How did Germany recover from World War 1 and rebuild their forces so significantly by the 1930s?

Answer 1

Ok, One theory that is constantly floating around about how Exactly Germany recovered has to do with Who controlled the Central Bank of Germany....and it wasn't the German Goververnment, it was private interests....

The Terms of the Treaty of Versailles was meant to insure that Germany would NEVER be able to build up military forces on the order that they did.....and that meant taking the money creation power OUT of the hands of the government, and into the hands of private interests.

but it was worded, and publicized, in a way that no one in the Public (inside or outside of Germany) would be the wiser....

Under the terms, Germany would have to assume a HUGE CRUSHING DEBT (naturally, to pay for all the expenses that not only they, but the Victors had to pay for the war)

The intent was to keep the money generator away from potentially Evil leadership so that they couldn't use the Financial power for evil things. But the downside was Good governments can't use the money generator, either....because the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And this is the Catch-22 that all "Western-world" governments, MORE SPECIFICALLY THE USA, find themselves in....tying one arm behind their back, to make things fair. But debt, ursury, and interest, allowed to use BOTH ARMS...NEVER PLAYS FAIR....That's why you saw that wheelbarrow full of DM100,000 notes unable to buy a loaf of bread.

The biggest argument you'll hear against governments being able to print money without Intrest cost, to either themselves or their people, is the Specter of Hyperinflation!

And the actions of the German Central Bank, under the Weimar Republic, is used as the TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE of why GOVERNMENTS cannot be allowed to print their own money for circulation inside their jurisdictions. Banks, are setup to be a kind of "powerbroker" set against governments...and it kind of acts like a long term-regulator/thermostat...if a government does something "good" that the banks recognize as "Good for them(the banks)" then the economy gets better...Conversely, if it does something "bad" the banks recognize as "bad for them" then economy gets worse.... and roughly that's how its supposed to work,

but more often than not, the way it works out is Governments become another customer/debtor right along with their citizens and corporations. The citizens, Government, and the Corporations compete with each other all the time to pay back the bank the Principal, PLUS INTEREST...but when the Bank is in control of the Money Generator, loaning out all the money as PRINCIPAL, where are you going to get the interest?!?

....It's a game of musical chairs, and in the case of the Weimar Republic, under the terms of the Versailles treaty.....Everyone in Germany LOST, FAST!!!!,WORSE than LOSING THE WAR....and the banks, in their role as "powerbroker/regulator of economy" ended up owning/controlling everything....and this fueled racial tensions against Jewish Folks, who were seen as the evil moneychangers. Enter Hitler and the Nazis, making a Bad Situation WORSE!

now if it was Lincoln, stepping in instead of the Nazis, and took over....Lincoln Greenbacks and GOOD GOVERNMENT would have taken root,....It's like the power of weapons...In the RIGHT hands, it's a tool to ensure order and progress and eliminate chaos and destruction, ...But in the WRONG HANDS....

....Hitler, the Bad Guy's Bad guy, took a page from Lincoln's monetary reform play book. His government took back control of the Central Bank, thumbing their nose at the Treaty of Versailles, and within TWO YEARS turned the whole economic situation that the Weimar Republic and the German People suffered under, 180 degress and recovered completely, and even better than where they were before they entered the war! Prices were back in order, wages were keeping up with prices, development on the science and tech areas progressed....

And the people loved him...BUT....Hitler wanted to Militarize the situation, and...fueled with Hatred of Jewish folks....turned a wonderful splendid recovery into a horrible nightmare! That took the whole "free" world to defeat....This put the wonderful monetary reform of Abraham Lincoln into a purgatory...and allowed the "Banks" to wipe away from the history books and from the collective memory of the world, Abraham Lincoln's Monetary miracle, because it is so powerful, if put in the wrong hands, spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E....