Greatly deficient in natural resources, Germany's economy traditionally relied on importing raw materials to manufacture goods for re-export, and she developed a reputation for producing high quality merchandise. At the most important of these conferences, at Yalta in the southern Soviet Union, the three leaders agreed to split Germany into four different occupation zones, with roughly the eastern third of the country controlled by the Soviet Union, and the western two-thirds split between American, British, and French control. ", "Die deutsche Frage und die Reparationen", Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_War_II_reparations&oldid=1141985330, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Transferring all manufacturing equipment, machinery and machine tools to the Allies, Transferring all railroad cars, locomotives and ships to the Allies, Confiscation of all German investments abroad, All gold, silver and platinum in bullion or coin form held by any person/institution in Germany, All patents and research data relevant to military application and processes, Requisition of current German industrial production and resource extraction, Forced labour provided by the German population, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 22:30. The day after the declaration, the British Admiralty announced that all merchant vessels were now liable to examination by the naval Contraband Control Service and by the French Blockade Ministry, which put its ships under British command. [56][58], In 1990, West Germany and East Germany signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany ('Two Plus Four Agreement') with the former Allied countries of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. America also provided significant support, but while Alaska, only 50 miles (80km) from Asia across the Bering Strait was the obvious route for transporting Lend-Lease equipment, it was remote from Contiguous United States. Norway provided good stocks of chromium, aluminum, copper, nickel and 1m annual pounds of molybdenum, the chemical element used in the production of high speed steels and as a substitute for tungsten. As well as providing refueling and repair facilities for German U-boats and other vessels at its remote Arctic port of Teriberka, east of Murmansk, the Soviets "Belligerent Neutrals" in Churchill's words also accepted large quantities of wheat, tin, petrol and rubber from America into its ports in the Arctic and Black Sea and, rather than transport them over the entire continent, released identical volumes of the same material to Germany in the west. The remaining 10 men drowned, died of exposure or were captured and interrogated by the Germans before being executed. [41] According to Jzef Menes from the Council of the Polish War Loss Institute, no diplomatic note was presented to the East German government and that "Probably the meeting of the Council of Ministers of August 23, 1953 did not take place at all" - citing relation of Kazimierz Mijal (head of the office of the Council of Ministers from 21 November 1952 to 1 February 1956). Amid increasing reports of atrocities committed by her forces in these lands, such as the Nanking Massacre and the use of poison gas, world opinion turned against Japan,[6] and from 1938 America, Britain and other countries launched trade embargoes against her to restrict supplies of the raw materials she needed to wage war, such as oil, metals and rubber. [7] The country's economic recovery under the newly formed democratic government was, once it was permitted, swift and effective. Key Facts 1 Nazi Germany possessed overwhelming military superiority over Poland. By early October the European military and political position had changed enormously and the MEW provided a statement of Germany's deteriorating position. East Germany experienced the opposite effect, with a weaker economy, a low standard of living and a decreased population. Most were sunk or scuttled, and at least eight foundered on rocks trying to negotiate the way down the unfamiliar and hazardous Norwegian coast. I feel like its a lifeline. However, attacks on the already strained German railway system did seriously affect military operations in early 1943 around 150 locomotives and many freight cars were being destroyed each month. Occupying a Chernozem zone of seemingly inexhaustible thick humus, it produced 25% of Russia's wheat, and immense crops of rye, barley, oats, sugar beet, potatoes, sunflowers, flax, maize, tobacco and cotton. Neutral captains often expressed utter astonishment and bemusement at the level of British advance knowledge of their activities, and soon realised it was hard to hide anything. The neutral commerce which Churchill found most perplexing was the Swedish iron ore trade. On 24 July 1943 Hamburg, a major manufacturing centre for Tiger tanks and 88mm guns was virtually destroyed in Operation Gomorrah. The US Foreign Affairs Economist Karl Brandt described how Hitler (and Stalin) used food as a political weapon to destroy internal opposition, reward accomplishment, punish failure and smash their enemies in neutral countries. In February 1945 food supplies were reported as being collected in the Austrian and Bavarian Alps for Nazi fortresses and underground factories, and plans were apparently under way for the structural reorganization of the Nazi Party abroad by transferring money into agents' accounts in neutral countries. The German authorities retaliated by placing an embargo on supplies of food into the western parts of the