#NowReading Realities in the Third Reich (1979) by Hans Kehrl

I’m reading a Spanish translation of the German. I’ll select highlights and put them into English for you.

Hennig points out that industrial % of salary spending fell from 1932-1938. This proves nothing. Those were years of improved capacities and rationalization through higher investments. He claims wages stagnated. This was a consequence of keeping inflation within the lowest limits

Workers’ annual income doubled once unemployment was eliminated, and once not only full employment but even the elusive over-employment was achieved. The rise of prices in seven years was only 5.6%, or about .08% annually.

When Hitler took power, big business lost the political position of information and influences they had been able to create during Weimar. The leverage and relationships they had in the Reichstag became worthless, and it was no longer possible to influence in the press or in film

The Nazi Party was undoubtedly anti-capitalist to its core. Big business found itself in a political abyss. It’s necessary to say this to explain the stupidity of the claims that big business brought Hitler to power. The communists first began putting these claims in circulation

At no point was there an issue of economists becoming an opposition, including a revolutionary one, even among those who lost their confidence in the state or condemned it. The question asked by historians about why the economy didn’t “do” anything is bizarre. It lacked all power

The rearmament in 1938-39 was not a necessary engine for the national economy. On the contrary, it impeded a balanced development of industrial sectors. For example, fixed assets and consumer goods were discriminated against for the industry that participated in the rearmament.

Without the war and without a new “Lebensraum,” the economy as well as our people would have headed toward a future adorned with successes.