Germany and the Great Depression

Bibliographic Data

ID10074474
AuthorsDieter Petzina (corresponding author)
Year1969
Volume4
Issue4
Pages59-74
Publication date1969-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002200946900400404
OpenAlexW1982419032
LanguageEN
Citations received26

The world-wide economic crisis of 1929-33 marked the decisive turning point of the inter-war period. More than any other event during the years between 1919 and 1939 it affected people's lives, shattered prevailing social structures and the stability of the European and North American industrial societies, and became the starting point for fundamental political and social upheavals. The crisis lay not only chronologically between the wars; there was also a causal relationship between it and the end of the first and the beginning of the second world war. These causal relationships are clearer to us today after an interval of forty years than they were then. But even at that time there already existed an awareness of the epoch-making character of this crisis. In the following discussion of Germany and the world economic crisis, no attempt will be made to investigate in detail the causes and the course of the crisis, which have already been described many times. Our intention is more modest: to make a few comments on its economic, social, and political effects in Germany, which were so different, in so sharp and politically dangerous a manner, from the reactions in other countries. Outwardly the picture of the crisis in Germany varied little from that in comparable countries. There were, however, important differences in the conditions leading up to the crisis which, together with other particular factors, explain the different reactions of German society compared with those of other countries. Let us first of all look at some statistics: with the end of inflation

Archaeology · Depression (economics · Economics · Great Depression · Keynesian economics · Political science · Economic Policies and Impacts · Global Financial Crisis and Policies · History · Italy: Economic History and Contemporary Issues · Psychology