# Where did Hitler get his finances from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657 "2011-02-08T16:03:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/21 "2011-02-09T09:45:12Z")
Hitler had **plenty** of economic help from German big business: German capitalists were _terrified_ of Communism, and considered the Nazis to be their best defence against Germany going Communist. That’s actually how Hitler got into power; the Nazis got voted in on the anti-Communist ticket, and Hitler was appointed Chancellor as a compromise in what was supposed to be a coalition government - by politicians who thought that Hitler was just another politician who could be manipulated. But the Nazis were always popular with big business, and while the Nazis made a bit of money by chasing away Jews and stealing their property, they made a lot more by promising to defend German Capitalists from German (and Soviet) Communists. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/22 "2011-02-09T19:01:29Z")
An additional boost to the economy after Hitler got to power (besides the already mentioned run-up of debts that would have caused a worse crash in just a few years if he hadn’t started the war in 1939\*) was the confiscation of property of the Jews. Some by laws: several laws slowly stated that Jews were no longer allowed to practise this profession, that profession, not allowed to own a business without an Aryan owner… so many successful companies were sold at a pittance to Aryan owners. Additionally, many Jews sold their property to leave the country entirely, and Hitler/ the Nazi leadership, who fluctuated wildly between “lets kill them all to be safe forever from their meddling” and “as long as they leave Germany, and we keep their money, they are free to settle in Australia or Israel or wherever far away, so they don’t bother us”, extorted high fees/ taxes to be allowed to leave. (As time went on and it got more and more difficult to find another country that would accept them, the entry visas got expensive, too, because of the bribes.) Additonally, other parts of stealing was for example the [KdF-Wagen](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KdF-Wagen) (german). KdF =[Kraft durch Freude (Strenght through joy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_Through_Joy)) was an organisation for recreation for the workers, allowing people holidays on the ocean and away from home often for the first time. The KdF car was designed by Porsche and later became the Volkswagen (people’s car). The idea was that every week, you paid in 5 Marks (with a little stamp into a booklet), and when the booklet was full, you’d get a car, as a way for normal workers to afford cars that would usually be completly out of financial reach (remember, this was the 1930s!) However, when war broke out, the factory was used instead to build cars for the Army, with the KdF cars being pushed to the end of the queue; after the war, the booklets were declared worthless. - That’s why Hitler was so angry after the Munich agreement in 1938: he wanted the war to start then, and was disappointed by the appeasement, while the British chancellor, having seen the writing on the wall, rushed home and mobilised the country as much as possible to catch up with the secret armament of Nazi Germany. So far from being a naive, idealistic idiotic for trying to appease Hitler, he took the best of the worst options before him. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/23 "2011-02-09T19:25:23Z")
Nazi Germany was a kleptocracy. It was a completely unsustainable model in the long term. Prior to the war, it was kept afloat by bogus lending as noted above, but also such more direct larceny as the worker’s vacation programs, where no one actually ever got a vacation, but everyone paid in for one. Once the war started, it became more blatant. Germany survived by stealing from other countries - food, raw materials, labor, gold etc. Even with the bombing and the blockade, German people didn’t suffer the same food deprivation as other peoples. This policy of looting, however, required ever wider invasions as the intiial territories were systematically stripped. ---
**Author:** ![AshenLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@AshenLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AshenLady)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/24 "2011-02-09T19:33:29Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > It is a great read, but your interpretation is kind of off. Before 1933, the Germany arms industry gave many to help the Nazis get into power. This wasn’t out of altruism, but out of good business sense: Hitler was going to renounce the Versailles treaty and rearm. But once the Nazis were in power, Krupp et al profited handsomely. Hitler certainly needed money to pay them. > > If there’s one key point in that book, it’s that Krupp was in business for money, not patriotism. The most glaring example came after WWI where they tried to charge the UK for using a shell which had been licensed to them by Krupp. IIRC they came up with a figure by estimating what percentage of German troops had been killed by that kind of shell. Yes, Krupp was in it for the money; his wife thought Hitler was so common and hideous that she refused to meet with him, if he was brought to their house. An aunt or some other woman acted as “lady of the house” when Hitler came to say, “hello” to the Krupp family. ---
**Author:** ![A.Gwilliam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@A.Gwilliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Gwilliam)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/25 "2011-02-09T19:49:29Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > That’s why Hitler was so angry after the Munich agreement in 1938: he wanted the war to start then, and was disappointed by the appeasement, while the British chancellor, having seen the writing on the wall, rushed home and mobilised the country as much as possible to catch up with the secret armament of Nazi Germany. So far from being a naive, idealistic idiotic for trying to appease Hitler, he took the best of the worst options before him. Nitpick No. 1: A British chancellor is a finance minister; Chamberlain was not the chancellor, but the prime minister. (You probably knew this and just mis-spoke! :)) Nitpick No. 2: I’m open to correction, but I think it was the invasion of Czechoslovakia in the Spring of 1939 that led to British mobilisation; and even then it was only on a limited basis. Some digging of air-raid shelters and so on had begun in 1938, but **before** the Munich conference. Conscription didn’t begin until (I think) April 1939. Chamberlain did not sign the Munich agreement as a way to buy time for an inevitable war. He genuinely hoped that it would satisfy Hitler’s ambitions. ---
