Nazi economic policy massively favored large companies and cartels over smaller firms
Evidence
The Nazi regime moved to advance their interests immediately it took power, with a policy favouring cartels at the expense of smaller and medium-sized companies. The mixture of private enterprise and
command economy' which was characteristic of the system also constantly worked in favour of the leading groups of companies. The organizations for self-administration, etc., which were under company control showed a marked increase in power because of their growing involvement in the state control of the economy. A National Socialist economist, for example, wrote of the compulsory cartelization introduced in July 1933,The compulsory order, with the help of the state’s sovereignty, gives the cartel [the Association of German Industry (Verband der Deutschen Industrie)] a power which it could not obtain on a voluntary basis.’ The war economy also led to a further strengthening of the position of the large companies, which were, for example, in charge of the very organizations which had been given the most important political and economic task of the time in Germany: the allocation of raw materials. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1184
Categorization
- XREF: This is evidence for the marxist claim that fascism is monopoly capitalism’s last stage — relevant to the Frankfurt School’s analysis and to post-war ‘state monopoly capitalism’ theory. — connects to: Nazi dictatorship was functionally necessary to preserve a fully monopolized economy — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1185; Weimar-era cartelization forced the state to pick between crushing or strengthening monopolies — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 509; Command economy and monopoly capitalism coexisted under Nazi rule — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 510 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- The war economy handed Big Business guaranteed profits and immunity from competition
#corroborates(0.92) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 141 - Command economy and monopoly capitalism coexisted under Nazi rule
#corroborates(0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 510 - Weimar-era cartelization forced the state to pick between crushing or strengthening monopolies
#expands(0.82) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 509 - Nazi rule affirmed capitalism rather than superseding it
#corroborates(0.78) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 510 - Nazi economic policy vacillation made ordoliberals hope their competition model would gain favor
#qualifies(0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 539 - Nazi political power emancipated itself from big-business control to the point of autonomy.
#qualifies(0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1198 - Nazi economy resists classification in Western capitalist or socialist terms
#qualifies(0.72) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2612