![Germany 1949 Status](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Germany_1949_Status.PNG)
The industrial plans for Germany were designs the Allies considered imposing on Germany in the
Aftermath of World War II to reduce and manage Germany's
industrial capacity.
Background
At the
Potsdam conference
The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris P ...
(July–August 1945), with the US seeking to implement the
Morgenthau plan
The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to eliminate Germany following World War II and eliminating its arms industry and removing or destroying other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industr ...
, drawn up by
Henry Morgenthau Jr
Henry Morgenthau Jr. (; May 11, 1891February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played a major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, while ...
, the United States Secretary of the Treasury,
the victorious
Allies decided to abolish the
German armed forces
The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
as well as all munitions factories and civilian industries that could support them. This included the destruction of all ship- and aircraft-manufacturing capability. Further, the victors decided that civilian industries that might have military potential were to be restricted. The restriction of the latter was calibrated with Germany's "approved peacetime needs", which were defined based on the average European standard. In order to achieve this, each type of industry was subsequently reviewed to see how many factories Germany required under these minimum level-of-industry requirements.
Level of industry plans
![Industry Allocation](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Industry_Allocation.jpg)
The first "level of industry" plan, signed by the Allies on March 29, 1946, stated that German heavy industry was to be lowered to 50% of its 1938 levels by the destruction of 1,500 listed manufacturing plants. In January 1946 the
Allied Control Council set the foundation of the future German economy by putting a cap on German steel production capacity: the maximum allowed was set at about 5,800,000 tons of steel a year, equivalent to 25% of the prewar production level.
["Cornerstone of Steel"](_blank)
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''. January 21, 1946. The UK, in whose occupation zone most of the steel production was located, had argued for a less-limited reduction of 12 million tons of steel per year, but had to submit to the will of the US, France, and the Soviet Union (which had argued for a 3 million ton limit). Steel plants thus made redundant were to be dismantled. Germany was to be reduced to the standard of living it had known at the height of the
Great Depression (1932).
[Cost of Defeat](_blank)
''Time'', April 8, 1946 Car production was set to 10% of prewar levels, etc.
On February 2, 1946, a dispatch from Berlin reported:
Timber exports from the US occupation zone were particularly heavy. Sources in the US government admitted that the purpose of this was the "ultimate destruction of the war potential of German forests." Extensive deforestation due to clear-felling resulted in a situation which could "be replaced only by long forestry development over perhaps a century.". E. J. Bryce noted in March 1948 that "At the present rate of deforestation the resources of the British Zone will be exhausted within a very few years."
The first plan was subsequently followed by a number of new ones, the last signed in 1949. By 1950, after the virtual completion of the by-then much watered-down "level of industry" plans, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants in the west and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons.
Moderation of policy
Beginning in mid-1946 American and British policy towards the German economy began to change, illustrated by Byrnes's September speech
restatement of policy on Germany (also known as the "Stuttgart speech" or "Speech of hope"). According to Dennis L. Bark and
David R. Gress in ''A History of West Germany'' the
Morgenthau Plan
The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to eliminate Germany following World War II and eliminating its arms industry and removing or destroying other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industr ...
came to be seen as inflicting undue hardship, and so the approach was shifted, over time, to one encouraging German economic expansion. As part of this, the allowed levels of industrial capacity were raised.
According to
Vladimir Petrov in ''Money and Conquest: Allied Occupation Currencies in World War II'' the reason for the change in US occupation policy was almost exclusively based on economic considerations. Although a large part of the occupation costs were placed on the German economy, the US and the UK were increasingly forced to supply food imports to prevent mass starvation. According to some historians the US government abandoned the Morgenthau Plan as policy in September 1946 with
Secretary of State James F. Byrnes
James Francis Byrnes ( ; May 2, 1882 – April 9, 1972) was an American judge and politician from South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in U.S. Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in the executive branch, ...
