ABSTRACT
INDUSTRY THE reconstruction of German economic life began with the National-Socialist revolution; or rather, the revolution was a part of the reconstruction of German economy. Two sharply opposed policies were evident within industrial circles under the Republic, the differences between which became more and more irreconcilable as the crisis grew in severity. One was the Fulfilment policy, recognising foreign obligations in return for foreign financial help, building Germany’s prosperity on foreign capital; shirking as much as possible further demands for “national” efforts and economies for fear of the resistance with which they would be met from the working-classes. The other policy, the most prominent mouthpiece of which was Schacht, set its face against further indebtedness, and looked for an internal reorganisation to overcome Germany’s weakness; and this reorganisation meant the imposition of great burdens on the German people, meant the crushing of all bodies, political and social, which would oppose additional burdens. The problem of German agriculture was, for the adherents of Fulfilment, mainly a social problem, a problem of unemployment and indebtedness; for the aggressive nationalists it was a political problem, a problem of national self-sufficiency in time of war. Hitlerism was the political aspect of this latter policy.