country. We are in this case running a risk in view of the appalling conditions caused by the Germans in Greece." Her beauty is a dangerous weapon of war!" During World War II, Zurich industrialist and armaments exporter Emil Georg Bhrle began amassing one of the twentieth century's most important private collections of European art. Since then, the Polish government has taken the position that Poland's 1953 refusal is non-binding because the country was under the sway of the Soviet Union. The officials meant to ease the chaotic scene by announcing there would be changes made to allow more freedom of movement. [62], West Germany paid reparations to Israel for confiscated Jewish property under Nuremberg laws, forced labour and persecution. [8] On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union in a three-pronged operation, catching the Soviets completely by surprise. There was a general belief however, that Sweden went too far in accommodating the Nazi regime. Turkey eventually ended trade with Germany and declared war on her in February 1945. (On 10 February 2008 the collection was subjected to what Zurich police declared to be "the biggest ever robbery committed in Switzerland and perhaps even Europe").[66]. Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. Eucken helped establish the new German currency, argued for large tax cuts, and oversaw the removal of price controls. They bow humbly in fear of German threats of violence, each one hoping that if he feeds the crocodile enough the crocodile will eat him last and that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. Because Mefo bills did not figure in government budgetary statements, they helped maintain the secret of rearmament and were, in Hitler's own words, merely a way of printing money. Reparations were to be directly paid to the four victor powers (France, Britain, United States, and the Soviet Union); for the countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, the Soviet Union would determine its distribution. At the start of 1942 the Allies were yet to achieve a major victory. In 1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and, following the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the Anschluss with Austria and the later occupation of Czechoslovakia, many people began to believe that a new "Great War" was coming,[5] and from late 1937 onwards Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, the British government's chief economics advisor, began to urge senior government figures to put thought into a plan to revive the blockade so that the Royal Navy still the world's most powerful navy would be ready to begin stopping shipments to Germany immediately once war was declared. Your essay should be approximately one page in length, and it should describe how and why reunification came about, as well as the impacts of reunification. Each division required 600700 tons of supplies per day while artillery and mortars used 8 million rounds per month. This was during the phoney war, before the fighting on land and air had begun. Albert Speer said later that this was a decisive turning point in the war.[16]. When Germany signed the armistice ending hostilities in the First World War on November 11, 1918, its leaders believed they were accepting a "peace without victory," as outlined by U.S. President. Contraband was also Deborah Kerr's first film, though her scene as a nightclub cigarette girl did not make the final cut. Despite attempts to transport it away before capture, occupied nations' gold reserves were also looted, along with huge numbers of artworks, many of which have never been recovered. Speer was an inspired choice by Hitler, performing better than could have been expected of him, expertly organising the resources at his disposal, ensuring the speedy repair of bomb-damaged factories and pushing productivity up month after month. The Marshall Plan and the German economist, Walter Eucken are largely credited with the German economic comeback. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 88,000 Despite the humanitarian efforts, by late January 1942 between 1,700 and 2,000 men, women and children were dying in Athens and Piraeus each day, and Italy, which then occupied Greece, was forced to ship 10,000 tons of grain from her meagre domestic supplies, secretly to avoid unrest from her own people. Diplomats from the Scandinavian nations, as well as Italy and the Balkan countries, who were also major suppliers to Germany, were given quota lists of various commodities and told they could import these amounts and no more, or action would be taken against them. They ranged from small 200lb (91kg) mines dropped dozens at a time to large one-ton versions dropped by parachute on shoal bottoms which were almost impossible to sweep, equipped with magnetic triggers activated by a steel hull passing above. The following nations received reparations as part of the proceedings of the IARA: Poland was to be excluded from the proceedings of the IARA by demand from the Soviet Union. On 12 May the USAAF hit East German synthetic oil plants at Leuna, Bhlen, Zeitz and Lutzendorf; they were so badly damaged they could supply no oil for several weeks, being hit again later that month before they returned to production. Via its Commercial Corporation, the US engaged in a preclusive buying programme under British direction of its materials, particularly the chromite ore. At the start of the war Germany's transport system, comprising modern autobahns, excellent railways and a complex network of