after World War II was dire. The blockade became part of people's everyday lives, and it was inevitable that this would eventually be reflected in film. To help in the interim, Congress agreed to let Britain have a million[citation needed] mothballed First World War rifles, stored in grease with around fifty rounds of ammunition for each. The enormous rail marshalling yard at Hamm was badly hit, leaving some 9,000 workers permanently engaged carrying out running repairs. But Britain, having already sold 1 billion of her foreign investments and taken on another 3 billion in loans to pay for war materials was now feeling the financial strain of the war. Finally, on 12 October, the invasion was called off until spring 1941, although British cities, notably London, Birmingham and Liverpool continued to be heavily bombed for another 6 months. Ultimately it was the sustained Allied bombing of the transport network which broke Nazi resistance. This exacerbated the already stark disparities in wealth between eastern and western Germany, a situation that is still somewhat present today. Although numerous attempts were made to bypass the blockade, the net was extremely hard to avoid, and most neutral captains voluntarily stopped at one of the eight Allied Contraband Control ports.[24]. In the first 15 weeks of the war the Allies claimed to have taken 870,000 tons of goods, equal to 10% of Germany's normal imports for an entire year. 7.181 billion dollars were initially slated for Greece. From July the B-24 Liberator and Flying Fortress fleets of the United States Air Force (USAAF) took on the role of daytime precision bombing of German arms and communication targets. This was still not enough, and eventually international pressure forced Britain to lift its blockade for the first time. East & West Germany Partition, Conflict & Reunification | When Did Germany Reunite? [57] Although America did not enter the war for another nine months, she could no longer claim to be completely neutral and Hitler immediately ordered U-boats to attack US vessels. [59][57] While more German politicians and members of the Bundestag are calling on the federal government to compensate Greece financially for the effects of the Nazi occupation,[60][61] the German government replied that the stipulations of the Two Plus Four treaty still stand and the issue was resolved in 1990. The looted goods were taken to Germany mainly by trains, which themselves were mostly kept by Germany.[44]. Example: At the Yalta Conference, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt agreed to partition Germany into four different zones, largely in response to the Soviet need for border security. Although Hitler was credited with lowering unemployment from 6 million (some sources claim the real figure was as high as 11m) to virtually nil by conscription and by launching enormous public works projects (similar to Roosevelt's New Deal), as with the Autobahn construction he had little interest in economics and Germany's "recovery" was in fact achieved primarily by rearmament and other artificial means conducted by others. Other means of minesweeping were also developed, whereby the mines were exploded by patrolling ships and aircraft fitted with a special fuse provocation apparatus. On 30 December the Manhattan, carrying 400 tons of small cargo, sailed from New York to deliver mail to Italy, but was stopped six days later by a British destroyer at Gibraltar. But despite the British Foreign Office urging the Ministry of Economic Warfare to be cautious for fear of damaging relations with the US, the British claimed to have uncovered a nationwide US conspiracy to send clothing, jewels, securities, cash, foodstuffs, chocolate, coffee and soap to Germany through the post, and there was no climbdown. Only the sites at Leuna and Polotz were still producing any oil, and though in December limited production restarted, further raids quickly put them out of action for good. The country had been partitioned and had suffered, like so many others from inflation caused by the occupation mark system. Germany After WW2 | A Defeated People | Documentary on Germany in the Aftermath of World War I and the Rise of Nazism, 1918-1933 Tanya graduated from Concord University with a Bachelor's degree in Education and a certification in Social Studies 5-12. The U.S. and Britain were sympathetic to Sweden's difficult position and of her attempts to maintain her neutrality and sovereignty by making important concessions to the Nazis, such as continuing to export timber and iron ore and by allowing the Germans use of their railway system, a privilege which was heavily abused. However, only small areas were occupied and then returned after German compensation payments. In the first 7 days of October alone, the British Contraband Control detained, either by confiscating neutral cargoes or capturing German ships, 13,800 tons of petrol, 2,500 tons of sulphur, 1,500 tons of jute (the raw material from which hessian and burlap cloth is made), 400 tons of textiles, 1,500 tons animal feed, 1,300 tons oils and fats, 1,200 tons of foodstuffs, 600 tons oilseeds, 570 tons copper, 430 tons of other ores and metals, 500 tons of phosphates, 320 tons of timber and various other quantities of chemicals, cotton, wool, hides and skins, rubber, silk, gums and resins, tanning material and ore crushing machinery. Mass attacks a few days later left a large part of the city in ruins, reportedly killing 42,000 people.[16]. This six-nation agreement facilitated the exchange of resources between Western European countries and promoted economic growth throughout the region. In January Herbert Hoover's National Committee on Food for the Small Democracies presented the exiled Belgian Government in London with a plan he had agreed with the German authorities to set up soup kitchens in Belgium to feed several million destitute people. Why Poland Wants Germany to Pay Billions for World War II East Germany struggled economically, while West Germany flourished under a capitalist system. The Soviet Union claimed it needed buffer states in Eastern Europe to protect against future Western aggression, but in reality it wanted the states to help spread the reach of communism further into Europe. Amid increasing reports of atrocities committed by her forces in these lands, such as the Nanking Massacre and the use of poison gas, world opinion turned against Japan,[6] and from 1938 America, Britain and other countries launched trade embargoes against her to restrict supplies of the raw materials she needed to wage war, such as oil, metals and rubber. What you may not know, however, is that only a quarter century ago you might have asked a follow up question: 'Which Germany?' As elsewhere, Germany paid in kind with military equipment, for which they were greatly aided with their acquisition of the Czech Skoda armaments interests. Nazi Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. Numerous concessions were made to Germany before the rise of Adolf Hitler, and by 1938 only the territorial settlement articles remained. Lesley has taught American and World History at the university level for the past seven years. [44] On September 14, 2022, the Sejm passed (418 for, 4 against, 15 abstentions) a resolution stating that: "The Polish state has never renounced its claims against the German state; the Sejm of the Republic of Poland calls on the German government to assume political, historical, legal, and financial responsibility for all the effects caused by the unleashing of World War II. With Soviet help they began pushing Axis forces beyond Yugoslav borders, leading to further German losses of food and metals. Although U-boats were the main threat, there was also the threat posed by surface raiders to consider; the three "pocket battleships" which Germany was allowed to build under the Versailles Treaty had been designed and built specifically with attacks on ocean commerce in mind.
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