Allied plans for German industry after World War II
The industrial plans for Germany were designs the Allies of World War II considered imposing on Germany in the Aftermath of World War II to reduce and manage Germany's industrial capacity.[1]
Background[edit]
At the Potsdam conference (July–August 1945), with the US seeking to implement the Morgenthau plan, drawn up by Henry Morgenthau Jr., the United States Secretary of the Treasury,[2] the victorious Allies decided to abolish the German armed forces 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.
Marshall plan[edit]
With the Western Allies eventually becoming concerned about the deteriorating economic situation in their "Trizone"; the US Marshall Plan 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 and halted rampant inflation.
The Ruhr[edit]
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.[36] 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. With the West German agreement to join the European Coal and Steel Community in order to lift the restrictions imposed by the IAR,[39] thus also ensuring French security by perpetuating French access to Ruhr coal,[40] the role of the IAR was taken over by the ECSC.
The Saar[edit]
With U.S permission, as for example given in the Stuttgart speech, France expanded the borders of the Saarland 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[edit]
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.[41]
Material sent to the U.S.S.R. included equipment from the Kugelfischer ball-bearing plant at Schweinfurt, the Daimler-Benz underground aircraft-engine plant at Obrigheim, the Deschimag shipyards at Bremen, and the Gendorf powerplant.[42][43]
End of dismantling[edit]
The dismantling of German industry continued, and in 1949 Konrad Adenauer 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.[44] (See also Adenauers original letter to Schuman, Ernest Bevins letter to Robert Schuman urging a reconsideration of the dismantling policy.)
Support for dismantling was by this time coming predominantly from the French, and the Petersberg Agreement of November 1949 reduced the levels vastly, though dismantling of minor factories continued until 1951.[45]
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 were lifted, and that its role was taken over by the ECSC.[46]
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.[47] The Allied efforts to "de-concentrate and reorganize" the German coal, iron and steel industry were also continued.[48]
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)."[49]
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."[50] (see Marshall Plan)