ABSTRACT
The development of business in the eastern areas of the German Grossraumwirtschaft, both in the occupied areas and the satellite states, was primarily dependent on German military power and political influence throughout the region. The reconstruction of the eastern economy as an act of deliberate colonization went hand-in-hand with the racial reordering of business enterprises in the occupied areas. The eastern area of the Grossraumwirtschaft was never treated uniformly by the regime in Berlin, except in the obvious sense that the entire region supported the Axis war effort. Greater Germany also exploited the resources of states that enjoyed independence, or nominal independence, from German political power. Within the different forms of exploitation in the East there existed a variety of forms of enterprise which existed side-by-side in each occupied or satellite area. The net effect of the German Grossraumwirtschaft was uniformly destructive.