' speech
Restatement of Policy on Germany. Others have argued that credit should be given to former US President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
who in one of
his reports from Germany in 1947 argued for a change in occupation policy, amongst other things stating:
There is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a "pastoral state". It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it.
Worries about the sluggish recovery of the European economy (which before the war was driven by the German industrial base) and growing Soviet influence amongst a German population subject to food shortages and economic misery, caused the
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
, and Generals
Clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and
Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Islands
* Marshall Islands, an i ...
to start lobbying the
Truman administration
Harry S. Truman's tenure as the 33rd president of the United States began on April 12, 1945, upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and ended on January 20, 1953. He had been vice president for only days. A Democrat from Missouri, he ran ...
for a change of policy. General Clay commissioned several expert studies about necessary changes in German economy and stated
There is no choice between being a communist on 1,500 calories a day and a believer in democracy on a thousand.
In July 1947, President
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
rescinded on "national security grounds" the punitive occupation directive JCS 1067, which had directed the US forces of occupation in Germany to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany
rdesigned to maintain or strengthen the German economy." It was replaced by
JCS 1779, which instead noted that "
orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." Nevertheless, General Clay needed over two months to overcome continued resistance among his staff to the new directive, but on July 10, 1947, it was finally approved at a meeting of the
SWNCC. The final version of the document "was purged of the most important elements of the Morgenthau Plan."
The restrictions placed on German heavy industry production were thus partly ameliorated, as permitted steel production levels were raised from 25% of pre-war capacity
to a new limit placed at 50% of pre-war capacity.
Economic consequences
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0527-0001-753, Krefeld, Hungerwinter, Demonstration](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-B0527-0001-753%2C_Krefeld%2C_Hungerwinter%2C_Demonstration.jpg)
The reduction in steel production that resulted from the first and the second ''level of industry'' plans meant that a steel production bottleneck ensued which forced other parts of German industry to fall below their own permitted production levels. The economy of the
Bizone finally hit rock bottom early in 1948 as a consequence of this.
Compounding the problems in the steel industry and their effects on the German economy as a whole was the prohibition against importing high-grade Swedish iron ore. Until that was lifted in 1948, German steel plants had to rely on low quality local ore which required almost twice the amount of coal to process. Moreover, the Germans were also forced to sell their steel at wartime prices until April 1, 1948, which meant large losses for the industry. Additionally, attempts to "decartelize" the German steel industry also contributed to the low output.
The
Allied Control Council set the price for German coal at half what it cost to produce it.
[Nicholas Balabkins, "Germany Under Direct Controls; Economic Aspects Of Industrial Disarmament 1945-1948, Rutgers University Press, 1964. p. 124] From May 1945 until September 1947 the US, UK, and France exported German coal for $10.50/tonne, while the world price hovered closer to $25–$30 per tonne. During this period the Allies thus took roughly $200,000,000 out of the German economy from this source alone. In September 1947 the export price was raised but remained set at $5–$7 below world-market prices.
In Germany the shortage of food was an acute problem. According to the
UNRRA
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...
in 1946–47 the average
kilocalorie
The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of on ...
intake per day was estimated to be 1,080, which according to Alan S. Milward was an amount insufficient for long-term health. Other sources state that the kilocalorie intake in those years varied between as low as 1,000 and 1,500.
William L. Clayton reported to
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
that "millions of people are slowly starving."
Germany received many offers from Western European nations to trade food for desperately needed coal and steel. Neither the Italians nor the Dutch could sell the vegetables that they had previously sold in Germany, with the consequence that the Dutch had to destroy considerable proportions of their crop. Denmark offered 150 tons of
lard a month; Turkey offered hazelnuts; Norway offered fish and fish oil; Sweden offered considerable amounts of fats. However, the Allies disallowed the Germans to trade.
