Holiday Ayo - It is almost 77 years since the death of the world-shattering German dictator, Adolf Hitler. He was found dead before Soviet Union troops attacked him in World War II (WWII) 1945.

Hitler was a German politician and Austrian-born leader of the Nazi Party that dragged Germany into WWII. Although known as the German dictator with the title Führer und Reichskanzler, Hitler can be said to be quite successful in winning the hearts of the German people, especially the younger generation, with various economic improvement programs.

The German economy was in a state of disrepair due to the collapse of their industry. Many German industries collapsed after cities that became industrial centers were destroyed due to World War I. The German government also suffered more and more having to pay war damages or war reparations amounting to 132 billion Marks to the victors of the Treaty of Versailles in France.

In 1933, the unemployment rate in Germany even reached 24 percent or more than 6 million people were unemployed. Germany's credit rating has also plummeted with the country's banking system in disarray.

Then how did Hitler build the German economy which almost went bankrupt after the Nazi Party became ruler?

source: galajabar.pikiran-rakyat.com

As cited from the BBC, Adolf Hitler actually elaborated a lot on the ideas of developing the country's economy in his book, Mein Kampf. The following are a number of economic programs launched by Hitler during his reign in Germany in the period 1933-1945.

1. Independence

Hitler launched a program called Autarky or a German-style independent concept as well as to eliminate unemployment in Germany. Hitler even had an ambitious target of no official unemployment in Germany by 1939.

The way that Hitler did was by intensifying infrastructure programs that absorbed a lot of German workers such as the construction of roads, railways, and housing. Almost entirely funded by the state, partly from foreign debt.

In addition, in the Nazi era, many lighthouse projects were funded by the government such as the construction of hospitals, dams, theater buildings, to stadiums. To support all these infrastructure developments, the German Labor Service or Reichsarbeitsdients (RAD) was established in 1935. Its job was to oblige and indoctrinate young people employed in public works schemes for six months.

2. Military industry is intensified

In addition to civilian infrastructure, during the reign of the Nazi Party, many workers were absorbed to build military projects on a massive scale. The rapid development of the German military triggered the growth of the weapons industry which had previously been suspended.

Indirectly, the military industry made related industries such as the steel industry, aircraft industry, and shipbuilding developed in the Nazi era which could eventually absorb many workers.

The arms industry contributed to most of the economic growth between 1933 and 1938. The rearmament program began soon after Hitler came to power, but was only officially announced by Hitler in 1935.

3. Build thousands of km of toll roads

The good side of Nazi Germany was the toll road or autobahn infrastructure. Hitler built thousands of kilometers of toll road networks in Germany in just a short period of time connecting industrial cities along 7,000 kilometers.

The construction of the autobahn also absorbed 80,000 workers during its construction period. In addition, the massive construction of this toll road has boosted the growth of the German automotive industry. Industry in Germany was greatly helped by the presence of the toll roads built by the Nazis because logistics costs fell drastically.