The People's Dictatorship A History of Nazi Germany

Chapter 4 describes and analyzes the German economy during the peacetime period of Nazi rule, 1933–39, focusing on industry and the industrial working class, agriculture and the peasantry, the middle classes, and the professions. The chapter describes Nazi economic thinking as a form of managed capitalism, intending to preserve the basic features of the capitalist economy while using the authority of the state to impose peace between management and labor. Two entities of central importance to this arrangement were the German Labor Front, which replaced the independent labor unions, and the Trustees of Labor, who were government officials who determined wages and working conditions. German workers were granted access to vacations and cultural programs by the “Strength through Joy” organization. Managed capitalism also functioned in the agricultural economy, where the Reich Agricultural Estate exerted significant power over the activities of farmers in a so-called Ordered Market. Among the middle classes and professionals, economic opportunities were improved by the elimination of Jews from German commerce and from professions such as law and medicine. Economic policies thus helped win widespread acceptance for measures motivated by Nazi antisemitism.