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1944 German Newsfilm. In German. English subtitles make Google translate look as fluid as Eulalia's work! But I got enough to understand that German victory was just around the corner. Nice to see NOT fake news
 
1944 German Newsfilm. In German. English subtitles make Google translate look as fluid as Eulalia's work! But I got enough to understand that German victory was just around the corner. Nice to see NOT fake news

I watched an entire series of these things a while back on Amazon video. About a dozen episodes. I was looking forward to seeing how the fall of Berlin would be handled at the end, but oddly the final episode was a repeat of an earlier one.
 
1944 German Newsfilm. In German. English subtitles make Google translate look as fluid as Eulalia's work! But I got enough to understand that German victory was just around the corner. Nice to see NOT fake news
Yes, an old German "Wochenschau". But a lot of it is propaganda, for example I cannot imagine that the Parisian civilian population tried to beat up American prisoners of war. I recognized the following from German weapons: Tiger tanks, King Tiger, MG42, PAK 8.8 (anti-tank gun caliber 3.465``), Messerschmitt Bf109 fighter aircraft.
 
By the way, there is something I've been wondering about with regard to Nazi Germany for a while. I haven't had any idea of who to ask. But there are a lot of knowledgeable people here, so maybe someone can answer it. It's an economics question, really.

I know that shortly after World War 1, Germany was bankrupt and its currency became worthless. This played a big role in generating the infamous sex scene of Berlin, as many thousands of women began working as prostitutes, dancers, etc. That scene prospered through the 1920s, up until the Nazis came to power and stamped it out.

Hitler began ordering the invasions that led to World War 2 in 1938, I believe. So here is my question:

How did Germany, in a mere 20 years or so, manage to build the huge war machine that it did, given the awful economic circumstances of the country at the start of that period? All those tanks, U-boats, and so on had to be paid for, right? All those soldiers and Nazi party assholes had to have their salaries paid, their uniforms and weapons paid for, etc. The Nazis gave a free radio to pretty much every household in order to maximize their propaganda efforts - an ingenious idea for its time, but again all those radios had to be paid for somehow. So where in the hell did all the money come from? I don't know how well international banking had developed by then....did the Nazis fund their madness by selling bonds? If so, who on earth was investing in these bonds?

The Weimer government mostly turned a blind eye to Berlin's huge sex scene. This is undoubtedly because the scene brought a lot of foreign tourists to the city, and of course, their cash. Did the cash from the sex scene play a major role in funding the Nazi war machine?

Don't ask me why, but I really want to understand this better. And I know the Nazis relied to some extent on slave labor, but I wouldn't think that would account for much of it.
 
I will try an explanation here, but I do not want to claim that everything I say here is 100% correct,
At first the Nazis simply started to print money and in order to refinance these uncovered debts the conquered areas were systematically plundered and Jewish property expropriated throughout the Reich. The initially unsound, later criminal monetary policy led to an enormous state deficit even before the war began, which the Nazi state tried to counter through coercive regulatory measures and uncovered money creation by the Reichsbank. In the course of the war, the resources of the conquered areas were systematically exploited through robbery, forced labor, occupation taxes and requisitions.

A particularly unfortunate chapter in this context is the so-called Aryanization of Jewish shops and companies, as well as the public auctions of valuables and furnishings from Jewish property. While a total of around 100,000 businesses changed hands in the course of the "Aryanization", participation in the auctions can hardly be quantified, but at least dimensioned using examples. In Hamburg, for example, the loads of 2,699 freight wagons and 45 ships with “Jewish goods” were auctioned off in 1941; 100,000 Hamburgers bought furniture, clothing, radios and lamps from around 30,000 Jewish families. In addition, there were thousands of changes in ownership of real estate, cars and art objects. Occasionally the authorities were harassed with requests for particularly coveted goods even before their rightful owners had been evacuated, and cases are described where Jews who had not yet been deported were rung so that one could see what was already on scheduled auction
Most of the figures are based on the German Wikipedia.
 
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I found this short account intended for students - it's based mainly on Richard Evans's 'The Third Reich in Power' 2005 -
extract:

According to historian Richard Evans, “Hitler’s government was lucky in its timing,” because a variety of economic programs begun under previous chancellors were finally starting to put more Germans back to work by the time of Hitler’s appointment. In addition, the Nazis manipulated the official statistics about unemployment in order to convince the public of their progress.

Hitler’s government also put in place several new plans that would put Germans back to work. In 1933, the government announced two Laws for the Reduction of Unemployment, devoting millions of marks to encouraging the creation of new businesses and funding public-works construction projects, such as the highway system. Another policy encouraged working women to leave their jobs and stay home, lessening competition for jobs and improving unemployment statistics ... The Nazis also encouraged, and often coerced, unemployed workers to join the nation’s Volunteer Labor Service, where they were put to work on public land and construction projects.

But, as Evans explains, the Nazi job creation program was about more than economic recovery; it focused on rebuilding and rearming the nation’s military arsenal. By explaining rearmament as “job creation,” the Nazis attempted to conceal this violation of the Treaty of Versailles ...

 
So where in the hell did all the money come from? I
Basically it was uncovered deficit spending with government debt against the Reichsbank.
In part by creating fake financial instruments like "Mefo bills" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mefo_bills

A lot of the publicity-effective infrastructure measures were not much more than symbolic. For instance building the autobahn system did not actually employ that many people. (It was useful though in terms of military movements)

In January 1939 the Reichsbank criticized the "completely undisciplined spending spree that is bringing state finances to the brink of collapse and endangers stability of the currency", obviously the central bank leadership was replaced.

