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CHAPTER VII
ECONOMIC TRIBULATION
It is inconsistent to show solicitude for the welfare of Ger-
many or the German people and at the same time to support
the Potsdam agreements, because, as we have seen, the latter
were intended not to help Germany recover but rather to pre-
vent her from doing so. Potsdam was based on the Morgen-
thau Plan and the Morgenthau Plan had stipulated:
"The sole purpose of the military in control of the German
economy shall be to facilitate military operations and military
occupation. The Allied Military Government shall not assume re-
sponsibility for such economic problems as price controls, ration-
ing, unemployment, production, reconstruction, distribution, con-
sumption, housing, or transportation, or take any measures de-
signed to maintain or strengthen the Germon economy, except
those which are essential to military operations. The responsibility
for sustaining the German economy and people rests with the
German people with such facilities as may be available under the
circumstances." (emphasis added)
"Under the circumstances" must be underscored as mean-
ing an absence of essential facilities. The territorial losses and
seizures; the program of over-crowding through expulsions of
millions of eastern Germans; the wholesale enslavement of
German manpower; the liquidation of German science and
managerial, technical, and professional classes through de-nazi-
fication; the setting of the low level of industry decided upon,
coupled with the industrial sacking and elimination of all Ger-
man external resources-all these measures on top of the war
devastation-cannot be described as anything but a program
to throw Germany and her people into a state of collapse.
But these are not the only acts of repression. Taxes have
been raised to confiscatory levels which stifle incentives and
prevent operation of the free enterprise system. They have
helped to socialize German economy and kill the profit motive.
They have corrupted public morals for even the poor must
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