German Economic Miracle - Cold War DOCUMENTARY
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 4 июн 2021
- 💻Get complete digital privacy for 2.59 $/month and get 3 extra months for free: www.privateinternetaccess.com...
Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on the German Economic Miracle - Wirtschaftswunder, as in the aftermath of the destructive World War, West Germany still occupied by the allied powers attempts to rise up and manages to do that on the back of the so-called ordoliberalism and the American Marshall Plan.
Japanese Economic Miracle: • How Japan Became an Ec...
Support us on Patreon: / thecoldwar
RUclips membership / @thecoldwartv
✔ Merch store ► teespring.com/stores/thecoldwar
✔ Patreon ► / thecoldwar
✔ Facebook ► / thecoldwartv
✔ Instagram ► / thecoldwartv
#ColdWar #GermanEconomicMiracle #Wirtschaftswunder
💻Get complete digital privacy for 2.59 $/month and get 3 extra months for free: www.privateinternetaccess.com/thecoldwar
You know what gives me peace of mind? Watching a RUclips video without having to worry about the host shilling bullshyte ads.
so based on this comment, can we assume that you contribute via patreon,etc to ensure that creators are compensated for the content they make?
You should also talk about the Han River miracle
@@TheColdWarTV It's a troller, that it's his job: to say bad things to you. You are a great channel and you MUST keep up the good work!!!
im excited to watch East Germany's recovery next
A typical german village is consists of a church, a town hall, and two world leading companies.
I am from Witten.
Please name those.
Okay, Ruhrpumpen...
@@emergcon To be fair, he said typical and not all
@@AveragePootis I know. I tried a joke where I would remember the world leading companies in my city. But after the first post I did not find back here.
Witten has a few world leading companies.
@@emergcon German sense of humor is just indecipherable bruh you just confused everyone 😭
When the cold war channel puts out a video on saturday morning I feel like GI JOE just came on and I'm 12.
Cobra-la!
@@TheColdWarTV Knowing is 1/2 the battle!
That's convening
Weeb
As a German economist I can only say that this video is of very good quality. True, instructive and balanced.
glad you enjoyed it!
@@chiefslinginbeef3641 post-Keynesianism and institutional economics all the way 🤙
You would be pleased to know something about Chinese post maoist reforms of Teng Siao Pching. His economical reforms were very similiar.
@@Boyar300AV Teng Hsiao-Ping is a very archaic spelling of his name. I'd not be surprised if many people reading had no idea who that is. I'd recommend using his Pinyin name 'Deng Xiaoping' in English.
I'm curious if you're not a native English speaker and if so is it standard to use Wade-Giles still?
@@Jokkkkke this is actually much better view how to look at China that classical economics. Austrains would say the same.
Ironically that now foreigners are often wrong-footed when they realize that everything is closed here on Sundays
Prior to the 1990s, the same could be said of Saturday afternoons except on Long Saturdays.
In Bayern still aplies
@@chiefslinginbeef3641, part of me really appreciates that Chick Fil A gives their employees at least one day per week off. Might be why they earn more $$ per franchise than all of the competitors who are open seven days/week. Of course, when one has an urge for waffle fries on the Lord's day...
Yes..this is very true
Isnt like that evrywhere in the world? In south america,sundays everything is closed after 2pm
Researching WW2 it utterly shocks me that the economy was doing even that well. It looked like the entire country got leveled, not just 22% of housing and 1/3 of manufacturing.
Well, it turned out "smart bombing" although the allies had envisioned that concept was not really possible with the available military technology of the time. Hence early on it was abolished which led to huge civilian losses. Notably the bombing of Dresden in literally the final few days of the war by the British RAF -> Bomber Harris which killed 60000. And, Germany historically is not as centralized as other European counties like Franke and the UK and much more distributed across the territory.
Quote of a comment above: "A typical german village consists of a church, a town hall, and two world leading companies" -> Mittelstand.
Another overlooked aspect: all the destroyed old infrastructure provided a major advantage: it was destroyed "for free" if you will, and a fresh start was inevitable. Compare that to the UK, which had to pay first to demolish old buildings, infrastructure and industries.
It took Western Germany a few years to recover from the devastation of the WW2 (and WWI). Eastern Germany however has still not fully recovered from the devastation of the Communism... The scars of Communism (economic, institutional and in terms of mindset) will be visible in Eastern Europe for a long time.
Yeah and we West Germans have to pay a solidary tax for east Germany.
That means we pay a little bit more taxes, in order to pay for the almost non existend Infrastructur in east Germany.
These Communists have made eastern Germany almost to a third world Country.
Its kinda sad...
@@avinamerkur1484 cringe
@@kayvan671
East Germany had the highest economic productivity of all the European communist states.
East Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe were never st the same level of industrialization or wealth as Western Europe. Comparing the two is a bit comical. Remember that Russia, the most developed part of Eastern Europe, was effectively in the Middle Ages until a little over 100 years ago. The rest of Eastern Europe was varying levels of worse
@@oliverrainer5771 You didn't get the point. What I say is that the devastation caused by the Communism is much worse and "sustainable" than the devastation caused by a world war. And you are also completely wrong with the economic data. Between the two world wars every single nation in Eastern Europe was better developed and wealthier than the USSR, including my native Bulgaria, not to mention the Czechs or the Poles. There is so much data about it... BTW, I assume that you are from Germany, where I specialized Law of the EU (at the University of Hamburg). Have in mind that Germany is not unknown to me in terms of history etc.
My previous bell button became worthless and a new one was created. Unfortunately it produces 93% less notifications though. 😉
as long as ours is one of the ones you still get...
@@TheColdWarTV could you cover the petrov affair there defection to Australia
I like your avatar pic
my grandpa was a child during the war.
When I ask him about the war he always tells the story of how he ripped off to amarican soldiers of by trading some flowers end 10 eggs in exchange of 10 liters of petroleum. He is a fucking legend
I think those men knew they were being ripped off.
Banks and corporations allowed West Germany to recover because they didn't want to repeat the Versalles reparations of the 1920's. In the nuclear age, West Germany would be militarily impotent even with a standing army but its economic recovery was crucial to the European recovery.
Reason why, UK industry run down. I worked in a forge in 80's. We did things on a shoe string. We had forging process no one else had having spent £100k. I read in industry magazine VW had spent 3 million building a forge plant for gear box parts.
How could we compete.
@@flybobbie1449 Such a pity that England lost the war. 👹
@@simontemplar.8668 Yes Britain spent it's money in the defence of Europe. Germany being prevented from military build up spent it's money on industry.
@@flybobbie1449 Danke schön und auf wiedersehen. May the force be with you and AUKUSCAN do what EU can't.
@@thunderbird1921 Germany never had to find money for a V bomber force and later Polaris. Even now US upset Euro countries don't spend their far share.
After WW1 Germany also experienced a similar huge boom fueled because the allies reparations included striping all machinery from German factories. This forced all German industry to retool, and in the process nearly totally modernize their industrial capacity. It's a big part of why Germany had such an industrial jump on the Allies going into WW2, and served them well until later in the war when the Allies caught up, and exceeded German industrial infrastructure.
When I saw the title of this video I instantly thought of this!
Great episode, but surprised you never mention the expulsion of Germans from eastern europe (the largest mass migration ever) and how that affected the economy (with preexisting housing and food shortages). Also Germany lost a lot of territory to Poland and the USSR (and of course the Sudetenland and Austria) so comparing industrial and farm production prewar to postwar needs a significant asterisk. A more interesting statistic might be productivity per given region. Germany also came to an agreement with Israel to financially compensate for the Holocaust which was controversial (b/c how can money ever compensate for that), but significantly aided the nascent state when it fought its neighbors. I'm also curious about the recovery of the Communist block countries which also dealt with their own population transfers and post-war poverty.
SSSSHHHHTTTT, you're not supposed to know about that part.
funny how Germany lost the war, yet won in the long run, meanwhile countries that got into the Soviet sphere won, but to this day can't catch up and probably never will.
Thats Russias fault... Your country too
Yeah, but in 30 years germans will be displaced by arabs and the eastern block will be displaced by their grandchildren
Germany became bigger economy than victorious France and Britain
@@degamispoudegamis the quality of life in the USSR was never even close to the quality of life in America.
@@degamispoudegamis you are ignoring facts. If life was not terrible there, then why did they need a wall to keep people in?
A good detail of the rebuilding of West Germany would be how they preserved and reconstructed destroyed buildings to preserve their cultural heritage instead of leveling all the rubble and starting from scratch. Women were prominent in this work, the so-called "trummerfrau" or "rubble women" The Altstadt "old city" of Nurnberg is a prime example of this rebuilding.
Imagine what if all of germany would have been covered with outrageous commieblocks! Yikes
@@alexcheremisin3596 LOL exactly! it took until after the German unification to rebuild Dresden's Frauenkirche. The Germans pretty much catalogued very piece of rubble and put it back together.
@@michaelporzio7384 - the Frauenkirche was rebuilt as a national symbol rather than for its artistic value. It would be a daytrip for me to visit, but I did once and have no desire to see this over-hyped abomination ever again. Stepping into it feels like stepping into grandma's candy bowl, a huge, garish pastel blob without even the slightest sense for proportion, and as subtle as a family bucket of popcorn. It would not be out of place next to Disneyworld's fake Neuschwanstein, and that Germany widely regards it as a national symbol makes me cringe. That money would have better been spent on improving the region's infrastructure, 1/5
@@steve1978ger Wow. Aren’t you someone who hates baroque architecture?
