The failure of the German war economy
Hitler instituted rationing in Germany in 1939, but in order to maintain the support of the German people he did not place the German economy on a full war-time footing for several years. Instead the German economy ran on the loot pillaged from the conquered countries of Europe. The ferocity of the Russian scorched earth policy meant that little flowed to Germany behind its advancing armies, but the absence was made up for by the amount of loot which went to Germany from western Europe, which in most cases was so large that it caused significant deprivation in the regions from which it was obtained. By 1943 for example, 40% of Norway’s national income ended up in German coffers.
Despite depriving the conquered countries of their produce and minerals there was still not enough of some materials to support the war effort and maintain a non-war economy. In 1943 Hitler finally put Germany’s economy on a war footing. German leaders always retained the memory that the loss of World War I began with the deprived citizens at home, rather than with a military defeat, the German armies were still deep in France at the end of the war. The shift to a war economy was too little, too late, and the deprivations instilled were blamed by the propaganda ministry under Joseph Goebbels on the Allied bombing rather than the fact that the war was steadily being lost.