How successful were the Nazi economic policies during the year 1933 – 1945? On the surface, Hitler's economic policies were extremely successful. He succeeded in completely abolishing unemployment, something no Western democratic power ever achieved in the 1930s. Yet, behind this economic success, Hitler was pursuing an economic policy that could only lead to the loss of power or to the loss of the war. The truth was that Hitler knew little about economics and his ultimate goals were to create full employment without resorting to inflation. Make Germany self-sufficient and create a defense economy. However, in pursuing this policy he also created problems that threw Germany into war sooner than expected. One of the reasons why the Nazis were so successful in their economic policies was mainly due to Dr. Hjalmar Schacht. Hjalmar Schacht was first appointed President of the Reichsbank and then Minister of Economy in August 1934. In the same year, Schacht designed a program to make the best use of Germany's foreign currencies. Schacht designed a program called the New Plan and was introduced in September 1934. This plan prohibited Germans from paying foreigners with their money without government permission. This allowed Schacht to decide what could be purchased from other countries. Germany also began to enter into bilateral agreements with any countries that would agree with them. Schacht's plans were successful in that they allowed the government to control all imports. Which meant they could focus on things they considered more important, for example importing food and raw materials. This way they would not have to deplete the industries they needed for rearmament. ...... middle of paper ...... economic recovery in Germany occurred between 1933 and 1936. It was not just the result of statistical trickery. The success lay in the fact that Germany was able to spend considerable sums of money on rearmament, especially after 1936. This was because Germany maintained very high taxes. Rearmament was initially planned to be completed between 1940 and 1942, but Germany entered the war ahead of schedule in 1939. Eventually, the standard of living of the average German rose and the number of jobs increased. The failures were due to the fact that German exports were very weak and the exporting industries focused most of their attention on rearmament. Some historians also believe that the enormous sums of money spent on rearmament caused a shortage of important materials and labor. This led to Germany having no choice but to go to war to finance further progress..