@@paulfrancistorres7144 - what gave you that idea :D
Infrastructure can be rebuild in a few years.
Knowhow takes generations to build up.
Avoiding a brain drain after the war was crucial.
@@steveharvey6421 Believe it or not, rockets are of little use for rebuilding a ruined economy. Those are the rich boiz toiz.
@@sholahverassa8582 you are right Von Brauns 3rd in command was a neighbor of mine or at least his wife back in the 60's. The Delmeirs.
@@steveharvey6421 are you for Germany ?
@@steveharvey6421 What a shocker. What American doesn't kiss Germany's ass endlessly?
@@Shambles7698 no, American
"Morgenthau made his most significant contribution as Chairman of the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, in 1944."
Look into JCS1076 the replacement for the Morgenthau Plan, enacted until I think 1947 and than replaced by the Marshall Plan.
When the British raised concerns that they could not feed their Occupied Zone, in which Millions of Displaced People, Prisoners of War from all sides (Soviet Soldier often didn't wanted to return to the East for obvious reasons), Survivors of the KZs and many Others desperate for food and shelter lived under horrible conditions.
The Winter of 45 and 46 was brutally cold, and it was feared that Millions could die.
The Winter of 45 already had a unacceptable body count under Civilians, and there still were at least 20 Millions displaced People in Germany, form all around Europe.
Britain was broke, the War had crippled its Economy and all Wealth had been transferred to the US, they supposed to lift all Sanctions from the German Economy, with that JCOS 1067 ended, and the Marshall Plan begins. After almost two years of waiting, for some Miracle to unfold in Europe.....the Germans got to work.
The Next 20 Years will be remembered as the golden Years of European Prosperity and Wealth.
Interesting to see that Germany managed to repay its WW 2 reperations by the 1980s, while for WW 1 it needed until 2010.
It was reduced by 50%, that helped.
The WW1 reparations were suspended during the Cold War, Germany didn't start paying those again until after reunification.
@@sodadrinker89 Right, makes kind of sense, since there were two Germanies and nobody could decide which Germany should pay how much.
They haven't paid everything. For instance, they didn't pay reparations to Greece
@@iliasfilip2110 They did, in March 1960, a treaty between Greece and Germany mandated payments towards Greece amounting to 115 million Deutschmarks. Period. While thoughout history, Greece is always hungry for foreign money, it is a bit telling that no claims are being made agains Italy (which launched the attack on Greece). Greek socialists need to establish a tax system and stop doling out welfare payments to blind, 115 year old taxi drivers and the like. Collect taxes from your own populace instead of trying to blackmail other nations.
Very interesting video. Would be nice to see a video about the german economic boom up until the 80s. :)
Now the Finnish Economic Miracle or "The ridiculous amount of stuff we needed to sent to Soviet Union"
And if that "ridiculous amount of stuff" was put on train it would had been over 3600km long!
And not included on that train was the various seaworthy ships that would had made 300km long line.
Finland's Cold War history is pretty interesting. Same as Austria. Both managed to come out of the era with advanced economies, neutral status, and with parliamentary democracies in place.
Oh you mean Reparations.
@@KawaiianArgument Hadn't tried to compare Finland to Sweden. Aware of the phenomenon of Finlandization. But, the country was pretty much deemed a neutral one by the time the Cold War was coming to an end in the 1980s, if not earlier. And, they made much progress from the time of having to make peace with the Soviets in September of 1944; and having all sorts of agreements running into the 1950s (like the Soviets having the Porkkala Naval Base until 1956).
At least you got a sweet atomic power station out of it.
First another video about one of my morbid curiosities; Operation Gladio and now a video about something I genuinely like. This channel truly is one of the best.
Funny note, the underground black market was so rampant it existed into the 1970s while stationed in the then Federal Republic of Germany. I always traded my cigarettes and class 6 rations. One soldier couldn't drink 6 gallons alcohol a month besides, Germany especially the Stuttgart area had some of the best rieslings in the world plus numerous beer breweries.
My grandfather went to the Spring Show in Dublin in 1950 and there were several German made agricultural implements on show. An absolute miracle given that only 3 years earlier they didn't even have a currency.
It should also be mentioned that 80% of German heavy industry was still intact by the end of the war, thanks to a combination of British efforts concentrating on de housing the German labour force, American efforts to concentrate on the oil and aircraft industry (both virtually ceasing to exist after the war) and the German effort to protect their heavy industry above others. Not to mention that most of German industry was located in the Rheinland, where the Soviets were unable to strip them bare and ship them off to Mother Russia as reparations.
Excellent info
Ha, I was reading news about Latvian football player Daniels Ontužāns transfer from Bayern to Freiburg at the same moment when I heard "Freiburg school of economics" in background. :)
I am neither an economist nor am I a German citizen, but neither of those things matters in the face of such amazing data and hard historical facts.
