Germany's Economy After Ww2

Following World War II, the United States and Germany were left in very different positions economically, hegemonically, and even psychologically. While the United States had been involved in postwar peace talks and in forming a new world order, Germany had no voice in anything and received massive reparations to pay. Originally Germany faced a bill that forced them to pay $56,000,000,000, but was later reduced to $32,000,000,000. That amount was even further reduced to around $8,000,000,000, which was still an amount of money large enough to halt any German economic progress. Meanwhile, the United States controlled monetary flow across the globe. This massive disparity in standing between the United States and Germany created tensions that
The United States was willing to spend vast sums of money to make sure that the economy that had allowed them to obtain such great amounts of money would survive. The Americans sent arms, ammunition and other war materials to countries in opposition of Germany, the most obvious threat to the American open economy. In 1940, from January to December, funds per month for Canada went from $500,000 to up to $4.5 million (15). Steady influx of millions poured into Germany’s main opposition in the war, Great Britain. From the beginning to the end of the year, the monthly payment in war material went from $4 million to over $30 million (15). The most glaring evidence for the United States’ opposition to Germany was that in the beginning of 1940, when France fought against Germany, the value of arms per month was around $7-30 million, but when France fell to Germany all funding immediately stopped (15). This non-neutrality became evident to the Germans and built antagonism between the countries to a higher point even though the United States wasn’t physically entered in the war. In 1940, an American diplomat named Adolph Berle made it evident to the Americans exactly how Germany would act to pursuit their goal of economic dominance and a closed economic system. Berle argued that self sufficiency would be impossible for any nation no matter how powerful (18). Autarchs never have everything they need and so they have two options: be forced to trade with other nations, or conquer more territory. It was evident to Berle that Germany’s closed economic system would lead to closed culture and politics as well and would have the option to conquer more territory (18). Berle argued that the best way to create nations was to have an open economy and therefore allow humans to choose their way of life