Synopses & Reviews
In a nuanced and fresh account, James Van Hook evaluates the American role in West German recovery and the debates about economic policy within West Germany. He examines the 1948 West German economic reforms that dismantled the Nazi command economy and ushered in the fabled "economic miracle" of the 1950s. By abandoning Nazi era economic controls, the West Germans discarded a pre-1945 economic and industrial culture.
Review
"This book is to be welcomed as a valuable contribution to an overdue reconsideration of the social market economy, in Germany, and elsewhere." American Historical Review, A.J. Nichols
Synopsis
Rebuilding Germany examines the 1948 West German economic reforms that dismantled the Nazi command economy and ushered in the fabled 'economic miracle'. Known as the social market economy, these economic policies attempted to demonstrate that a free market could better achieve essential social ends than socialism itself.
Table of Contents
1. Planning for reconstruction; 2. The future of the Ruhr: socialization, decartelization, restoration, 1945-1948; 3. High hopes and disappointment: the SPD and the planning regime, 1945-1947; 4. Ludwig Erhard, the CDU and the free-market; 5. Free markets, investment, and the Ruhr: the Korea crisis; 6. The social market and competition.