The UNRRA charter allowed it to operate in Germany to assist non-ethnic German displaced persons, but did not permit it to assist ethnic Germans. In 1948, after three years of occupation, the combined US and UK expenditure on relief food in Germany through
GARIOA Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) was a program under which the United States after the 1945 end of World War II from 1946 onwards provided emergency aid to the occupied nations of Japan, Germany, and Austria. The aid was predom ...
and other means stood at a total of close to $1.5 billion (that were charged to the Germans). Still, according to Nicholas Balabkins, German food rations were deficient in composition and remained far below recommended minimum nutrition levels.
[Nicholas Balabkins, ''Germany Under Direct Controls: Economic Aspects of Industrial Disarmament 1945–1948'', Rutgers University Press, 1964 p. 107] Officials in authority admitted that the distributed rations "represented a fairly rapid starvation level".
(see also
American food policy in occupied Germany
American food policy in occupied Germany refers to the food supply policies enacted by the U.S., and to some extent its dependent Allies, in the western Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones of Germany in the first two years of the ten-year A ...
).
Reparations and exploitation
The Allies confiscated large amounts of German intellectual property (
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
s and
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
s, but also
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
s). Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years the US pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion, in his book ''Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany'', that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the US (and the UK) amounted to close to $10
billion
Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions:
*1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English.
* 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...
. (Compared to America's 1948 GDP of $258 billion and total Marshall plan expenditure (1948-1952) of $13 billion, of which Germany received $1 billion in loans and $400 million as a grant). The US competitors of German firms were encouraged by the occupation authorities to access all records and facilities.
[John Gimbel "Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany"] In 1947 the director of the US Commerce Department's Office of Technical Services stated before congress: "The fundamental justification of this activity is that we won the war and the Germans did not. If the Germans had won the war, they would be over here in Schenectady and Chicago and Detroit and Pittsburgh, doing the same things."
A German report from May 1, 1949, stated that many entrepreneurs preferred not to do research under the current regulations (Allied Control Council Law No. 25) for fear of the research directly profiting their competitors. The law required detailed reporting to the Allies of all research results.
The patents, drawings and physical equipment taken in Germany included such items (or drawings for) as
electron microscopes,
cosmetics
Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...
, textile machinery,
tape recorders
An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...
, insecticides, a unique chocolate-wrapping machine, a continuous butter-making machine, a
manure spreader
A manure spreader or muck spreader or honey wagon is an agricultural machine used to distribute manure over a field as a fertilizer. A typical (modern) manure spreader consists of a trailer towed behind a tractor with a rotating mechanism driven b ...
, ice skate grinders, paper napkin machines, "and other technologies — almost all of which were either new to American industry or 'far superior' to anything in use in the United States."
[Jean Edward Smith, "Feature Review American Exploitation of Postwar Germany", Diplomatic History, Volume 17 Issue 1, Pages 135–142]
The British took commercial secrets too, by abducting German scientists and technicians, or simply by interning German businessmen if they refused to reveal trade secrets.
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...
stated:
According to a statement made by an American expert, the patents formerly belonging to IG Farben have given the American chemical industry a lead of at least 10 years. The damage thus caused to the German economy is huge and cannot be assessed in figures. It is extraordinarily regrettable that the new German inventions cannot be protected either, because Germany is not a member of the Patent Union. Britain has declared that it will respect German inventions regardless of what the peace treaty may say. But America has refused to issue such a declaration. German inventors are therefore not in a position to exploit their own inventions. This puts a considerable brake on German economic development.
In
JCS 1067 there were provisions allowing German scientists be detained for intelligence purposes as required. Although the original focus on the exploitation was towards military means, much of the information collected by
FIAT was quickly adapted commercially to the degree that the office of the Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas requested that the peace treaty with Germany be redacted to protect US industry from lawsuits.
The US made no attempt to evaluate the value of what was taken from Germany, and in the contracts that led to sovereignty for West Germany in 1955 the West Germans had to formally renounce all claims to possible compensation for all types of assets taken, including scientific and technical know-how. Gimbel notes that this made a later accounting practically impossible.