interlinking canals and rivers was among the best in the world. At night, aircraft of RAF Bomber Command and RAF Coastal Command flew the short distance across the channel and attacked the shipping and barges which were being assembled in the ports at Antwerp, Ostend, Calais and Boulogne to carry the invasion force across, eventually destroying over 20% of the fleet. In its most ambitious form, this plan included the annexation of the cities and surroundings of Cologne, Aachen, Mnster and Osnabrck. In March 2018 the issue boiled over again when Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a Polish lawmaker, asserted that Germany owed reparations that could be worth as much as $850 billion. UK National Archives. Up to 21 September 1939 over 300 British and 1,225 neutral ships had been detained, with 66 of them having cargo confiscated. The Germans, employing their scorched-earth policy, destroyed all dock facilities as they withdrew from the occupied territories in order to deprive the Allies of any logistical advantages. A number of other countries also downgraded their diplomatic relations with Spain for having openly supported Hitler,[64] and Spain agreed to return an estimated $25 million in official and semi-official German assets in October 1946. [16] In early March the USAAF raided the Erkner ball-bearing works, scoring 75 direct hits, stopping production for some time, and commenced the "Plan for Completion of Combined Bomber Offensive". The Turkish chromite ore, which like tungsten was an irreplaceable and essential war material, was the only supply available to Germany, who paid using iron and steel products and manufactured goods in order to draw Turkey into her sphere of influence. Repulse sunk? But by far the biggest hole in the blockade was in the Balkans. The economic war consisted mainly of a naval blockade, which formed part of the wider Battle of the Atlantic, but also included the bombing of economically important targets and the preclusive buying of war materials from neutral countries in order to prevent their sale to the Axis powers. Indeed, the Soviet occupation zone and the three Western occupation zones were completely cut off from one another. Harris was known for his sharp tongue and lack of remorse for the German civilians being killed by the raids; one of his subordinates said of him. With no passenger trade, and with all Scandinavian and continental sea traffic suspended, the port was far less busy than normal, but as many as 35,000 men still filled the warehouses with grain, tobacco, flour, tea, rubber, sugar, meat, wool, timber and leather every day throughout August 1940. If this war is long continued, there is but one implacable end the greatest famine in history. Spanish companies did important aircraft work for the Germans, Spanish merchants furnished Germany with industrial diamonds and platinum,[65] and General Franco, still loyal to Hitler because of his support during the civil war, continued to supply Germany with war materials, among them mercury and tungsten. By the end of September 1939, regular ocean convoys were in operation, outward from the Thames and Liverpool, and inwards from Gibraltar, Freetown and Halifax. [40] Operation Felix failed to materialise. In World War I, even after two years of war Germany still had gold reserves worth 2.5m marks and over 30 billion marks invested abroad, giving her easy access to exports. Before very long, livestock was being slaughtered because of a lack of fodder the pigs so undernourished that they broke their legs walking to slaughter. Germany was divided after WWII because it was to blame for WWI and WWII. Several high-ranking officials followed their chancellor's lead and committed suicide, while others attempted to flee. According to the Yalta Conference, no reparations to Allied countries would be paid in money (though that rule was not followed in later agreements). The German merchant fleet and all other ships were handed over. Berlin was located in Soviet-controlled territory, but it was decided that Berlin needed to be divided. The Berlin Wall was built in only two weeks in 1961 to separate East and West Berlin. Instead, East Germans charged toward the border in massive numbers and were allowed to leave East Germany. [73] A Norwegian smelting works was also destroyed by British and Norwegian commandos on 21 November 1943. On 22 December the US State Department made a formal protest, to no avail. In June 1944 the British finally secured access to the naval bases on the Azores, and the Allies thereafter threatened Portugal with economic sanctions. dochodzenia przez Polsk zadouczynienia za szkody spowodowane przez Niemcy w czasie II wojny wiatowej", "Poland demands $1.3 trillion in World War II reparations from Germany", "Szef MSZ podpisa not w sprawie reparacji", "Leaders of Poland, Germany call for 'swift' solution to Warsaw's rule of law row with EU", "Mularczyk: Odrzucamy stanowisko Niemiec", "The Math of Mass Starvation and Murder: Germany in Greece During World War II", " ( 2)", " ", "Study Sheds New Light on Forced Greek Loans", "Die "Deutsche Restschuld" gegenber Griechenland", "Aufrechnungen von Frustrationen. The blockade almost certainly saved us from defeat. Contraband Control patrols dotted all practical sea routes, stopping all neutral ships, and making life very difficult for any who tried to slip by, forcing them into ports and laying them up for days before inspection, in some cases ruining perishable goods. [3] It was their job to compile and sift through the raw intelligence being