Basically if there had been peace, the Nazi regime would have suffered an economic collapse... but it was never intended as a system that would work in peacetime. It was all geared toward a big smash and grab moment and "once the war is won money will not be an issue". There was no sound economic policy.

The Weimer government mostly turned a blind eye to Berlin's huge sex scene. This is undoubtedly because the scene brought a lot of foreign tourists to the city, and of course, their cash. Did the cash from the sex scene play a major role in funding the Nazi war machine?
Err, absolutely not, it was a miniscule amount and the Nazis didn't control it. The usefulness of the Berlin sex scene for the Nazis was mostly in propaganda terms...
How did Germany, in a mere 20 years or so, manage to build the huge war machine that it did, given the awful economic circumstances of the country at the start of that period? All those tanks, U-boats, and so on had to be paid for, right?
Several things to consider here ... the democratic governments of the Weimar era also considered the restrictions placed on the German arms industry illegitimate and there were a number of clandestine development programs, sometimes including foreign partners such as the Soviet Union.

Germany's industrial base hadn't been destroyed in WW1. And due to the rapid advances of basic technologies, the turnover rate of military equipment was very quick. For instance fighter planes designed in say 1924 were practically useless in combat by 1939. The kind of tanks developed at the end of WWI were also useless in WW2. In comparison nowadays arms platforms that are 40 to 60 years old still serve in upgraded form, and the top of the line US air superiority fighter today the F-22 had its maiden flight 30 years ago.
So everyone was turning over their military hardware at a high rate, but also in very high numbers. If you had your industrial base, and Germany did, it was possible to arm up quite quickly.
 
Another explanation was the Reichswehr. The Versailles Treaty forbade Germany to have a conscripts army, and restricted its strength to a 100.000 men. Also the General Satff was abolished. The new army, the Reichswehr, however managed to work 'under the radar' of Versailles. The Reichswehr was secretly trained in the Soviet Union, the other outcast of Europe in the 1920's in exchange for technical support (the Rapallo Treaty), using weaponry forbidden by Versailles : tanks, aircraft,... Future Luftwaffe pilots trained in gliding planes,.. Officially, the General Staff was abolished as requested by Versailles, but it simply continued to exist under the name of 'Truppenambt' (Troop's Office). The Reichswehr had many candidates, but handpicked its recruits. All, including privates, got at least a training to the level of a sergeant.

With this core available, Hitler could quickly build up a strong force, once conscription was reintroduced in 1935, to get ready for war in 1939. Of course, the Reichswehr was not a mere Nazi organisation, but it was an old fashioned militarist 'state in the state', that welcomed any opportunity for expansion and regaining its former place in society.

Also, the neccessary re-enarmament for Hitler's army, gave the economy in Germany, and in the surrounding countries a boost, welcomed after the Great Depression.
 
One has to be careful about the "huge war machine" that the Germans had. It was their doctrine that was better than the allies.
The navy was woefully weak compared to Britain's and France's in ships and by June 1940, had been to a large part reduced to almost nothing in surface ships and was weak in submarines.
The air force was strong but was mainly a tactical force supporting the army, they had no heavy bombers like the British and, later, the Americans had.
As for the army, it's tanks were actually inferior in quality and quantity to that of the French and, if they had been able to put their in the field, the English! Last, in this very brief overview, the follow on reserve divisions of infantry were very uneven in quality. Something that Hitler refused to accept and made him very angry when the C in C of the army tried to tell him after the polish campaign! It was in Strategy and applied tactics that the German army was superior to the allies in 1940, and how they came damned close to defeating Russia in 1941.
 
I've developed a fascination with that part of German history over the past couple of years. Of course, my fascination started with Berlin's 1920s sex scene, which as I've discussed elsewhere on CF, has fueled a number of my sexy fantasies. :cool:
Have you seen this? :)
 
Have you seen this? :)

I vaguely recall seeing that thread years ago, prior to my fascination, so thanks!
 
Leeds in 1966, when @old slave was already old
In 1973, @old slave was even older
A little further on, 1975
1989 -he was really old!
This one starts about the time of @old slave's birth - the time of the Domesday Book!
Anyone would think you are stalking me, or is it Dorothy?
I'll not say which reel I was featured in!

I could write a book on the mistakes made in these films, and another one on what is still here, what has gone, what is better, what is worse. But I don't imagine anyone lives in a place that they think can't be improved.
 
Anyone would think you are stalking me, or is it Dorothy?
I'll not say which reel I was featured in!

I could write a book on the mistakes made in these films, and another one on what is still here, what has gone, what is better, what is worse. But I don't imagine anyone lives in a place that they think can't be improved.
it were grim when Turner painted it in 1816

 
Leeds in 1966, when @old slave was already old
In 1973, @old slave was even older
A little further on, 1975
1989 -he was really old!
This one starts about the time of @old slave's birth - the time of the Domesday Book!

In the days when we were allowed to travel outside our borders (2019) we visited Bradford to see friends, and we skirted round Leeds on the way to York. Seems big and reasonably prosperous these days?

Now our international travel is online only

Girls and computers, go together like . . . . .
puter_2 (5).jpgputer_2 (2).jpgputer_1 (8).jpgputer_1 (7).jpgputer_1 (6).jpgputer_1 (2).jpg
 
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