About the Relative Efficiency of the Nazi Work Creation Programs

The proposed paper will discuss the controversy on Germany's
economic recovery after the Depression and the role Nazi work
creation programs had therein. Economic data suggests evidence of a
cyclical turning point of the economic crisis in the summer of 1932
with some leading indicators reaching the turning point already in
January 1932, which I propose to discuss. Data of the years 1933/34
support this argumentation. On this empirical basis the impact of
Hitler's work creation programs have to be re-evaluated: these
programs were not the causes of Germany’s economic recovery of but
only supported a self-sustaining cyclical upswing to 1936. The
basis of that upswing is to be seen, as Knut Borchardt has already
argued 12 years ago, in the "normalisation" of the structural
relations between factor prices and productivity, i. e. the
improvement of supply conditions and profit chances.