received from the various overseas and other contacts, to cross-reference it with the known data on ship movements and cargoes and to pass on any relevant information to Contraband Control. Even today, though Germany is extremely short of oil, she has enough for actual military operations, and her people are still reasonably well fed. Although Swiss citizens largely rejected the Nazis and subscribed to the Internationalist view expressed by the League of Nations, in order to survive and continue to receive imports, Switzerland had little choice but to trade with Germany, for which she was paid largely in coal. The Battle of Britain raged throughout August and September 1940, but the Luftwaffe was unable to destroy the RAF to gain the air supremacy which was a prerequisite for the invasion. By the time the embargo ended in November 1944 an unusually early and harsh winter had set in, leading to the Dutch famine of 1944. [23] Ships bound for European ports or en route to the North of Scotland should call at Kirkwall. The Nazi leadership later grew bullish at the apparent success of the mine strategy and admitted they were of German origin, stating that "our objectives are being achieved". The Netherlands, with 75% of her commercial shipping outgoing from Rotterdam to Germany, had also lost 7 ships, yet all these countries continued to trade with Germany. The Allied powers did not want Germany to have to possibility of waging another war. Meanwhile, in an attempt to assist the Allies in their liberation of the Netherlands, the exiled Dutch government called for a national rail strike to further disrupt German operations. This exacerbated the already stark disparities in wealth between eastern and western Germany, a situation that is still somewhat present today. While World War II was certainly a geopolitical event, some of its underlying causes have been revealed to be economic. France sought to ultimately annex the Saar as well as the entire Ruhr region into France proper, but was denied so by the rest of the Allies. Despite the Allied sympathy with Switzerland's position, some individuals and companies actively supported the Nazi cause for financial or ideological reasons. [24] In 1970, the 1953 renunciation of reparation rights was confirmed by the Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Jzef Winiewicz during the course of the negotiations leading to the normalization treaty of November 1970,[25] in which West Germany recognized the Oder-Neisse as the final border between both countries. By May 1944, 15 blockade runners had been sunk and the traffic had virtually ceased apart from submarines carrying very small cargoes. Czechoslovakia had lost its grain, its gold reserves, mines, heavy industries and important textile industry. The Germans held 1,500,000 French prisoners of war as hostages, feeding them on bread and soup so thin that grass was added to bulk it up, and most items were now heavily rationed, with a worker entitled to a daily diet of only 1,200 calories; many people rode bicycles into the countryside during the weekend to scavenge for food. On 28 December 1940 Mussolini appealed for urgent German help in the Greco-Italian War. Possession of a Navicert proved that a consignment had already been passed as non-contraband by His Majesty's Ambassador in the country of origin and allowed the captain to pass Contraband Control patrols and ports without being stopped, sparing the navy and the Ministry the trouble of tracking the shipment. On August 1, the Big Three signed the Potsdam agreement. In a bitter school we soon learnt differently. In order to force Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles, the original blockade was extended for an additional nine months after the end of the fighting in October 1918. The Hungarian border was opened, which allowed East Germans to travel to escape to the West via Hungary. While downplaying more extreme goals, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi . Housewives soon spent hours standing in line for supplies; shopkeepers sometimes opened otherwise non-perishable goods such as tinned sardines in front of customers when they were bought to prevent hoarding. Supplies of copper from Turkey and Spain had been cut off, and the Germans had lost contact with sources of copper ores at Bor in Yugoslavia and Outokumpu in Finland. The situation in Germany after World War II was dire. The remaining German industries had to give up a share of their production to the Allies. Coal was now very difficult to obtain however, and although sufficient crayfish were imported from the Danubian nations to allow an enjoyable festive meal, people went cold that Christmas. [citation needed] Schacht also proved adept at negotiating extremely profitable barter deals with many other nations, supplying German military expertise and equipment in return. Sources. [7] The most fundamental consideration was the defence of trade in home waters and the Atlantic in order to maintain imports of the goods Britain needed for her own survival. Austria was not included in any of these treaties. To the Nazis, food is a beautiful instrument for manoeuvring and disciplining the masses. Later, a series of events developed that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. From that point on, the Greek Orthodox Church, through its charity efforts in the United States and the International Red Cross, were allowed to distribute sufficient supplies to the Greek people, though the total death toll from the famine was at least 70,000, probably much higher.