Reparations had a perverse impact on the respective economies, though. Turning Germany into a debtor nation caused the country to undergo a rapid industrialization, partly financed by those same reparations payments. Meanwhile, the WW1 winners got to glut themselves on German industrial produce while their own economies stagnated.
The Dawes plan helped provide European stability at the end of the 20s, but the crushing debt was used by Hitler as a tool in his rise to power.
Hyperinflation in Germany while every other nation was suffering deflation caused German export markets to surge. Hitler rode the downturn into office, but what really paid off for him was the sudden surge in demand for German goods (and subsequent German manufacturing). The modern industrial German state is a byproduct of that rapid industrialization.
But the industrial explosion also created a great deal of ecological destruction and a ravenous hunger for cheap raw materials and slave labor. Hitler operated as the ideological mouthpiece of the German industrial state, helping to form the rationale for a land grab in Eastern Europe and a press-ganging of the proles. But it was this industry surge, combined with the American financial capital that profited from distribution of German workhouses, that really boosted Hitler from one bigot PM among a dozen to the head of a metasticizing cancer of imperial conquest.
Reparations had a perverse impact on the respective economies, though. Turning Germany into a debtor nation caused the country to undergo a rapid industrialization, partly financed by those same reparations payments. Meanwhile, the WW1 winners got to glut themselves on German industrial produce while their own economies stagnated.
Hyperinflation in Germany while every other nation was suffering deflation caused German export markets to surge. Hitler rode the downturn into office, but what really paid off for him was the sudden surge in demand for German goods (and subsequent German manufacturing). The modern industrial German state is a byproduct of that rapid industrialization.
But the industrial explosion also created a great deal of ecological destruction and a ravenous hunger for cheap raw materials and slave labor. Hitler operated as the ideological mouthpiece of the German industrial state, helping to form the rationale for a land grab in Eastern Europe and a press-ganging of the proles. But it was this industry surge, combined with the American financial capital that profited from distribution of German workhouses, that really boosted Hitler from one bigot PM among a dozen to the head of a metasticizing cancer of imperial conquest.
Thank you for the additional information and effort in sharing this. This is really well written - informative, easy to read, and enjoyable.
thanks ! I’ve done a partial read of “fascisme & grand capital” years ago but your bird’s eye view is clearer than any