HIST 3320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Sauerkraut, Autocracy
18 Nov 2016
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German army expended all the ammunition they had set aside in the first battle of the war. Business men went to the government and told them that they would reorganize their industries to produce munitions in exchange for them running the entire german economy. Reichstag could still review laws but did not ever veto anything: had no real power in this period. Germany was not agriculturally sufficient in 1914. Imported 25% of its food every year: eggs, dairy, oil, fish, meat. Germany was full entrenched in a globalized order where they imported food and other necessities: britain blockades their ports. Had to feed 8 million soldiers who needed full rations. 1/4 of people had 1/2 of the food supply. Germany cannot feed their people by the end of 1914. By 1916, there was a war-corporation for sauerkraut. No longer a free-market capitalist system: series of war corps managing every aspect of society.
