The Making Of The German Post War Economy

Introduction -- Part I: Conception and Communication -- Chapter 1: Academic Concepts between Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Socialism -- 1.1. The Freiburg Circles and Neo-Liberalism -- 1.2. The Freiburg School and Ordo-Liberalism -- 1.3. The Cologne School and Social Market Economics -- Chapter 2: Political Considerations between Programmatic Intention and Pragmatic Imperative -- 2.1. The Social Democratic Party and Liberal Socialism -- 2.2. The Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and Social Liberalism -- Part II: Politics and Public Opinion -- Chapter 3: 1945/1946 - Stupor and Search for Direction -- Chapter 4: 1947 - Disillusion and Disappointment -- Chapter 5: 1948 - Aspiration and Apprehension -- Chapter 6: 1949 - Contentment and Confidence -- Conclusion.

This exploration of the statistical evidence on Germany's post-war reconstruction sheds new light on the foundations of German economic power.

The years following the end of World War II in Germany were a significant period of change and upheaval. This book on the economic reconstruction of post-war West Germany traces the development of economic and socio-political ideas, and their gradual absorption by mainstream politicians, officials and the general public during the period of transition between 1945 and 1949. In the aftermath of World War II, several German think-tanks, political parties and individuals gave impulse to and then shaped the development of a viable socio-political and economic model between the extremes of laissez-faire capitalism and the collectivist planned economy. In their endeavours to bring into effect their particular economic ideas - often diametrically opposed to one another - the parties of left and right stimulated not only academic and political debate, but also public debate about the political and economic reconstruction of occupied post-war Germany. While all the various neo-liberal approaches assigned to the people sovereign and decisive status in the institutional economic order, and recognised the interdependence of politics, economics and the public, one particular school of economic thought outpaced the others in communicating a model of coordinated economic and social policy, namely the Social Market Economy. Christian Glossner here investigates whether or not it was primarily the subtlety of the political campaign for this model that led to its implementation by the then Economic Council and eventual validation by the German electorate. The programmes published by the principal academic and political groups of the time and the practical day-to-day decisions of the first parliament in post-war Germany are analysed with reference to popular preferences. By examining both the formative involvement of German parties in post-war reconstruction and the role of the public during the process of economic liberalisation, this book provides explanations for why the Social Market Economy prevailed as the socio-political and economic model for the Federal Republic of Germany. It will be of interest to scholars of German, economic and twentieth-century history.

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.

War and Economy in the Third Reich examines the nature of the German economy in the 1930s and the Second World War. Richard Overy's essays, collected here for the first time with a substantial new introduction, explore the tension between Hitler's vision of an armed economy and the reality of German economic and social life. Often thought-provoking, always informed, War and Economy opens a window on an essential aspect of Hitler's Germany.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: Very Good (1,3), University of Glasgow (Adam Smith Business School), course: Growth and Development, language: English, abstract: This essay deals with the story of economic growth of post-WWII Germany. Devastated in terms of material loss and human well-being, Germany put its name in the books of economic history as a success story of development. The 'Wirtschaftswunder' (Economic Miracle) that started in the early 1950s is a topic that has been intensely studied by scholars. This essay will briefly describe some facts prior to World War II and the extent of loss during the war. The following part will highlight some data about the growth and explain how this was achieved.

This book, first published in 1942, examines the economic necessities, defensive and offensive, basic and strategic, involved in waging war. Written with total global war raging, it analyses the unprecedented demands placed on the economic system of a nation, and looks at the great shifts of productive effort and limits on consumption that were needed.