**Author:** ![AshenLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@AshenLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AshenLady)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/26 "2011-02-09T19:57:00Z")
Chamberlain was the “peace in our time” ijet. He died in 1940 of cancer. WWII probably didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/27 "2011-02-09T22:00:07Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > - That’s why Hitler was so angry after the Munich agreement in 1938: he wanted the war to start then, and was disappointed by the appeasement, while the British chancellor, having seen the writing on the wall, rushed home and mobilised the country as much as possible to catch up with the secret armament of Nazi Germany. So far from being a naive, idealistic idiotic for trying to appease Hitler, he took the best of the worst options before him. Uh, while I get what you’re saying, it’s true that Hitler could have started the war at any moment he’d really wanted to, even by the simple expedient of ordering U-Boats to torpedo ships in the channel. He might have felt irritation over an opportunity passing, but he certainly wasn’t _prevented_ from starting a war. ---
**Author:** ![Walther\_Ego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Walther\_Ego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walther_Ego)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/28 "2011-02-11T11:53:10Z")
I dont think Hitler ever really wanted a war with Britain. He’s quite clear in “Mein Kampf” that there is nothing to be gained from one. When he invaded Poland, it was because after Munich he though it won’t trigger a war with Britain. Nor France. I think he saw war with France as inevitable in the long run. But he really preferred three-week blitz-kriegs to World Wars. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/29 "2011-02-11T12:03:46Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Uh, while I get what you’re saying, it’s true that Hitler could have started the war at any moment he’d really wanted to, even by the simple expedient of ordering U-Boats to torpedo ships in the channel. He might have felt irritation over an opportunity passing, but he certainly wasn’t _prevented_ from starting a war. First, while technically, Hitler had the power to start the war, even he knew he had to sell the war to the public and pretend a good cause to the outside world. That’s why he went to the trouble of maskerading German soldiers as Poles to attack the radio station in order to be able to say that “es wird **zurück** geschossen” (It is being shot **back** ). And that was after he spent the whole summer using the press to heat up the atmosphere in the Reich by writing one (invented) story after the other how poor Germans living in Poland were being oppressed, murdered, raped etc. Secondly, Hitler always wanted his Lebensraum (space to live) in the East. Partly because the Slaws in his view were inferiors, so less problem to get rid of them; partly because nobody liked the Communists, so he thought nobody would protest; partly because he could claim history (the Teutonic knights had tried to settle dense forests in previous centuries); partly because there was indeed a lot more empty land in that direction than south or west. Thirdly, because in his view, the other Nordic Races, while not as good as the Aryans, were still good, and could therefore be negiotated with. Killing French, Brits and Scandinavians would be a waste of good races under his view. He misjudged, but he really believed that after conquering the East, he could make a peace treaty with the Brits and everybody would just keep to their sphere. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/30 "2011-02-11T14:48:56Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > First, while technically, Hitler had the power to start the war, even he knew he had to sell the war to the public and pretend a good cause to the outside world. That’s why he went to the trouble of maskerading German soldiers as Poles to attack the radio station in order to be able to say that “es wird **zurück** geschossen” (It is being shot **back** ). And that was after he spent the whole summer using the press to heat up the atmosphere in the Reich by writing one (invented) story after the other how poor Germans living in Poland were being oppressed, murdered, raped etc. > > Secondly, Hitler always wanted his Lebensraum (space to live) in the East. Partly because the Slaws in his view were inferiors, so less problem to get rid of them; partly because nobody liked the Communists, so he thought nobody would protest; partly because he could claim history (the Teutonic knights had tried to settle dense forests in previous centuries); partly because there was indeed a lot more empty land in that direction than south or west. > > Thirdly, because in his view, the other Nordic Races, while not as good as the Aryans, were still good, and could therefore be negiotated with. Killing French, Brits and Scandinavians would be a waste of good races under his view. He misjudged, but he really believed that after conquering the East, he could make a peace treaty with the Brits and everybody would just keep to their sphere. How does any of that help your defense of Chamberlain? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/31 "2011-02-11T15:00:34Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > How does any of that help your defense of Chamberlain? It was not in defense of Chamberlain himself, but about Sailboat’s general assertion that Hitler could have started the war anytime, anyway, with anybody, by pointing out that that would not have been logical or plausible for several reasons. ---
**Author:** ![scamartistry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@scamartistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scamartistry)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657/32 "2011-02-11T16:22:31Z")
> [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](#): > > Your head is going to explode when you read this: Money ain’t real, dude, it’s just numbers on a piece of paper. :eek: of course the concept of money is real. maybe you live as an outlaw somewhere and dont play that bullshit. You dont want the Mans money. If you dont buy into the fact that money represent value. I.e a product or service. Your everday life must be rather complicated. How do you pay for that greasy hamburger you slobber down every day after work? Do you pay in cucumbers? The physical dollar-bill has no intrinsic value. The value comes from people agreeing that this currency represent x amount of value. I buy this concept, but I guess you play with by your own rules maverick [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-hitler-get-his-finances-from/570657.md?page=1)