The Collapse Of The German War Economy 1944 1945

In this book, Alfred Mierzejewski describes how the German economy collapsed under Allied bombing in the last year of World War II. He presents a broad-based, original study of German wartime industry and transportation, and of Allied air force planning a

In this book Alfred Mierzejewski describes how the German economy collapsed under Allied bombing in the last year of World War II. He presents a broad-based, original study of German wartime industry and transportation, and of Allied air force planning and intelligence, including the first complete analysis in English of the German National Railway. The German industrial economy was extraordinarily dependent on the timely, adequate distribution of coal by railroad and inland waterway. The German National Railway in particular was the pivot of the finely balanced armaments production and distribution system created by Albert Speer. But Allied strategists did not immediately recognize this. Only in late 1944, when Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Sir Arthur Tedder built a new strategic consensus, was this vital coal/transport nexus severed. The result was the rapid paralysis of the Nazi war economy. Mierzejewski measures the economic consequences of the bombing by considering broad indices such as armaments and coal production, railway performance, and weapons deliveries to the armed forces. In addition, he shows how individual companies in each of Germany's major economic regions fared. By drawing on previously unexamined files of private German manufacturing companies, the Reich Transportation Ministry, and Allied air intelligence agencies, Mierzejewski creates a rare combination of economic analysis and military history that provides new perspectives on the German war economy and Allied air intelligence.

This title describes the development of Germany's war economy in the light of the unpublished documentary material which was captured in 1945 including records from the Reich Ministry of Armaments and Munitions, notes made by Albert Speer of his conferences with Hitler, many papers of the economic and munitions section of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and of its chief, General Thomas, as well as some papers of private armament firms such as Messerschmitt. It presents a detailed study of a contest for power at the highest levels of the National Socialist hierarchy, making this invaluable reading for studies in military and German history, politics and studies in totalitarianism.

Hitler's decision to declare war on the United States has baffled generations of historians. In this revisionist new history of those fateful months, Klaus H. Schmider seeks to uncover the chain of events which would incite the German leader to declare war on the United States in December 1941. He provides new insights not just on the problems afflicting German strategy, foreign policy and war production but, crucially, how they were perceived at the time at the top levels of the Third Reich. Schmider sees the declaration of war on the United States not as an admission of defeat or a gesture of solidarity with Japan, but as an opportunistic gamble by the German leader. This move may have appeared an excellent bet at the time, but would ultimately doom the Third Reich.

"Masterful . . . [A] painstakingly researched, astonishingly erudite study…Tooze has added his name to the roll call of top-class scholars of Nazism." —Financial Times An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period to explore how Hitler's surprisingly prescient vision--ultimately hindered by Germany's limited resources and his own racial ideology--was to create a German super-state to dominate Europe and compete with what he saw as America's overwhelming power in a soon-to- be globalized world. The Wages of Destruction is a chilling work of originality and tremendous scholarship that set off debate in Germany and will fundamentally change the way in which history views the Second World War.

2. Verdenskrig. Om Tysklands økonomiske forberedelser til krigen, tysk økonomi, tysk krigsøkonomi, m.m. Study udgivet af Harvard University i 1959. Emneord: Tyske Krigsforberedelser: 2. Verdenkrig; Tyskland, Historie, 1930'erne; Tysk Krigsøkonomi; Tysk Økonomi; Tysk Krigsindustri; Tysklands Oprustning i 1930'erne; Tysklands Våbenindustri; Tysklands Råvareproduktion; Tysk Krigsproduktion; Tyske Ressourcer;

A fully revised and updated edition of this short comprehensive survey of the Nazi economy.