Where did Hitler get the money from....

[Robches]

I believe the answer to the question of how Hitler could afford rearmament was that, in normal terms, he could not.

I think I'm right in saying that his central banker, Hjalmar Schacht, told him in 1938 that the economy could not support his arms build up. Hitler ignored him because he was planning to conquer Europe, and that was how he was going to afford it, by plundering the nations of Europe. The plan almost worked too.

Nazism was essentially a gigantic system based on robbery with violence. A lot of violence. The Nazis tried to plunder everything from the countries they conquered, including art treasures, plant and machinery, and even their people to work as slaves in the Reich. Murdering six million Jews and stealing everything they owned also helped balance the books. I know that the Greeks are pissed off because the Germans stole their gold reserves from their central bank, and they have never been paid back for them, and it was a similar story across Europe.

It should also be remembered that Hitler planned for short wars, so he did not militarise the whole economy in the way Britain did. In wasn't until 1943 that Germany got to grips with the demands of total war, when Albert Speer was put in charge of war production. Luckily for us, that was too late.

[Pervert]

Hitler was allowed to stage an uprising, while this person, at the other end of the political spectrum, didn't get the opportunity to build a power base:

[beutelwolf]

mucho_matcho_man wrote:

> Er hatte einen Autoaufladungsverkauf jeder Samstag-Morgen in
> Baden-Baden.

Looks like a Google-translation from English to German.
There isn't really a word for "car boot sale" in German, closest is Flohmarkt (flea market); oh, and grammatically, the "jeder" should be "jeden".

Besides, Baden-Baden would be an unsuitable place for a car boot sale - way to upmarket...

[Sam Slater]

There isn't really a word for 'car boot sale' in English either - it's three words !wink!