Thank you for the marvelous channel and wonderful videos.
I think some graphics could benefit this episode, being so heavy on numbers and percents I found myself loosin track and rewatching some parts.
Great content as always.
This is a comeback story that I can never tire of learning about.
Very good survey into how West Germany survived post WW2. Thanks, standing by about East Germany.
Amazing video. Well researched and articulate. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent content. Thank you. Keep up the good work
Hey! I love your videos! I was wondering if you could do videos on the following topics:
1. Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, and how it became prosperous.
2. South Korea, its coup d' etat, miilitary junta, and its prosperity.
3. The Philippines, what happened post-war, Martial Law, and how its economy tanked.
I'd really love to see (2).
Great video with clear and precise content! Always a pleasure to watch your work thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great, informative segment on a very important development during the Cold War, with the rise of the Wirtschaftswunder. An economically weak West Germany would have presented considerable challenges to the western aliies, and the regional economies of Western and Central Europe as a whole.
Thank you for the good work here.
I would have to check, but I believe the trajectory of the value of the Mark in the 1950s belied conventional economic theory, in that exports increased dramatically as the currency increased in or retain a high value in comparison to other currencies. If I recall several histories on this era, basically the Germans were producing things and still retained technologies and IP that people in other countries needed buy, regardless of movements in exchange rates. A similar situation occurred 30 years later, with Japan and the Plaza Accords - despite the rise of the Yen and efforts at increasing domestic demand, Japans exports continued to grow from 1987 to 1991 (through the bubble years), while retaining a decent trade surplus.
A prime example of how free markets work.
Its not a free market. Its a Communist hellhole. It doesn't respect freedom of contract since it prohibits child labor. If a child wants to work. And a business owner wants to hire him.
What is the problem? Why can't people be free to make any decisions they want if it doesn't hurt anyone else? If you do not believe in freedom of contract. Then you do not believe in Capitalism.
@@nattygsbord Lol you heard about market failures? It´s simple you sure can send the children of poor families in the mines but this just works if you then also let them die in the gutter if they get sick or in the long run you create just social cases, just works when you also do some social Darwinism. Otherwise you also don´t really have to wounder if you create a insane criminal underworld if you push people to the limit.
While Capitalism also assumes rational actors and not children to work, they obviously will get exploited because they don´t have any negotiation power besides being stupid children.
Also i don´t get why you bring up children to argue for i guess Ancap, i mean seriously that´s even the reason why i left this behind because the two options i seen are ether make children there parents property or give them adult rights which is pretty obviously really bad. I mean you can probably figure out what also in consequence becomes legal.
This is kinda the same reason why you don´t let a company just put there chemical waste inside the next river even when this is the cheapest solution for them. Besides what´s about slavery, you prefer this over bankruptcy?
50% Corporate Tax and taxing the rich worked well in West Germany!
Why can't we do that here?
@@TheBKnight3 lobbying
So you're telling me, splitting Germany into east and west was ultimately really good for its economic and diplomatic situation?
Keep in mind that East Germany was the most economically productive of all the European communist states. The Germans just do everything better.
I think a united Germany (under allies) would have blown a divided one out of the water. In fact, when West Germany announced its plans to absorb the east after the Berlin wall incident, the British under Thatcher were fiercely against it as she feared Germany would dominate Europe economically. The French were worried too, but supported it under the condition Germany helps creating the EU. In the end Britain stood alone in its opposition and eventually relented, everyone else including the US agreed and west Germany reintegrated the east. Thatchers worries came true as Germany almost instantly became the biggest industrial powerhouse in Europe, including the new Russian federation.
@@raphaelforkel7759 Yeah cant belive it Germans really do everything better and always find the way to grow
No, it wasn't. Costs (economical, but first of all humanitarian) of separation, costs of reunification, and everything else afterwards.
All the settings, either well thought out or planned or improvised, were meant to keep Germany down, to fence it in.
In 1990 there were enormous concerns by the UK and France regarding a German reunification.
Territorial loss of 25 %.
Displacement of 14 million people.
Partition of the rest, pitting the new states against each other.
Due to the new border situation between East Germany and Poland a lot of cities and towns along the border rivers Oder and Neiße were torn apart. Places that had been there for more than half a millenium were structurely devastated by the decisions of one of the worst mass-murderers in human history in Moscow.
Same for a lot of places along the inner-German border. Berlin wasn't the only one!
And all of them a still suffering from that.
Berlin used to be the biggest industrial city of the Reich (around the turn of the 19. to the 20. century it was among the three largest cities in the world!). Not much of that former power and glory is left.
Chaos, turmoil, losses, losses, losses, enormous human suffering.
No, there was nothing good about that.
But indeed it is a miracle that still Germany is what it is.
Just found this channel and It's amazing
Welcome aboard!