The property taken in Germany was without regard to the rules of the
Hague Convention, which prohibits the seizure of enemy private property "unless it is susceptible of direct military use",
but there are legal arguments that the Allied occupation of Germany was not bound by Hague Conventions, because if the German state no longer existed (see ''
debellatio
The term "debellatio" or "debellation" (Latin "defeating, or the act of conquering or subduing", literally, "warring (the enemy) down", from Latin ''bellum'' "war") designates the end of war caused by complete destruction of a hostile state. Israel ...
''), and the convention only applied to the occupation of territory belonging to one of the Contracting Powers then it did not cover the territories of Germany post war. The
legal status of Germany
The legal status of Germany concerns the question of the extinction, or otherwise continuation, of the German nation state (i.e., the German Reich created in the 1871 unification) following the rise and downfall of Nazi Germany, and constitution ...
under occupation is however unclear, particularly as ''debellatio'' in general involves the complete dissolution and
annexation of the defeated state, which did not take place and indeed in the
Berlin Declaration (1945)
The Berlin Declaration (german: Berliner Erklärung/Deklaration) of 5 June 1945 or the Declaration regarding the defeat of Germany,Officially, the "Declaration regarding the defeat of Germany and the assumption of supreme authority with respect to ...
it was categorically denied that Germany was annexed. However, the
eastern quarter of Germany ''was'' later annexed and
its German inhabitants expelled).
Marshall plan
With the Western Allies eventually becoming concerned about the deteriorating economic situation in their "
Trizone
The Bizone () or Bizonia was the combination of the American and the British occupation zones on 1 January 1947 during the occupation of Germany after World War II. With the addition of the French occupation zone on 1 August 1948J. Robert We ...
"; the US
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
of economic aid to Europe was extended also to Western Germany in 1948 and a currency reform, which had been prohibited under the occupation directive JCS 1067, introduced the
Deutsche Mark
The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...
and halted rampant inflation.
The Ruhr
The Ruhr lay within the
British occupation zone in Germany after the war had ended.
The Ruhr Agreement was imposed on the Germans as a condition for permitting them to establish the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
.
By controlling the production and distribution of coal and steel (i.e. how much coal and steel the Germans themselves would get), the International Authority for the Ruhr in effect controlled the entire West German economy, much to the dismay of the Germans. They were however permitted to send their delegations to the authority after the
Petersberg agreement
The Petersberg Agreement is an international treaty that extended the rights of the government of West Germany vis-a-vis the occupying forces of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. It is viewed as the first major step of West Germa ...
. With the West German agreement to join the
European Coal and Steel Community in order to lift the restrictions imposed by the IAR, thus also ensuring French security by perpetuating French access to Ruhr coal, the role of the IAR was taken over by the ECSC.
The Saar
With U.S permission, as for example given in the Stuttgart speech, France expanded the borders of the
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
by adding parts of the Rhineland and thereafter detached it as a protectorate in 1947. This was done as the Saarland served as Germany's second largest remaining source of coal, and its detachment was therefore necessary in order to curtail German industrial capability. The area was integrated into the French economy, and although nominally politically independent, its security and foreign policies were decided in Paris, which also maintained a High Commissioner with wide-ranging powers in the protectorate.
The Soviet Union
In accordance with the agreements with the USSR shipment of dismantled German industrial installations from the west began on March 31, 1946. By August 1947 11,100 tons of equipment (including great parts of the railway tracks) had been shipped east as reparations to the Soviet Union.
Under the terms of the agreement the Soviet Union would in return ship raw materials such as food and timber to the western zones. In view of the Soviet failure to do so the US temporarily halted shipments east (although they were never resumed). However, it was later shown that although the shipments stop was utilized for cold war propaganda reasons, the main reason for halting shipments east was not the behavior of the USSR but rather the recusant behavior of France.
Material sent to the U.S.S.R. included equipment from the
Kugelfischer
Kugelfischer injection (also called ''System Kugelfischer'') is the name for a mechanical fuel injection (MFI) pump. It was produced by FAG Kugelfischer and later by Robert Bosch GmbH
Derived from diesel pumps from the early 1960s, the Kugelfisch ...
ball-bearing plant at
Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultural and educational hub. The urban ag ...
