American Conservative Movement
The Marshall Plan didn’t rebuild Germany after World War II. Sound money did.
In 1939, Germany had a GDP of nearly $400 billion, having surpassed the USSR to make it the second most powerful economy in the world, behind the US. In 1946, following years of war, Germany’s GDP had dropped to just $160 billion, lower than the UK and France. Food production had been reduced by 50 percent, housing stock by 20 percent, and industrial output by 33 percent.
Yet by 1955, German GDP was back near $400 billion, once again overcoming that of the UK. Industrial output had quadrupled by 1958 with a steady rate of growth of about 8 percent each year throughout the 50s.
This “economic miracle” is commonly referred to as die Wirtschaftswunder. But how did Germany go from rubble to riches in just a decade while neutral countries like Spain merely treaded economic water? If you ask your average American history student, they will say the Marshall Plan, of course!
