The Rise of the Third Reich

On June 10, 1944, when Hersmann arrived at the headquarters conference room in the Ministry of Defense building on Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, he met a beaming Ribbentrop. The German Foreign Minister told him with a smile: "The Japanese have finally agreed to continue to stand with us. Although there are still some key issues that cannot be reached, it is always good news."

The European Community leaders' meeting will be officially held in a few days - this meeting has been delayed for so long that it makes people feel tired.

"Yes, if the Japanese can give the United States a heavy blow in the Pacific, we will have the opportunity to let the Americans have a taste of the Treaty of Versailles." Hersman and Ribbentrop talked as he spoke. The individuals walked into the conference room together.

Hitler has not yet arrived, but Schleicher, Hess, Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Schacht, Speer, Count Krosik (Father Party member, Minister of Finance), Funk ( Minister of Economy) and Rosenberg and other senior officials from the government or European Community affairs have already arrived.

Among them, Dr. Schacht is the president of the European Union Bank headquartered in Frankfurt, and he is responsible for the issuance of the European mark. However, his face looked a little sad, which was obviously related to the excessive over-issuance of the European mark.

Before the British mainland surrendered in the spring of 1943, the issuance of Euromarks was relatively normal, and there was not much excessive currency issuance. However, with the successive victories in the war, the foundation of the Euromark not only did not become solid, but was greatly shaken due to the over-issuance of the currency!

The reason is actually the problem caused by the European Community line that Hirschmann strongly advocated. Most things in the world have two sides. In some aspects, they are advantages, but from another perspective, they become disadvantages.

Although the European Community line makes it easier for Germany to leverage the power of several major industrial countries in Europe, it allows Germany to obtain a large amount of weapons and equipment, and it does not have to bear the responsibility of an occupying force.

However, this policy also had a huge shortcoming, which was that it turned a war of aggression into a war of unification and a national war into a civil war. Therefore, the defeated party is treated as a brother rather than an enemy. Germany had no way to plunder the wealth of the defeated countries to fill the huge financial deficit caused by the war.

Moreover, after the British surrendered and the Russian Empire was restored, the European Community still had to help these two countries recover their economies, and it also had to transfer a large amount of wealth to support the British and Russians who had lost their source of livelihood due to the war.

So the European Union Bank had no choice but to turn on the money printing press and issue a large number of European marks without gold and silver as preparation. Because the battlefield situation is good and European countries have implemented strict rationing systems, the European mark can still maintain its currency value. But in the view of a more traditional banker like Schacht, this kind of unguaranteed and widely issued banknotes is likely to collapse after the war!

The collapse of the Euromark will also mean the collapse of the European Community!

Sitting with Dr. Schacht was Hersmann's early secretary, Alfred Rosenberg, the Minister of Eastern Affairs who is now in the cabinet as a member of the Fatherland Party.

Like Schacht, he looked a little sad. Because his Eastern Affairs Department is actually a mess. This ministry is in charge of affairs in Eastern Ukraine and Belarus, the two former Soviet lands occupied by Germany. It mainly includes clearing out the Russians (referring to ethnic Russians) and Ukrainians there (all Ukrainians are resettled in Western Ukraine). , allocate land to German immigrants, and also be responsible for planning and building cities, roads, bridges, industrial centers, etc.

In short, the Ministry of Eastern Affairs managed matters that required large sums of money, but the funds Hitler allocated to Rosenberg were never enough.

So the reason why Rosenberg is worried now is exactly the opposite of that of Schachter. Schachter is worried about what to do if he has "too much money", while he is worried about having too little money.

And the issue Hessman wanted to discuss at the headquarters meeting today happened to be related to money. Therefore, he did not sit next to the Minister of Defense as usual, but squeezed in between Schacht and Rosenberg, and wanted to discuss currency issues with Schacht, President of the European Union Bank. The Nazis in the conference room suddenly stood up, and some raised their right hands and shouted: "Hi! Hitler!"

It turned out that Hitler had arrived. He was a little late because he was on the phone with Mussolini. On the phone, Mussolini assured him that the three "Prince Alexander" class battleships would be delivered to Europe by the end of June 1945. Community Navy.

In addition, Mussolini also allowed Germany to recruit volunteers in Rome, and also promised to allow ships flying the flag of the Roman Empire to transport supplies to Germany after Rome withdrew from the war.