, the
Daimler-Benz
The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufactur ...
underground aircraft-engine plant at
Obrigheim, the
Deschimag shipyards at
Bremen, and the Gendorf powerplant.
End of dismantling
The dismantling of German industry continued, and in 1949
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...
wrote to the Allies requesting that it end, citing the inherent contradiction between encouraging industrial growth and removing factories, and also the unpopularity of the policy. (See als
Adenauers original letter to Schuman)
Support for dismantling was by this time coming predominantly from the French, and the
Petersberg Agreement
The Petersberg Agreement is an international treaty that extended the rights of the government of West Germany vis-a-vis the occupying forces of the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. It is viewed as the first major step of West Germa ...
of November 1949 reduced the levels vastly, though dismantling of minor factories continued until 1951.
In 1951 West Germany agreed to join the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) the following year. This meant that some of the economic restrictions on production capacity and on actual production that were imposed by the
International Authority for the Ruhr
The International Authority for the Ruhr (IAR) was an international body established in 1949 by the Western Allies to regulate the coal and steel industries of the Ruhr area in West Germany. Its seat was in Düsseldorf.
The Ruhr Authority was s ...
were lifted, and that its role was taken over by the ECSC.
The final limitations on German industrial levels were lifted after the European Coal and Steel Community entered into force in July 1952, though arms manufacture remained prohibited. The Allied efforts to "de-concentrate and reorganize" the German coal, iron and steel industry were also continued.
Although dismantling of West German industry ended in 1951, "industrial disarmament" lingered in restrictions on actual German steel production, and production capacity, as well as on restriction on key industries. All remaining restrictions were only lifted when the Allied occupation of West Germany ended on May 5, 1955. According to
Frederick H. Gareau, noting that although US policy had changed well before that; "the last act of the Morgenthau drama occurred on that date (May 5, 1955) or when the
Saar was returned to Germany (January 1, 1957)."
Vladimir Petrov concludes that the Allies "delayed by several years the economic reconstruction of the wartorn continent, a reconstruction which subsequently cost the United States billions of dollars."
[Vladimir Petrov, ''Money and Conquest; Allied Occupation Currencies in World War II''. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press (1967) p. 263] (see
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
)
See also
*
American food policy in occupied Germany
American food policy in occupied Germany refers to the food supply policies enacted by the U.S., and to some extent its dependent Allies, in the western Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones of Germany in the first two years of the ten-year A ...
*
Forced labor of Germans after World War II
In the years following World War II, large numbers of German civilians and captured soldiers were forced into labor by the Allied forces. The topic of using Germans as forced labor for reparations was first broached at the Tehran conference i ...
*
History of Germany since 1945
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
*
History of the Ruhr District
*
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $13 billion (equivalent of about $ in ) in economic re ...
*
Morgenthau Plan
The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to eliminate Germany following World War II and eliminating its arms industry and removing or destroying other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industr ...
, an American plan that proposed gutting the Ruhr's industrial capacity
*
Operation Osoaviakhim
Operation Osoaviakhim ()
was a secret Soviet operation under which more than 2,500 former Nazi German specialists
(; i.e. scientists, engineers and technicians who worked in specialist areas)
from companies and institutions relevant to military a ...
, USSR operation that forcibly "recruited" German specialists
*
Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War ...
, USA operation that forcibly "recruited" German specialists
*
A Report on Germany
*
Soviet invasion of Manchuria
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...
where similar war looting and removal of factories occurred
*
Wirtschaftswunder
The ''Wirtschaftswunder'' (, "economic miracle"), also known as the Miracle on the Rhine, was the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II (adopting an ordoliberalism-based social ma ...
, the "economic miracle"
References
{{Germany topics
Allied occupation of Germany
Aftermath of World War II in Germany
Economic history of Germany
Industry in Germany
Allied
World War II crimes
Contemporary German history