Who Paid the Bill? Germany and American Fiscal Responsibilities in the Revival of Germany after World War II

Abstract

The objective of the dissertation was to prove that after World War II, between May 1945, and the statehood of the Federal Republic of Germany in September 1949 1. The Germans in the three western occupation zones of the United States, Great Britain, and France could not have survived mass starvation without the food aid provided by the Allied military forces and the United States starting in late 1945. 2. The contributions the western Allies levied from the people of their respective occupation zones in form of occupation costs, reparations, restitutions, and confiscations by far surpassed all Allied food aid, as well as the financial aid provided by the United States through the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan. 3. The German economy would have survived/restarted without Marshall Plan aid. However, it would have taken much more time to catch up with the other European economies. Looking at the pure occupation costs levied in the three western occupation zones, these costs surpassed all Allied aid by far. Occupation costs of $5,944 billion face Allied aid figures from $2,691 billion to $3,277 billion, a rough ratio of 2:1. Computed with the lowest amount of reparations of $4.44 billion, shifts the ratio of occupation costs/reparations to Allied aid to 3.5:1, a surprising and not anticipated result of the study.