Probleme der deutschen Außenwirtschaft und einer "europäischen Wirtschaftsplanung" 1943/44 [Problems of German foreign trade and "European economic planning" 1943/44]

Abstract

The problems of the quantity and effectiveness of the fascist German war economy have already been written about in detail. Much of this research is devoted to the economic plundering of the occupied territories and the states allied with Hitler's Germany. Unfortunately, too little attention has been paid, even in the history of the GDR, to the problems of the institutional mechanism through which the economic policy and economic strategy of German imperialism was set in motion or even initiated and conceived. The question is: who were the people, interest groups, class forces and institutions of state or private origin that designed and implemented the policy? What intentions and goals did they pursue, who benefited most from it, in the broadest sense, not just in terms of achieving maximum profit. An attempt will be made here to present initial results from recent research on the German war economy in the years 1943 - 1945, although these cannot claim to be complete because the work has not yet been completed.