Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- List of original chapter titles and first places of publication
- Abbreviations
- 1 Protectionism in historical perspective
- 2 Was there a capital shortage in the first half of the nineteenth century in Germany?
- 3 Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west—east developmental gradient
- 4 Investment in education and instruction in the nineteenth century
- 5 Changes in the phenomenon of the business cycle over the last hundred years
- 6 Trends, cycles, structural breaks, chance: what determines twentieth-century German economic history?
- 7 The Federal Republic of Germany in the secular trend of economic development
- 8 Germany's experience of inflation
- 9 Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
- 10 Economic causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic
- 11 Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
- Notes
- Index
9 - Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface to the English edition
- Preface to the German edition
- List of original chapter titles and first places of publication
- Abbreviations
- 1 Protectionism in historical perspective
- 2 Was there a capital shortage in the first half of the nineteenth century in Germany?
- 3 Regional variations in growth in Germany in the nineteenth century with particular reference to the west—east developmental gradient
- 4 Investment in education and instruction in the nineteenth century
- 5 Changes in the phenomenon of the business cycle over the last hundred years
- 6 Trends, cycles, structural breaks, chance: what determines twentieth-century German economic history?
- 7 The Federal Republic of Germany in the secular trend of economic development
- 8 Germany's experience of inflation
- 9 Constraints and room for manoeuvre in the great depression of the early thirties: towards a revision of the received historical picture
- 10 Economic causes of the collapse of the Weimar Republic
- 11 Germany's exchange rate options during the great depression
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The great depression of the early thirties is one of the most important turning points in the history of the twentieth century. It has to date been a unique phenomenon in the history of economic crises as regards its length, its depth and its spread to practically all the countries forming part of the world economy. In many states it led to sharp political crises in whose wake there followed shifts in the structure of party politics, and radical changes of course in domestic and foreign policy as well as formal or informal constitutional changes.
With the depression begins a new epoch in the history of capitalist or market economies. From this point so-called Globalsteuerung (macro economic policy) became the duty of the state. In particular, the goal of a high level of employment, not to say full employment, received practically the status of a constitutional requirement. This is one of the most important consequences of the great depression — throughout the whole world. But for the Germans, the consequences went even further. In their country there was something additional that allowed the economic crisis to become an event of exceptional historical significance: the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of National Socialism.
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- Perspectives on Modern German Economic History and Policy , pp. 143 - 160Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991
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