Economic policy summary

Hitler's economic policy had four main ideas:

1. Full employment - the idea that everyone should have a job. By 1939, there was virtually no unemployment in Germany.
2. Beauty of Work - the Nazis set up the SdA (Beauty of Work) to help Germans see that work was good, and that everyone who could work should. In fact - because the Nazis had abolished the trade unions, banned strikes, and given more power to the industrialists - real wages fell and hours were longer under Hitler.
3. Re-armament begun in 1935 - the idea of 'guns before butter'.
4. Autarky - there was an unsuccessful attempt at making Germany self-sufficient.