167:". Hitler went on to write that given the magnitude of the coming struggle that the concerns expressed by members of the "free market" faction like Schacht and Goerdeler that the current level of military spending was bankrupting Germany were irrelevant. Hitler wrote that: "However well balanced the general pattern of a nation's life ought to be, there must at particular times be certain disturbances of the balance at the expense of other less vital tasks. If we do not succeed in bringing the German army as rapidly as possible to the rank of premier army in the world...then Germany will be lost!" Along the same lines, Hitler wrote later in his memo: "The nation does not live for the economy, for economic leaders, or for economic or financial theories; on the contrary, it is finance and the economy, economic leaders and theories, which all owe unqualified service in this struggle for the self-assertion of our nation."
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leadership and their replacement by worldwide Jewry. No state will be able to withdraw or even remain at a distance from this historical conflict...It is not the aim of this memorandum to prophesy the time when the untenable situation in Europe will become an open crisis. I only want, in these lines, to set down my conviction that this crisis cannot and will not fail to arrive and that it is
Germany's duty to secure her own existence by every means in face of this catastrophe, and to protect herself against it, and that from this compulsion there arises a series of conclusions relating to the most important tasks that our people have ever been set. For a victory of Bolshevism over Germany would not lead to a Versailles treaty, but to the final destruction, indeed the annihilation of the German people...I consider it necessary for the
259:, tanks or heavy artillery or general staff. The German navy was restricted to 15,000 men and no submarines while the fleet was limited to 6 battleships (of less than 10,000 tonnes), 6 cruisers and 12 destroyers. Germany was not permitted an air force. Finally, Germany was explicitly required to retain all enlisted men for 12 years and all officers for 25 years so that only a limited number of men would have military training.
43:(Reichsbevollmächtigter) whose jurisdiction cut across the responsibilities of various cabinet ministries, including those of the Minister of Economics, the Defense Minister and the Minister of Agriculture. The Four Year Plan was part of the alternative governmental structure created by Hitler and the
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The primary purpose of the Four Year Plan was to provide for the rearmament of
Germany, and to prepare the country for self-sufficiency in four years, from 1936 to 1940. Aside from emphasizing the rebuilding of the nation's military defenses, in disregard of the restrictions imposed on Germany by the
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Memorandum" predicated an imminent all-out, apocalyptic struggle between "Judeo-Bolshevism" and German
National Socialism, which necessitated a total effort at rearmament regardless of the economic costs. The basic premise of the Four Year Plan memo was that "the showdown with Russia is inevitable".
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That
Germany is rearming cannot be denied. After all the victors in the Great War except Britain disregarded their own disarmament pledges, the FĂĽhrer abrogated the agreement which bound his own country, thus following the example of the nations who were responsible for the Versailles Treaty. It is
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Since the outbreak of the French
Revolution, the world has been moving with ever increasing speed toward a new conflict, the most extreme solution of which is called Bolshevism, whose essence and aim, however, are solely the elimination of those strata of mankind which have hitherto provided the
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to speak about the necessity of preparing for the coming war against the Soviet Union. The outbreak of the
Spanish Civil War in July 1936 put Hitler into an apocalyptic mood in the summer of 1936 as he became convinced that a war with the Soviet Union would occur in the near-future. The diary of
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In August 1936, in response to a growing crisis in the German economy caused by the strains of rearmament, Hitler issued the "Four-Year Plan
Memorandum" ordering Göring to carry out the Four Year Plan to have the German economy ready for war within the next four years. During the 1936 economic
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have argued that the importance of the memo, which was written personally by Hitler, can be gauged by the fact that Hitler, who had something of a phobia about writing, hardly ever wrote anything down, which indicates that Hitler had something especially important to say. The "Four-Year Plan
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There was no expression of a wish to acquire these resources and there was distinctly no threat. Yet when the cheers... had died away one was conscious that a thought had been cast into the pool of German mentality and that the ripples created by it might spread far
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to pass the following two laws: 1) A law providing the death penalty for economic sabotage and 2) A law making the whole of Jewry liable for all damage inflicted by individual specimens of this community of criminals upon the German economy, and thus upon the German
220:(economic independence) for Germany. Göring was put in charge of the Four-Year Plan at its inception and given plenipotentiary powers. He had complete control over the economy, including the private sector, especially after the Minister of Economics,
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Although the appointment of Göring as head of the plan had short-term benefits to Hitler, in the long term it was a disaster, as Göring knew next to nothing about economics, a factor that Hitler cited as one of the reasons for the choice.
