Towards a War Economy

The arrival of the Nazis in 1933 did not end the city’s economic malaise. Only few found temporary work in state-run job creation schemes, chiefly in road construction. In early 1934, unemployment in Hamburg still stood at 14 percent, more than in other large cities where the economic crisis had already been overcome. Hamburg's key sectors – trade, shipping and shipbuilding – suffered from the economic policy of the Reich, which aimed for autonomy and import substitution.

From 1936, the situation improved - mainly due to increased armaments production, which benefited the shipyards most. Building warships became so important that HAPAG lodged a complaint in 1938 that it was getting behind on merchant and passenger vessel orders. State control, military strategy and ideological prejudice (against Jewish entrepreneurs, for example) prevented the founding of new companies. Only an oil refinery, an engine factory and aviation engineering works were newly established. The Nazis, on the other hand, profited from the confiscation of Jewish-owned companies.

The outbreak of war in 1939 affected the economy fundamentally, because Hamburg's overseas trading links were again severed. Import and export companies turned to domestic trade and business with the occupied territories, which they thus helped exploit, to make up the shortfall. As more and more men were drafted into military service, labor shortages became a key problem in all sectors of the economy. Women had to fill men's jobs, and forced laborers were drafted from the occupied territories, especially into manufacturing industry. Repeated heavy bombing aimed to damage Hamburg's industrial capacity, though it hardly suffered, because submarines, for example, of which some 300 were built in Hamburg, were constructed in underground bunkers.


Hamburg in the 20th.century (1)
-    Imperial Germany and the Struggle for Voting Rights
-    Life in Wilhelmine Germany
-    The Mobile City
-    International Port and Economic Center
-    Revolution in Hamburg
-    Democracy and its Enemies
-    A Decade of Economic Crisis
-    Greater Hamburg
-    Life Under the Swastika
-    The Abolition of Democracy
-    Towards a War Economy
-    Persecution and resistance in the National Socialist state
-    Hamburg at war
-    Destruction by Fire Storm

Hamburg in the 20th.century (2)