Whenever we talk about Nazi Germany and World War II, the first thing that comes to mind is usually Hitler, Gering, Hajndrih, Gebels, Heavens, Ajman, and a column of generals, SS, Panzer divisions, etc. That's not at all strange. On the contrary. These people built and led the "pyramid of death" that "narrowly" defeated Europe. And the entire world.
Not only that, the "pyramid of death" built a system of industrial production of death that was intended for all non-Aryan peoples. Primarily Jews, Roma and Slavs.
The fascist expansion and explosion of power is almost unprecedented in all of human history. Even before fascist Germany, there were regional and even global powers that threatened the enemy and the rest of humanity. But no power even came close to the military might of fascist Germany.
The speed of their spread was even more difficult to comprehend.
The lightning success of Nazi Germany brought all its opponents to their knees in a short time.
So, what is "fascinating" about the construction of the fascist civilization of death is the astonishingly short time that the Germans had, and yet managed to build such an industrial system of producing murder that shook the foundations of the human race.
Its breath can still be felt today. Because it is obvious that communism physically defeated fascism, but not the ideology and spirit of fascism. (This paradox was first noticed and publicly stated by the Soviet general Zukov after the fall of Berlin, 1945.)
Fascism is the greatest downfall of the German people in their history, from which there is hardly any recovery. The Germans themselves, led by their elite, bear the blame, who agreed to be slaves to fascist ideology and power.
From an external perspective, in the rise of fascism, Germany's enemies should be particularly emphasized. These were the victors of World War I. Primarily the French and the English, who tried to humiliate the Germans and put them in a kind of cage. This plan was dangerous, because it carried the germ of the Second World War.
This necessarily lengthy introduction to the topic of Hitler's financial genius of death Hjalmar Schacht was necessary to more clearly see the rise, scope and reach of German fascism. And the consequences it left throughout the world. But also for the German people themselves.
In order not to stray too far from the given topic, i.e. the striking fascist military "leap of death", it is important to present the other, less visible side of the Nazis' success in Germany.
It's about army logistics and the military front.
This logistics significantly affects the events of the war. (Napoleon claimed that "soldiers go forward on their stomachs". And he must be believed when it comes to the army.)
Let's call this logistical side of war's "banality" the fascist economic and financial miracle. Apocalyptic, of course. Similar to the miracle described by Mary Shelley in the novel "The Last Man".
The genius of state finances at the time was Hjalmar Schacht. With his skill and courage - and the spirit of a dark and evil artist - he contributed to the growth of the "snake's head" (Nazism) and the spread of its hellish plan throughout Europe, with global ambitions.
Hjalmar Šacht is little known to the wider Montenegrin public. We will pay due attention to him. Because even the shadows of death can - as he claims Shakespeare - to perform miracles and lead people directly to death even after their own death.
Hjalmar Schacht's real name is a mystery. It is: Hjalmar Horac Grilli Schacht. It would seem that he has German and Anglo-Saxon and even Spanish roots. He spoke perfect English, or more precisely American English, because he spent his childhood in the USA.
His knowledge of English would later be of enormous benefit to him in his work and negotiations with primarily American but also British bankers.
What is more important than knowledge of the English language is that he has adopted and developed a multitude of American-English cultural - and other - manners that are also necessary in top-notch monetary negotiations and behind-the-scenes (fraudulent) dealings.
He was a very brave man by nature. Resistant to influences and blackmail. In fascism - resistance to influences in the hierarchy - was a serious flaw and a political mistake that cost one's life. In finance, it was the opposite.
Hjalmar Schacht was born in 1877 in Tinglev, Germany (now Denmark). He died in 1970 in Munich. He was tried at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. He later served as a financial advisor in Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, and briefly at the Bundesbank.
He spent most of his childhood in the USA, and in 1899 he returned to Germany.
In the mid-20s, he became one of the leading German banking minds. (As such, Hjalmar Schacht caught the eye of Adolf Hitler.) He was sympathetic to Nazism. In Hitler, he saw providence and the only politician who could lift Germany from the position it had held after the capitulation and Versailles of 1919.
With the Nazis coming to power, this financier-monetarist was appointed Minister of Economic Affairs and President of the Reichsbank in 1934. He remained in the first position until 1937, and in the second until 1939.
By the nature of his job, he managed taxes, state and financial administration, the federal budget, and property relations, etc. In short, all financial, tax, budgetary, and administrative financial power was concentrated in Schacht's hands.
That power - like any totalitarian power - is not easy or simple to achieve. It is much more difficult and dangerous to reach the top in such a power than in a democratic regime that functions through a multi-party procedure and media public discussion and public control.
But Hitler's "Sistine" finger was pointed at the Shaft and that was enough.
To see Schacht's meteoric success more clearly, the economic external circumstances that worked against him are also important. And they were catastrophic for Germany.
We have to go back to the early 20s and the end of World War I.
Germany was a “dead” state after World War I. Little was functioning. The victors of World War I imposed financial obligations on Germany that far exceeded its ability to repay loans and other war reparations. In other words, the victors attempted to “kill” Germany and its economy forever.
These victors seemed to have forgotten the golden rule - that any great nation (the Germans or the Russians, for example) can be defeated, but must not be humiliated. And humiliation was precisely the vision of the Allies and the goal of Germany's Versailles capitulation in 1919.