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In 1933, Hitler had laid down his foreign policy priorities as "natural antagonism" towards the Soviet Union. In the autumn of 1935, various business leaders complained to Hitler about the overwhelming costs of the rearmament, only for
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today a commonly admitted part of Hitler's policy to develop an army strong enough to resist any attack, regardless of from which side it may come. I believe that he has already reached this point of inviolability.
224:, had begun to lose favour with Hitler for opposing the growing military expenditures at the expense of civilian economic growth. During the following years, the state, under the industrial conglomerate
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policies, and another faction around Göring calling for the opposite. Hitler hesitated for the first half of 1936 before siding with the more radical faction in his "Four Year Plan" memo of August.
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The Four-Year Plan technically expired in 1940, but the "Office of the Four-Year Plan", a cabinet-level agency, had grown to such a power base that the plan was extended indefinitely.
200:, an industrial conglomerate aimed at hastening growth in ore mining and steel output of Nazi Germany, a major piece of the Four Year Plan, was established and controlled by Göring.
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as an independent armed service, the power base that he had lacked since the weakening of the other government positions that he held. Göring held no significant position in the
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Hitler called for
Germany to have the world's "first army" in terms of fighting power within the next four years and that "the extent of the military development of our resources
179:, which enabled him to create other plenipotentiaries in overall charge of various industries. Göring constantly expanded the scope of the plan until he became the
193:, and his influence before he took on the Four Year Plan had been based primarily on his public popularity as a war hero and his easy access to Hitler.
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Josef
Goebbels shows that a leitmotiv of Hitler's thinking in 1936 and 1937 was his conviction that Germany would have to take on the forces of "
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crisis, the German government was divided into two factions with one (the so-called "free market" faction) centering around the
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master of the German economy, and the Office of the Four Year Plan became, along with his control of the
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Extract From a Memorandum by Hitler on the Tasks of the Four-Year Plan, 1936
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edited by Gordon Martel Routledge: London, United Kingdom, 1999 pages 98–99.
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Arms, Autarky and Aggression: a Study in German Foreign Policy, 1933-1939
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edited by Gordon Martel Routledge: London, United Kingdom, 1999 page 98.
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The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
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Messerschmidt, Manfred “Foreign Policy and Preparation for War” from
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The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation
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said of the breach of the treaty that he had helped to formulate:
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Rearmament was in direct violation of the strict terms set by the
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plants, and factories for the development of synthetic materials.
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calling for decreased military spending and a turn away from
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President Hjalmar Schacht and the Price Commissioner Dr.
511:"Hitler Tells Reich It Would Prosper With Soviet Lands"
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57:(SS) and the German police forces, including the
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458:The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered
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382:The Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered
175:Hitler extended to Göring the power to make law
39:in charge of these measures, making him a Reich
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509:Birchall, Frederick T. (September 13, 1936)
159:cannot be too large, nor its pace too swift
16:Series of economic measures in Nazi Germany
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555:Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives
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663:Economic history of World War II
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143:In the memo, Hitler wrote:
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126:Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
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115:The Four Year Plan memo
35:in 1936. Hitler placed
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216:and the promotion of
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253:Treaty of Versailles
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135:Historians such as
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432:A Holocaust Reader
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277:German Labor Front
264:David Lloyd George
430:Dawidowicz, Lucy
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473:Tooze 2006
320:References
281:Bolsheviks
230:refineries
191:Nazi Party
164:Lebensraum
122:Reichsbank
87:Fritz Todt
45:Nazi Party
552:. (1991)
419:Carr 1972
234:aluminium
186:Luftwaffe
150:Reichstag
644:website)
303:See also
181:de facto
130:autarkic
93:system.
91:Autobahn
61:, under
25:economic
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616:(1984)
496:(1994)
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208:Methods
153:people.
97:Origins
59:Gestapo
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