Mmm new history stuff, and im early
Anyways thanks for continuing to give us great content
Glad you enjoy it!
Great video!
FURIOUSLY
Great vid, btw. I had never heard of ordoliberalism, even though I had an inkling of what it was. Thank you!
This is a great episode 👍
Awesome contents. I've always been facinated by the robust German economy based on the manufacturing sector. I'd luv to see the similar content on South Korean economy from this channel.
I know German Economic Miracle. Personally. " They don't give tips."
That’s great ! Love it
I am a history interested German, but I didnt know that the Korean War was such a boost for the west german economy. Thank for this great episode
wonderful Canadian accent, a Tunisian from Germany who likes your great job.
Glad you enjoyed!
@@TheColdWarTV I am quite sure, there is some plan similar to the operation gladio going on in North Africa, especially in Tunisia since we have active left-wing parties and a couple of left-wing politicians who got killed mysteriously... One of them was mentioned in one of the American Embassy reports.
A coherent and logical account. Instructive.
Germans are skilled and hard workers.
If you wanna see what Germans managed to do economically after the economic miracle, you can look the ratio British pound / Deutsch Mark.
At the end of the Bretton Woods period 1 pound was worth about 11 marks, while at the arrival of the euro 1 pound was worth about 2 marks and a bit.
More like Germans blocked the education of skilled workforce in central Europe with their kulturkampf policy since the XIX century.
@@Paciat
What, what's this?
@@gregorymalchuk272 A word that sounds fancy and has nothing to do with the topic.
It was Bismarck's push for a secular state, taking away the political and legal powers of mainly the Catholic church. The "skilled workforce" part is a weird stretch based on the fact that the church gave a voice to the poor rural population, which was effectively shut up by these laws.
This is a great video! I'm just wondering if you could provide source material and/or further reading, it would be a big help!
It's kinda crazy to think about a country's economy collapsing to the point of Germany's like you describe in the beginning of the video. But, it's also interesting just how important a construct currency is in keeping a country running. Thank you for this video. I would enjoy more of these about Germany in the future too!
God be with you out there everybody! ✝️ :)
i’m glad that the morgenthau plan wasn’t enacted, that kind of stuff could really bite back and result in the kind of resentment that produces separatism
plus, we all know that west germany became an allied powerhouse instead!
Stalin made a offer to germany around 1952 to unite Germany If they would stay neutral (like Austria and finland). If east Germany wouldn't habe been a socialist hellhole, west germany a wealthy state and Stalin a untrustable scumbag who would reject this offer? And the Sovietunion was a Power to enforce this offer.
We all remember Mengele and Colonia Dignidad, but who remembers Prince Karl Franz of Prussia. I think it would be interesting to hear stories about Chile and Argentina
In this video you mention morghentau , would you make a video specifically about the morghentau plan ?
Would you ever consider doing a video about rearming both Germanies and in particular the Starfighter Affair?
Having at least a few charts would help immensely to better understand change through time and impacts of events and decisions. Throwing loads of numbers regarding industrial production, inflation, taxes etc and switching back and forth in time, IMO, does not facilitate learning. It sounds professional and reminds of books but leaves a mess in people's heads.
It was mostly to distract from the atrocious Morgentau plan led by a bitter chew as punishment to the germans
The funds of the Marshall plan were granted as loans that were repaid.
i personally hate mid video ads, people who use them usually start the video with an interesting introduction to get your attention then suddenly start talking about some product leaving you feeling utterly disgusted and betrayed. i hate ads, i hate being tricked to look at or hear ads
Bravo
Forget the Chinese Miracle, the German Miracle should be studied in school!
It kinda is, y'know.
The post war miracle of Germany is not that impressive. It was also an industrial power both before and under the war.
Personally I think the South Korean economic miracle is history's most impressive. That country had no natural resources. Its income per head was by 1945 half of that of Ghana.
And in just 6 years if went from having no steel industry at all to having the worlds largest steel company (POSCO). And today it is one of the richest countries on the planet and successful in many industries - electronics, cars, shipbuilding, steel, etc.
And in Europe do I think that Sweden's economic miracle is more impressive. From being a industrial backwater nation in 1930's it had become the richest country in the world by the late 1960's. And not only that. Its air force was the 4th largest in the world for a country with only 8 million people. Standard of living was high. The welfare state was superb. Gender equality had come further than anywhere else.
And the country had companies competing in the elite league in almost every industry.
Sweden made cars, fighter jets, ships, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, steel, paper, weapons, timber, construction material, electronics, mechanical tools and machinery, nuclear power, telephones, music, and of course IKEA.
If we would talk Germany's economic development, then I think August der starke of Saxony and Frederick the Great's Prussia are interesting to follow. It was during this time period Germany was made into an industrial power. Frederick used his army to stimulate demand in the economy to encourage the creation of military industries - iron making, textiles, etc.
