ABSTRACT
Economically Nazi Germany was well prepared for war. Wage and price controls were in place, raw materials allocated, investments directed by the state. Apart from a shortage of fats and fodder, excellent harvests in the two pre-war years guaranteed an adequate supply of food. Rationing was imposed from the beginning of the war. Even in the case of raw materials, the shortage of which always posed a serious problem, supplies were sufficient to last for at least a year and up to eighteen months. Supplies of raw materials from the Soviet Union and from south-east Eurcoe were secure. Furthermore, the Soviets shipped rubber from Indonesia, tea from China, and soya beans from the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo along with their own deliveries of strategic raw materials. Germany’s spectacular victories meant that her European markets were recovered and there were no serious shortages of raw materials and foodstuffs until the summer of 1944.
