The economic reorganization of Europe

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Walther Funk (1890–1960), former Reich Economics Minister and President of the Reichsbank, as a defendant in the Nuremberg trials

The economic reorganization of Europe , briefly referred to by individual historians as the Funk Plan , is the title of a speech by Walther Funk on July 25, 1940. As Reich Economics Minister and President of the Deutsche Reichsbank , he presented his ideas about the economic restructuring of Europe to journalists presupposed the military victory of the German Reich and a peace order.

aims

Funk's main objective was to ensure the highest possible security and stability in the smoothest possible exchange of goods, combined with an intensification of trade, which would lead to an increase in prosperity. The " Greater German Reich " was at the top of the list: "The coming peace economy must guarantee the Greater German Reich maximum economic security and the German people maximum consumption of goods in order to increase the welfare of the people. The European economy must be oriented towards this goal." In doing so, he is convinced that not only the "Greater German economy", but also all the economies of Europe that have close trade relations with Germany due to their natural foundations, would benefit from "our methods".

For this purpose, a fixed and long-term stable exchange rate of the currencies should be set, the currencies should be decoupled from the gold price , since this is not controllable. As the basis for the European currencies, gold will no longer play a role in the future, because the currency is not dependent on its cover, "but it is dependent on the value given to it by the state, i.e. in this case the economic system regulated by the state, gives."

The trade between the countries of this group should be settled with the help of a clearing system, which should offset the domestic exports at fixed prices of the individual goods with the domestic imports.

Funk's State Secretary Gustav Schlotterer explained other goals at a press conference of the Ministry on July 24, 1940:

“As much as possible of vital products must be produced in Germany and in the economic region of Europe, which is dominated by Germany. ... Our goal is to provide commercial transport to direct and to trade more and more in Germany. All goods must go through the German market. This gives us precise control. In addition, the economies of our trading partners must be intertwined with German interests on a private basis in such a way that these states, even if they want to, can no longer escape these ties and dependencies. (…) In detail we have to go into the following ventures: In the southeast with grain, in Norway and Yugoslavia with metals, in Romania with oil (…). "

implementation

On this basis, State Secretary Gustav Schlotterer organized the 1940 Schlotterer Committee, named after him, in which 24 top representatives of export-oriented large-scale German industry exchanged ideas with industrialists and bank representatives from the Benelux countries. They agreed that intra-European trade should be freed from tariff and currency differences and that the Ruhr area should be merged with northern France and the Benelux countries to form a “natural economic area”. The basis for this was to be a privately organized production cartel under state supervision, which Schlotterer referred to as an "economic pan-Europe".

reception

Dieter Suhr and Georg Zoche in the German-speaking area as well as several authors in English see Walther Funk's conception of a key currency and clearing house as the impetus for Keynes ' proposal for a "clearing union" with the aim of redesigning the world monetary system and a permanent solution to the international liquidity problem. Despite strong criticism in his home country, Keynes had adopted Funk's basic ideas, some of which were incorporated into the Keynes Plan that was discussed in the Bretton Woods negotiations. Joseph Gold of the International Monetary Fund explains that Funk's ideas spread on the radio were largely so convincing for Keynes that he would have taken over much of them if the name Germany had been used for Great Britain. Keynes had refused to ridicule Funk's theory by praising the gold standard, which he thought was wrong; he decided to only question Funk's credibility. He is said to have said:

If Funk's plan is taken at its face value, it is excellent and just what we ourselves ought to be thinking of doing.

If Funk's plan is to be taken at face value, it is excellent and exactly what we ourselves should plan to do.

This meant fixed exchange rates, strict state controls on capital controls and free trade.