Prussia was turned from a country without natural resources into the most advanced economy in Germany. And only England and Belgium were more advanced economies during the early industrial revolution, thanks to Fredericks large efforts and investments into Silesia's industrialization.
Saxony's economy was also a succéfull economy that was more diverse - it was both civilian and military like. It made both cannons and luxury porcelain for exports and was the richest country on earth.
But the rest of Germany of the 1700's was an unimpressive failure. Bavarias economy stood still throughout the century. Hannover was focused on making sails and ship equipment but its population was too small to having the tax payer subsidizing the creation of new industries like in Prussia. Rhineland was an entirely civilian industry and its economic performance was weak. Baden was a mosaic of small kingdoms before Napoleon did the Germans a service by merging them so they could start working together effectively. And Württemberg economic performance was just as weak as Bavarias, and they both played in the same industries - glass making and timber.
@@nattygsbord I think Singapore's economic miracle is considerably more impressive since South Korea was partly industrialized perior to WW2 and Sweden escaped the devestation of war (starting its industrialization already in the mid-to-late 19th c.).
Japan's industrilaization was also impressive. They truly decided to simply adopt everything that has worked for the western powers.
ANYTHING WITH THE WORD "MIRACLE" IS JUST MONEY BEING DUMPED TO PUPPET GOVTS TO BUILD
@@overlord165 SIngapore is more a city than a country so its development is not that interesting since there is not much from other countries to learn from it. Furthermore did it have the backing of the British empire protective tariffs.
South Korea and Japan still holds the world record in economic growth with an average GDP growth rate of 6% during their miracle decades. No other country in history had grown so fast and with such a sustained rate.
Neither Japan or Korea had natural resources. And I remind you once again that Korea was poorer than Ghana in 1945. It was NOT an industrialized nation. Its 3 main exports were: fish, tungsten ore and whigs made from human hair.
The country was destroyed in World war 2 and by the Korea war. No other country in history have been invaded as much as Korea. I mean literary - 1.300 times.
The country had neither coal or iron. So it had to import those raw materials from Australia, South America and USA (because it couldn't be imported from China since it was a Communist country back then ).
But in only six years did POSCO become the largest steel producer in the world.
And it out-competed Scandinavia which had dominated the worlds shipbuilding.
Millions were lifted out from poverty. And the country went from enlightened despotism under Park Chung-hee to become a democracy.
I would imagine the massive volume of beer, etc. sold to allied troops stationed in post-war Germany helped with the economy!
US dollars being accepted was not the problem, the mark needed to gain some value.
US troops tend to fly their own stuff in from the US.
@@tomsommer8372 I spent 2 1/2 years in Germany. Their beer was so superior to US made swill it was a great seller on and off base. Fresher too.
@@stevepettersen3283 The commercial US beer is absolute trash, but i do think there is alot of good quality beer in the US from independent breweries.
Germany was undergoing massive industrial investments during the war. Thousands of new industrial facilities was built and hundreds of thousands of people got trained to become new industrial workers.
So after the war did Germany have a new workforce. And industrial capacity in 1945 was 20% larger than before the war despite all allied bombings.
So when wartime rationing was lifted and factories produced consumer goods instead of weapons, then an economic miracle happened. Same thing happened in Italy and USA. But not in Russia because the war had ruined half of that country's GDP and killed 20 million people so a fast recovery was not possible.
*Grabs tea*
Those are the reforms that Argentina needs, change my mind
Long live sacred Germany!
Es lebe das heilige Deutschland!
You forget only a small detail the EEC and the Schuman Declaration
Interesting. This kind of protectionism is ironically very similiar to Chinese economic reforms during Teng Siao Pching. It's regulated free market protected from being swallowed by monopolys and mostly foreign competitors.
Ludwig Erhard was really a special kind of Man. It is incredibly rare that Germans do not adhere strictly to rules and guidelines, but somehow he was the exceptional character having the grit to ask ''So what?!'' and go about disobeying them for what turned out to be the greater good. He has definitely earned a rightful legend status for that -especially amongst Germans.
Awesome video! Can’t wait to see the East German one.
Hey, Great video once again...
But I had a request to make.
I was wondering if you could make an episode explaining the relationship between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union after Stalins death.
Everybody talks about the tito/stalin split but no one seems to think that Tito was alive up until Brezhnev's reign.
When I read the title i hoped this talked about the german economic miracle of 1933
Talk about the Nurengburg Trials.Six guys?
Can you do one about the Spanish Miracle?
