Economy FOCUS

• Hitler introduced some socialist economic policies to address the needs for peasant farmers and small urban traders:

  • all peasant debts suspended
  • 'Law for the Protection of Retail Trade' forbid the set up on new department stores
  • Reich Food Estate laid down guaranteed prices and high tariffs on imported goods.
• One measure to reduce unemployment was the Reich Labour Service (RAD) which set civil, military and agricultural activities before their military service.
• In 1947, the USSR set up a Planning Commission to co-ordinate economic policy and supervise VEBs and SAGs. It comprised heads of ministries, chairmen of trade unions and farmers associations. This was all under the control of the SED.