The war reparations that Germany had to pay to the Allies (the victors) alone amounted to - at the beginning - 135 billion German gold marks. This fantastic figure was equivalent to 10 years of German economic activity - excluding domestic consumption.
In the early 20s, Germany found a “solution” in the destructive and reckless printing of money or so-called deficit financing. This “solution” always rendered work, and in some ways even people's lives, meaningless (at the end of 1923, one US dollar was worth 4.2 billion marks).
Between 1920 and 1923, hyperinflation broke out, unprecedented in modern history. In other words, the Germans were beheaded. It took about 10 generations of Germans to pay back their debts “from an economic deficit to zero” (H.Š.).
So, the Allies imposed an impossible system that attempted to keep Germany in a cage, i.e. under strict control.
German Finance Minister V. Jang "refinanced" the German debt by taking loans from the US to pay off the war debt owed to the British and French. The latter then passed this money on to American banks to repay their war loans taken out by the Americans during World War I.
The consequence for Germany was that German debt to the Allies accumulated. The circle was closed and disastrous for the Germans.
To make matters worse, the Wall Street crash in late 1929 disrupted the vicious circle of finance. Americans stopped lending to everyone, including German banks. The collapse was at its peak.
The depression in Germany was extremely brutal. Collapse and economic death were in sight. Exports had to be stopped, because there was no inflow of fresh money. Unemployment reached over 6.5 million people who were registered. The unregistered were believed to be significantly more.
Chancellor Bruning He tried to cut spending, which only fueled inflation as the budget's cash flow disappeared. The Germans called him the "Chancellor of Death" because he put out fires with gasoline.
Schacht made a significant contribution to breaking inflation. He introduced a new mark, the so-called rent mark, as a means of payment, fixed a new currency, and found real cover in agricultural and industrial state land.
So, not in gold or any other valuable commodity. He stopped inflation in a few weeks. In the international financial community, he was considered a financial genius. (He was welcomed like a star during his visits to the US and England.)
The beheading of the people and the distrust in the various governments of the Weimar Republic and financial solutions from 1920 to 1930 was one of the reasons for the rise of the fascists, i.e. the National Socialist Party.
The fascists promised a rapid economic and social "leap forward".
In all times of crisis, slogans rule. And fascist slogans promised the people, along with work, order, discipline and - REVENGE.
In the 1928 elections, the Nazis received 2,9% of the vote, and in 1932, they won 37,1% of the vote. They became an unavoidable and ruling force.
Soon, in 1933, Hitler came to power.
The fascists blamed the situation in Germany on Jews and communists, but also on the social democrats and corrupt politicians of the Weimar Republic, who were in abundance, as in any crisis.
The state treasury was empty.
Hitler remembered Heimarch Schacht and appointed him in 1933 as President of the Reichsbank, and soon (1934) as Minister of Economics.
Despite not being very sympathetic to the Nazis from the beginning, Hjalmar Schacht quickly and thoroughly innovated the financial and economic system. Similar to a master artist who creates everything from nothing.
The shaft immediately controls spending. He finds mechanisms to launch state works primarily in infrastructure and land improvement, employs the population. But what is important, he quietly works on a military program aimed at strengthening the military capabilities of the state - without touching the modest budget reserve.
What makes Schacht special is that at the beginning of 1934 he declared a unilateral moratorium on the payment of due installments (reparations/interest) to the English and French. In the circumstances of an empty coffers, this gesture was worthy of heroism. This innovation of Schacht's was aimed at paying only with German goods. It was about offering the Allies a kind of one-way barter and - blackmail.
The Allies, therefore, received money in the form of German goods, agricultural and chemical products with inflated prices, but not mechanical products intended for the development of German military power.
The Americans and the Allies quickly and sharply protested. At a meeting in Berlin, the eloquent and courageous Schacht even gave them an ultimatum about the possibility of completely not paying reparations. So, Schacht was playing with fire and an “empty gun”, because Germany was still on its knees.
The Allies were dissatisfied, but they took the bait.
Schacht was even braver and wiser. He worked to break the Allied unity on reparations by developing the so-called financial bilateralism with other countries.
This bilateral did not only concern major allies but also non-European “peripheral” allies. He introduced the policy of the so-called New Plan (German: New Plan). New plan). Germany bought, or bartered, its products with non-Allied countries. For example, Germany bought copper from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in exchange for locomotives; oil from the Romanians in exchange for chemical products; Hungary received Krupp rifles and machine guns for its agricultural products.
Schacht created clearing as a form of payment. Multilateral, of course.
Now the Allies were facing financial defeat. Reparations were given a new form that suited Germany. Thus, Schacht significantly expanded the market for its goods.
The barter worked. The balance was settled in goods. Schacht made the money invisible. Traces of the money were not visible from the outside. Only Schacht's Reisbank and a few people around him could know the amount and type of money in the Central Bank.
With the new plan (1934), Schacht created an economic colony dependent on German goods. Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, but also Turkey were particularly dependent on German goods. And that means on German politics and its fascist ideology. Because with the goods obtained, there always goes a foreign ideology.
(Continued next week)
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