From the video, it seems it comes down mostly to 1. Implementing a stable currency. 2. Abolishing price controls. 3. Enacting a radical supply-side tax reform. From there, private enterprise is unleashed to exploit the resources and opportunities that come its way. This sounds much like Reaganomics. However, what about other, more social democratic reforms? For example, I've heard that the West German state mandated specific and major roles for trade unions in corporate decisions, and that the workers (perhaps through their unions?) owned major stakes in the companies that employed them. Land use controls were also very strict in West Germany. In the light of what Charles Marohn and the Strong Towns movement has revealed, this amounted to a protection of localities and families from the predations of real estate developers. Zoning for urban vitality and concentration also meant that German mass transit and railroads enabled car independence for most Germans, if they chose it, which also contributed to huge savings for families.
Or, what about the fact that shedding your empire and overseas obligations all at once, also can liberate an economy from the burden of all that spending? France and England spent many decades fighting to preserve their far flung holdings, whereas Germany was free of this - until they took on the absurd burden of subsidizing the dead zones of EU economies....
2:05 ad ends
Economic history is underrated
It seems the French not being as dominant in the postwar negotiations this time around and being as vindictive as they were the first time around was a good thing. But time goes on and we learn, a shame we had to learn the way we did.
the western goal was to make sure the west Germans were fed but not fat, skim a little/just enough to keep. it's a lot like the happiest barracks in the camp approach of the USSR, although begrudgingly...
So, in a nutshell - as every Soviet citizen received a passport only in 1974, we can surely say that comrade Brezhnev was the Soviet Caracalla. :P
interesting, informative. Tho there is no mention on the herculean effort needed to rebuild German cities, railways and ports. In the end the apartments would be rebuilt one brick and rafter at a time or a new structure put up. Cheap labour, oil, and capital helped.
Did you ever make a east germany economy video? Can't find it
So where did all this new production take place?
Never really read the comment section on these before, yikes
And your problem is?
There is not even one bad comment.
At ~10:58 was that fella purchasing a parachute?!? 🤔🤔
There never was a miracle. Every economy needs a consumer base and to strengthen the consumer base, they need to have an opportunity to have great wages and great education. That's it.
The Germans understood the importance of maintaining a large and strong consumer base and they enacted strong economic regulations and maintained all jobs to pay wages that are much above the cost of living to maintain a large disposable income for the consumers to spend. That's why Germany and many other Western modern European countries are faring well in comparison to a draconian Neoliberal Conservative economy like the US. We should learn from the West Europeans.
Wait a minute, so appropriately taxing the highest earners creates revenue and stimulates economic growth? Someone should tell our government that. Or remove the hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of earwax that has prevented them from hearing it.
14:00 - BINGOOOOO!
Surely the fact that the Germans very hard-working has something quite significant to do with it? Does anyone ever speak of the Soviet, Latvian or Italian economic miracles?
Walter eukin reminds me of milton friedman
@@chiefslinginbeef3641 yeah because that worked real well for Austria.
does anyone know what the outro music is?
I didn't know that there were VW microbuses in Germany in 1947... 10:28
Good video. But as a german I strongly object to the part, where - as you said - dresden and berlin - where most affected by the allied bombing campain.
the cities in the west where bombed to a way larger extend. the dresden bombing is a part of the opferkult propaganded by neonazis. please do compare the amount of bombs dropped on dortmund, essen, duisburg, wuppertal, düsseldorf or hamburg against the amount dropped on dresden.compare the victims.
the narrative that the dresden bombing was something special is completly wrong.
Oder Köln.
Die Stadt wurde 5 Jahre lang ständig bombardiert.
The war had destroyed 4.8 million housing units. As a result, 13 million Germans were homeless. And there was 400 million cubic meters (14 billion cubic feet) of rubble to clear.
Of the 54 largest cities (>100,000 inhabitants) in Germany, only four survived without significant damage: Lübeck, Wiesbaden, Halle and Erfurt. Worst hit was Würzburg (75 percent destroyed), followed by Dessau, Kassel, Mainz and Hamburg.
Of the 151 medium-sized cities (25,000-100,000), about a third lost at least 20 percent of their housing stock.
A german tv channel also made a documentation about that. Their opion was that THE deciding factor was that lots of unemployed war-engineers were left so german companies had a very cheap highly educated workforce at their disposal. Also the German cities had been destroyed, but the war economy with its maschinery was mostly untouched, so this maschinery and factories could be used to produce new peacetime goods. What is your opinion on this?
Further Ludwig Erhard - hailed as symbol of the Wirtschaftswunder - was actually quite incompetend - or at least classified as that by the american intelligence.
They lose 2 world wars but they always come back. Both economically and militarily and also in other departments. In some departments the Germans recovered better than some of the victors of WWII.
Might also add, Japan also recovered very well post WWII even though they lost. Though few other countries in Asia struggled
No word on the whole western europe erasing the German debt in 1953...
@@marneus you do realize that Germany is still paying reparations to this day? In fact the last rate of reparations from the treaty of Versailles (after WW1) was paid in 2010 .. Germany has paid over 38 Billion Dollars in reparations since WW2 ... so it's not like all debts were magically cancelled...