See also

literature

  • Walther Funk: The economic face of the new Europe. Lecture on the opening of the lecture series " European Economic Community " organized by the Association of Berlin Merchants and Industrialists and the Berlin Business School (publisher) on January 15, 1942. Publishing house as published by Otto von Holten, Berlin 1942 (source of this lemma)
  • Walther Funk: European Economic Community . Haude & Spener , Berlin 1943 (2nd complete edition; first 1942)
  • Armand van Dormael: Bretton Woods . Birth of a Monetary System . London 1978, ISBN 978-0-8419-0326-5 .
  • Suhr / Godschalk: Optimal Liquidity, Fritz Knapp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, ISBN 3-7819-0349-4
  • Georg Zoche: World, Power, Money: Blumenbar-Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-936738-63-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Sandkühler: Europe and National Socialism. Ideology, monetary policy, mass violence. In: Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History 9 (2012), pp. 428–441, especially p. 435 ( online , accessed on April 3, 2020). Also with Paolo Fonzi: The Funk Plan. In: Money and Trade Wars in Interwar Europe. London 2014 ( online , accessed April 3, 2020)
  2. ^ Walther Funk: The economic reorganization of Europe , July 25, 1940. In: Sources for the reorganization of Europe 1. , pp. 12–21, May 25, 2009.
  3. ↑ cf. van Dormael, Armand, Bretton Woods: Birth of a Monetary System. London: Macmillan, 1978, pp. 5-11.
  4. ↑ Walther Funk: The economic reorganization of Europe , July 25, 1940. In: Sources for the reorganization of Europe May 1st , 25th 2009, p. 10
  5. ↑ Walther Funk: The economic reorganization of Europe , July 25, 1940. In: Sources for the reorganization of Europe May 1st , 25th 2009, p. 1
  6. ^ Walther Funk: The economic reorganization of Europe , July 25, 1940. In: Sources for the reorganization of Europe May 1st , 25th 2009, p. 6
  7. ↑ Heinz Handler: From Bancor to the Euro. And on to the Intor? 2008, WIFO Working Papers, 317/2008, p. 5.
  8. ↑ Dieter Suhr , Hugo Godschalk: Optimal liquidity. A liquidity theoretical analysis and a credit industry competition concept. Knapp, Frankfurt 1986, ISBN 3-7819-0349-4 , pp. 123ff.
  9. ↑ Harold James : International Monetary Cooperation Since Bretton Woods. 1996, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-510448-6 , p. 34.
  10. ↑ Götz Aly : Social Policy and the Extermination of the Jews: Is There an Economy of the Final Solution? (= Contributions to National Socialist health and social policy; 5). Rotbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1987, p. 36.
  11. ↑ Thomas Sandkühler: Europe and National Socialism. Ideology, monetary policy, mass violence. In: Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History 9 (2012), pp. 428–441, especially p. 433 ( online , accessed on April 3, 2020)
  12. ↑ Suhr / Godschalk: Optimal Liquidity, Fritz Knapp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, ISBN 3-7819-0349-4 , Chapter VI & nbsp.
  13. ↑ Harry Blustein: The Ascent of Globalization . Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-78499-289-7 , pp. 40 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  14. ↑ Georg Zoche:  World, Power, Money. Munich 2009. New edition 2015.
  15. ^ Robert Skidelsky: Keynes: A Very Short Introduction . OUP Oxford, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-161550-4 ( com.ph [accessed December 3, 2017]).
  16. ^ L. Gomes: Neoclassical International Economics: An Historical Survey . Springer, 1990, ISBN 978-0-230-37155-2 ( com.ph [accessed December 3, 2017]).
  17. ^ International Monetary Fund: Legal and institutional Aspects of the international Monetary System: Two Volume Set . International Monetary Fund, 1984, ISBN 978-1-4639-1724-1 ( com.ph [accessed December 3, 2017]).
  18. ^ Pierpaolo Barbieri: Hitler's Shadow Empire . Harvard University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-674-72885-1 ( com.ph [accessed December 3, 2017]).
  19. ↑ Keith Tribe: Strategies of Economic Order: German Economic Discourse, 1750-1950 . Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-61943-1 ( com.ph [accessed December 3, 2017]).
  20. ↑ Harry Blustein: The Ascent of Globalization . Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-78499-289-7 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).