[69]. By now the V1 and V2 launch sites were being increasingly overrun, and with the Allies moving towards the Rhine and the Soviet armies rapidly closing in from the east, large numbers of refugees began to congregate in the cities, creating utter chaos. This treaty was supposed to close all open questions regarding Germany and the aftermath of WWII and paved the way for German reunification. A few years after the end of WWII, Germany was officially separated when the Soviet Union set up the communist government in East Germany and the Western three occupiers fostered the creation of West Germany. This included 28million US gallons (110,000m3) of petrol and enough animal hides for 5 million pairs of boots, and did not take account of the loss to Germany from goods that had not been shipped at all for fear of seizure. In December 1941 an attempt by the Swiss military to purchase American machine-gun cameras was blocked by Britain's refusal to grant a Navicert,[65] and in April 1942 the US Board of Economic Warfare considered quotas for Swiss imports from overseas sources, identifying Swiss commodities which might be bargained for. The Luftwaffe had around 40% more aircraft than it possessed a year earlier, the construction of new tanks was sufficient to equip new divisions raised for the defence of western Europe and to make good some of the losses in the east.[6]. East & West Germany Partition, Conflict & Reunification | When Did Germany Reunite? Cheap restaurants in big towns served dishes comprising turnip or carrot tops made without any kind of fat, and although householders still received a fair ration of rough wine, all spirits were confiscated for industrial use. It included all kinds of foodstuffs, animal feed, forage, and clothing, and articles and materials used in their production. In addition, Germany remained cut off by the blockade from oversea supplies, such as copper from Chile, nickel from Canada, tin and rubber from the East Indies, manganese from India, tungsten from China, industrial diamonds from South Africa and cotton from Brazil. [clarification needed] The ships were based in the Rhine port of Basel, which gave access to the seaport of Rotterdam, until Allied bombing of a German dam interrupted it. Later attacks on rail transport targets in the Ruhr proved costly because a new radar chain, known as the Kammhuber Line now stretched across the approaches to the Ruhr valley to alert the night fighter defences, which remained considerable. [39] Franco continued to play for time. In the 1980s, the Soviet economy, with which East Germany was fully integrated, was floundering. Even in peace, Europe was unable to feed itself, and although Germany now held two-fifths of the green fields of Europe, Germans found that despite decrees forcing farmers to sell their produce and livestock and outright requisition, in terms of food the occupied lands represented a net drain on their resources that could not be made good. After World War One, Germany was severely punished by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. [27] Germany then began seizing Danish ships carrying butter, eggs and bacon to Britain, in breach of a promise to allow Denmark to trade freely with her enemies. Like Germany, Japan was heavily deficient in natural resources, and since 1931 had become increasingly nationalistic, building up her military forces and embarking upon a series of ruthless conquests in Manchuria, China and French Indochina to create an empire. Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940 and, after the US ordered a total oil embargo on all "aggressor nations" on 1 August 1941, cutting Japan off from 90% of her oil supply, she looked to the huge reserves in the south Pacific and south east Asia, territories already largely under US, British and Dutch jurisdiction. Arrangements for boarding and examining ships were made in the port "Boarding Room", and eventually a team of 2 officers and 6 men set out in a fishing drifter or motor launch to the ship. [44] On September 14, 2022, the Sejm passed (418 for, 4 against, 15 abstentions) a resolution stating that: "The Polish state has never renounced its claims against the German state; the Sejm of the Republic of Poland calls on the German government to assume political, historical, legal, and financial responsibility for all the effects caused by the unleashing of World War II. Discover what happened to Germany after WWII. So, in 1948, under the leadership of Stalin, they carried out a blockade of West Berlin with the intention of starving the western powers. They decided to set up military zones of occupation in Germany after WWII and split up parts of Germany. A factor aggravating inflation was low productivity, caused in part by a lack of coal. In the Balkans, the Ploieti oilfields were lost to Germany as an oil source from August 1944, and various opposing paramilitary groups and partisans united behind Marshal Tito. Even for innocent ships, a delay of a day or two was inevitable; Contraband Control officers were under instructions to be extremely polite and apologetic to all concerned. One example was the Mefo bill, a kind of IOU produced by the Reichsbank to pay armaments manufacturers but which was also accepted by German banks. [55], After the war, Greece received its share of the reparations paid by Germany to the Allies as part of the proceedings of the Paris Reparation Treaty of 1946 which the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency enforced.
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