However, Mussolini did not help Germany unconditionally. He made a request to purchase a set of "uranium enrichment equipment" on the phone.

Obviously, the powerful Roman Empire is now also preparing to start developing atomic bombs!

…

"Although Rome is withdrawing from the war now, Mussolini still guarantees that it will adopt a neutral policy that favors us. And after Rome withdraws, we no longer have to bear the obligation to provide them with oil. So Rome's withdrawal will obviously have a negative impact on us." We are very advantageous.”

At the beginning of today's high command meeting, Adolf Hitler told everyone that Rome would soon make peace with the United States.

"This is a good thing," Hessmann expressed his opinion immediately after Hitler finished speaking. He said half-jokingly, "If the Italians want to join us in a decisive battle with the Americans, then we will have to send German soldiers to protect them. Their expeditionary force, that's a big burden."

"Haha," Hitler smiled after hearing this, and added, "It has been 12 days since the atomic bomb test. I believe that all countries have fully understood the changes in the international situation. Therefore, at the European Community leaders' meeting starting on the 15th, there should be What do you have to say about how to end the war?"

"Prime Minister, we should propose a feasible armistice condition with the United States at the meeting." Dr. Schacht, President of the European Union Bank, was the first to speak. "What is needed most now is a peace treaty that can establish the status of the Euromark as an international reserve currency. Otherwise our economy will encounter huge difficulties after the war."

He paused and then continued: "The current situation is similar to 1918, but the United States is at a disadvantage, and we are equivalent to Britain and France at that time. Although victory in the war is in sight, the national strength is exhausted. If Without compensation, there will be problems in the post-war economy.”

Finance Minister Count Krosik then spoke and supported Schacht's opinion: "The deficit has reached a very terrible point, and not only Germany has a huge fiscal deficit, but all countries within the European Community have serious problems." The deficit problem. Especially in the UK and Russia, their finances are completely collapsed and they cannot issue public debt at all under normal circumstances, so the public debt of these two countries is actually purchased by the European Union Bank... This is a very serious problem!”

Nowadays, all countries in the European Community have fiscal deficit problems, which is inevitable in a war. Among the major countries in the European Community, the fiscal deficit problems of Germany, France and Croatia-Hungary are still under control.

The finances of Britain and Russia can only be described as collapse, with Britain's fiscal revenue only equivalent to 25% of expenditures. This was caused by the Indian War and the de facto disintegration of the British Empire. The former required the investment of hundreds of thousands of troops, and the expenses were naturally huge. The latter caused the collapse of the British economic system - the pre-war British economic foundation was firstly a huge colony, and secondly, its status as a financial center. Now that both are gone, the British economy can only collapse.

Russia is even worse. Government revenue is only equivalent to 5% of expenditure. The reason is obvious. The areas controlled by the Russian Empire are now in ruins. Only a small part of the land allocated to farmers has been cultivated - most of the land is abandoned because there is neither enough labor nor enough labor in the Russian countryside. Not enough livestock.

Therefore, the finances of Britain and Russia are actually maintained by borrowing money, and few people buy their bonds. Therefore, in the end, the European Union Bank printed the notes and underwrote them, and this was the reason why the European Marks were issued in large numbers.

Rosenberg also spoke immediately: "The reconstruction and colonization work in the East still requires a large amount of investment, and it also requires materials, including food, building materials, cloth, livestock, agricultural tools and seeds. In particular, food, seeds and livestock are very important. It’s urgent and there’s a lot of it, and the same thing is very much needed in Russia, as far as I know.”

Hitler nodded repeatedly while listening to his ministers. After Rosenberg finished speaking, he nodded to Hessmann, who was sitting next to Rosenberg. "Chief of General Staff, what do you think?"

"The Americans have to compensate," Hersman shrugged. "Isn't this the purpose of continuing the war? If the Americans don't pay 300-500 billion European marks, our economic problems will not be easy to solve. ?”

"300-500 billion?" Schacht, President of the European Union Bank, was startled by the figure proposed by Hersman. "How is this possible? The United States does not have that much gold and silver... There is not that much in the world. This The compensation figure is the same as the compensation imposed on us in the Treaty of Versailles. It cannot be received at all, and its only effect is to cause the US economy to collapse. "

Hessmann laughed when he heard this: "Doctor, if the U.S. economy did not collapse, how could our European mark become the world's only reserve currency? From now on, what we are going to fight is a currency war! "