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Henry Morgenthau, The German Character
Five chapters from Morgenthau’s book, Germany is our Problem, here published with an introductory note by Ellopos. Emphasis, in bold or italic letters, by Ellopos. Complete book in print.
52 Pages
Page 20
Confiscation of these assets—with the owners compensated in marks by Germany—would prevent their use for a German campaign of revenge. Distributed among nations despoiled by Germany, the property would constitute partial compensation for damage suffered. As it is not enough to destroy German war industry without making sure it cannot be rebuilt, so the possible renewal of German economic aggression must be blocked at the source after the current assets are confiscated. Outright ownership could be replaced by the control of a dominant trader, which would permit the Reich to attempt once more the purchase of military supplies and of men's consciences.
One preventive measure is Allied control over all German foreign exchange transactions. The Germans perfected the use of such control as an instrument for war. Funds for foreign purchases were allocated to items that would help the German war effort. They ordered profits used to buy war supplies or propaganda or a shipload of butter. The same controls may be used to make Germany's foreign trade an instrument for peace. It would at least enable the Allies to be certain that a tractor ostensibly meant for farm use does not have a motor powerful enough to haul the biggest type of field gun.
Exclusion of Germany from cartels is an obvious lesson of experience. As one specific example, the production of magnesium in the United States was limited by cartel agreements so that even under the spur of the defense emergency our output had gone up from 2,500 tons to only 5,680 while the Germans were turning out 19,000 tons. It was this sort of thing which prompted the Kilgore Committee to declare: Almost immediately, as a consequence of this unholy alliance between Hitler and the cartelists, Germany's plans for economic warfare, aimed at ultimate world domination, were expanded. The German Government became a silent partner in the multitude of cartel agreements among German, American, British, French and other concerns with which German industry had established cartel relations.
Cf. H. Arendt: totalitarianism reduces men to impersonal natural forces * German philosophers in support of Nazism * Beethoven and Mauthausen * The Superior Race of Germans * Kalergi, European Spirit must Precede Europe's Political Unification * La Construction de l'Europe selon Jean Monnet * Plan Fouchet * Mitterrand and Kohl urge European Political Union * Il Manifesto di Ventotene
