ABSTRACT
German officials kept working on the New Order by pushing on not only with economic interlocking, harmonisations measures, and foreign investments but also with attempts to spread volkisch thinking. Economically, German occupation policy reflected the wish to turn the General Government into a reservoir of cheap labour and foodstuffs from the outset. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, by contrast, was home to a modern industry that was considered a valuable contribution to the war effort. In other policy fields, German occupation authorities also followed volkisch knowledge and beliefs. German policies in Europe, therefore, changed. While leading staff in German ministries tried to remedy the shortcomings of the European Großraumwirtschaft, German despair started to outweigh volkisch convictions. German European policy before the attack on the Soviet Union was strikingly consistent with the discursively constructed notion of Europe. Europe and its reorganisation shaped German occupation policy between 1941 and 1943.
