Lecture 11:

The downfall of the Third Reich, 1943-45

30 April 2013

HIST2134The Third Reich through Documents, 1933-1945

NS Economy: 3 Phases

• NS ‘economic miracle’ & rearmament, 1933-36

• Four Year Plan & early war economy, 1936-42

• Total War economy: Era Speer, 1942-45

Total War Economy (1)

• Albert Speer as minister for total war economy↓

→ Strict centralisation to increase industrial output

→ Minimum freedom of private industry

→ ‘Slave work’ by forced labour & camp prisoners

= Initially very successful strategy: Speer most powerful Nazi & possible successor of Hitler

Total War Economy (2)

• Weapon + ammunition + aircraft production (3 x higher) - Tanks production (7 x higher)

• Limited modernization + rationalization effects

• Not all industrial capacities fully exploited

= Compared to USA: 3 x lower production

= General inferiority of Axis powers’ war economy ≠ Allies: Impossible to overcome

Foreign policy 4-phase-model

• Revisionist and high-risk foreign politics, 1933-36

• Expansionist foreign politics, 1938/39

• Blitz Wars and ideological warfare, 1939-42

• Total War and downfall, 1943-45

‘Unconditional Surrender’

Allied GB-US-SU conference in Casablanca, 25 Jan 1943

Strict demand of G’s ‘unconditional surrender’: → Increased popular support for NS regime → Weakened inner-German resistance→ Stimulated Goebbels’ Total War propaganda, 18

Feb 1943

Ambivalent effects: Short-term pro NS regime, long-term contra NS

Battle of Berlin, Apr-May 1945

Successful operation of SU armies vs. German capital:

• Marriage of Hitler & Eva Braun followed by joint suicide

• Last Reich government under Admiral Dönitz arrested by GB forces• Successive military capitulations in Italy, 29 Apr 1945,

+ South & Northwest Germany, 4 May 1945

= Unconditional surrenders in Reims, 7 May 1945 (for West) + Berlin-Karlshorst, 8 May 1945 (for SU)

= End of WW II in Europe + downfall of Third Reich