Introduction
The traditional view of the Third Reich as a "dictatorship of fear" does not fully explain its endurance. The key to understanding Nazism lies in the concept of a "dictatorship of favors" (Gefälligkeitsdiktatur), where public loyalty was purchased through material corruption. This strategy was rooted in the inflation trauma of 1923 and the hunger experienced during World War I. Hitler knew that to prevent revolt, he had to shield Germans from economic crisis. In this article, you will learn how technocrats of crime transformed systemic plunder into the illusion of a welfare state and why this was met with silence after 1945.
The Dictatorship of Favors: The Corrupt Foundation of Loyalty
The Nazi regime built support through extensive social benefits. German citizens enjoyed tax breaks, protection from eviction, and social insurance reforms. The state took particular care of soldiers' families, paying them benefits that exceeded their peacetime earnings. To maintain this stability without sparking resistance, "silent" war financing was employed.
This mechanism relied on the quiet expropriation of savings: deposits in credit unions and savings banks were converted into treasury bonds without the owners' knowledge. The symbol of this financial alchemy was Mefo bills, which allowed for massive rearmament outside the official budget. As a result, price stability endured, and the public felt like beneficiaries of the system, never questioning the sources of its funding.
Plunder through Contributions and the Aryanization of Property
The Reich's apparent prosperity was fueled by plunder through contributions and the ruthless exploitation of conquered nations. A key pillar of the budget became Aryanization—the systemic dispossession of Jews, the profits of which were masked as "war contributions." Sophisticated currency manipulations were used: the deliberate devaluation of the franc or lira increased the purchasing power of the mark, turning Wehrmacht soldiers into a privileged caste of consumers.
The regime also introduced RKK-Scheine—an unsecured occupation currency used to legalize cost-free requisitions. The regime consciously shifted shortages to the empire's periphery. Famine in Poland, Greece, and the USSR was a direct result of decisions ensuring the German market remained fully supplied. Plunder also had a private dimension: millions of packages containing loot sent back to the Reich cemented a community of interests between the front lines and the home front.
Technocrats of Crime and Cumulative Radicalization
The architecture of this system was designed by technocrats of crime—educated experts from the Reichsbank and the Ministry of Finance. Figures such as Walther Funk, Emil Puhl, and Lutz von Krosigk were not merely passive executors of Hitler's will. As financial specialists, they treated plunder as a logistical task, implementing mechanisms that turned violence into a stream of gold and foreign currency.
Within the bureaucracy, cumulative radicalization occurred: officials independently optimized the extraction system, striving for maximum efficiency. This was supported by secrecy and propaganda, which masked the state's bankruptcy. Profits from Jewish property were hidden under innocent labels like "general management income," creating a facade of legalism that concealed robbery-murder conducted with dispassionate bookkeeping.
Summary
After 1945, a post-war silence took hold in Germany. The amnesia of the system's beneficiaries protected economic elites from accountability and allowed society to maintain the illusion of a "clear conscience." The Third Reich created a model in which crime and prosperity were inextricably linked, and silence was bought at the cost of others' suffering.
Can we still hear the echoes of those quiet transactions in today's world, where mechanisms of exclusion take on new forms? The history of the "dictatorship of favors" teaches us that the price for material benefits gained at the expense of others always proves too high, and systems built on plunder must ultimately collapse under the weight of their own crimes.
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