@@TheBueschel Do you realize most of its debts were pardoned in 1953?
@@marneus "most of its debts" who told you that? The debt was reduced by about 50% to avoid having Germany fall to Communism but it wasn't "most of its debt". This concerned the external debts of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany - not Reparations for War damages
@@TheBueschel About 50 % not being "most of its debts". LOL OK
This is a great example of how a country can rebuild itself from almost nothing. Germany was a 3rd world nation, starving, decimated, torn in half, occupied by foreign powers, had much of its population killed or enslaved, and didnt even have the benefit of much natural resources to fall back on to rebuild. Countries like those in Africa were in a similar position after colonialism but at least had some natural resources to exploit in order to build and develope and germany didnt have that luxury. Despite all that they were able to become a global power within a couple decades even with half the country occupied by foreign conquerors. Germany should be a shining example to many undeveloped countries today like sub saharan africa or war torn middle eastern nations
Central planning was soundly discredited, yet we still have it everywhere today.
Except we don't. Explain.
@@patrickjspoon Tens of thousands of pages of regulations, at all levels of government, trying to plan virtually everything, property zoning laws, occupational licensing laws, rent control, minimum wage, and the main planner of all, the central bank.
@@tensortab8896 That isn't central planning. That is plain jane regulations...
@@axelpatrickb.pingol3228 Don’t try to reason with Libertarians. Like Communists, they will just tell you that it’s not that their ideas don’t work, it’s just that they have never been implemented correctly.
@@beestains779
He's not wrong. Occupational licensing, rent control, and minimum wage impose severe market distortions. The central bank prints money that severely punishes people who save money.
It's never been more profitable to lose a war!
"In terms of money... We have plenty of Reichsmark."
One thing that caught my attention that the West didn't want to punish Germany again the way they were punished by the victors after WW1.. Great video.
Yeah, fuck the victims am I right?
@@thegarfield2414 Wrong - they didn't want to repeat the lunacy of Versailles.
@@Dinitroflurbenzol Versailles was no lunacy, the germans were just maniacs who could not accept that they lost WW1. They could have easily pay the war reparations, but they choose not to. There were three tranches yes, but only the first two were supposed to be payed, the third one being as big as the first two.
The West mistake was that in WW1 they should have went straight for Berlin(no armistice) and after make a treaty like Potsdam in order to assure that the germans will not be able to plunge all of Europe in another war. Versailles mistake was that is was not harsh enough, nor lenient enough,it was in the middle. It allowed Germany to wage WW2 and it was humilianting enough to push them to do it.
When you have an enemy on the ropes(like the Allies had the germans in 1918), you dont wait for the referee to stop the fight, you must go for the KO like in 1945.
@@thegarfield2414 WW2 wouldnt happend If britain and france wouldnt keep germany down and outside after war. There was a german republic but french occupied west germany for enforcing reperations in quick time. Germany asked for a fewer rate of reperations but france denied and just occupied german territory . It was a huge humilitation at this time. Germany lost a huge chunk of land. Germany had a limited Army size of 100.000 soldiers in a era of army's of millions. Germany and their people lost all prestige and status in a era of nationalism. The SPD and other partys tried to keep the republic in a country without any democratic tradition but If nobody support them but rather stamp all germans as 'losers' then how do you think people will think about the weimar republic, the 'peace' and their neighbours? How was france treated after the conference of vienna in 1815? They lost no Land and were welcomed to the grand table of great powers even they fight whole europe for nearly 20 years.
No, there never would been a real peace possible under the stubborn leadership of britain and france. They never voluntary accepted a free and independent germany and even less as democracy. Only the US was the real 'peacemaker' by giving a democratic state chance by create a perspective in a half peaceful europe.
To be fair: britain and mostly france relied heavy on german reperations. They had no Reserve to provide substainable political enviroment.
@@thegarfield2414 Germany was 64 km before Paris in 1918 and it already beaten russia. Germany was not beaten but the civilians suffered and there were big communist rebellions. The big Problem for all side's were the trench warfare. Without the armistice further millions of soldiers would have died for a few miles. They were pratically no real offense weapons 'to push straight to Berlin' or 'straight to Paris'. You would have have a fight over 1000 of trenches in a no man's land. That was the whole point of WW1 Do you know 'nothing new on western Front'? It was the Message of the german high command in 1918. And in this Situation nobody should lost or get the full blame If they give up. But france and britain did that, that's the Devil in Detail.
What was the post-war economy like in the German lands annexed by Poland and the USSR?
Not even close as good...lol
Not great. But East Germany was the most economically productive of all the European communist states.
Much worse since West Germany would actually have to pay for all the onslaught they did in the east then...
how was the repayment split between West and East Germany?
1945-1946 Germany sounds like America 2030
95 % Tax on the richest, nice one!