tax pressure

[panzertruppe2001]

I want to know about the taxes in Nazi Germany. Pierre Miquel says in his Second World War that Germany financed the war with the communal taxes. Were the rates high? I want to know if the punishment for not pay the taxes were severe and all of these things.
Another thing. Which was the office that collect the taxes?. I suppose an office of the Finance Minister.
And which were the most common taxes? Did exist a Nazi tax?

Thanks

[stcamp]

I believe the Nazi government also financed the building of the Wehrmacht using the Winter Help campaign. I believe I read that each individual was expected to contribute an amount. In fact people who did not contribute usually came to official attantion. Sometimes they even had their names published in the local paper.

The VW car project also helped build the army. A joke at the time was:

Did you hear about the worker at the VW factory who stole parts and brought them home to assemble?

Why no.

When he was done he had built a troop carrier in his living room.

Also tradespeople were expected to make Hitlers Birthday donations once a year.

[panzertruppe2001]

Thanks stcamp

[Landser]

stcamp

After living in Germany during the war years I can unequivocal detest your assertions on the Winterhilfswerk campaigns and collections.First of all it was nothing which was'nt done before of drives to help the needy.It did get the regimes participation after 1933 and was very popular and effective not only propaganda wise.
But I can say, I was much more pressured to contribute in USA to United Way via payroll deductions then anyone ever asked you to give the WHW.
Now about financing the war effort,
I think it's a joke even to think about the token intake for such an endeaver.Besides in the war years the emphasis was more on goods contributions esp.winter clothing
and such items.

[HaEn]

I believe the Nazi government also financed the building of the Wehrmacht using the Winter Help campaign. I believe I read that each individual was expected to contribute an amount. In fact people who did not contribute usually came to official attantion. Sometimes they even had their names published in the local paper.
The VW car project also helped build the army. A joke at the time was:
Did you hear about the worker at the VW factory who stole parts and brought them home to assemble?
Why no.
When he was done he had built a troop carrier in his living room.
Also tradespeople were expected to make Hitlers Birthday donations once a year.

Hi Scamp, where did you get that piece of wisdom ???
Living at that time, I can assure you that Winterhilfe and other help projects "for the people" were just that. FOR THE PEOPLE.
The war efforts were financed in part by large finance houses, including some American and French (surprised ??) That was one of the reasons
Switserland never was really considered for an attack.
It was a clearing house for foreign bankers.
The other reason was that the German High Command knew that every Swiss male was for life enlisted in the army, and had (and still have) their weapons at home, ready for use.
By the way he could not have built a "troopcarrier" from VW parts, because they only made two cars for the war. i.e. the "Kubelwagen", later in the U.S. known as "the thing", and the "Schwimmwagen", a semi amphibious version of the same.
Just the memory of one who drove both at one time.
HN.

[Ingsoc75]

But I can say, I was much more pressured to contribute in USA to United Way via payroll deductions then anyone ever asked you to give the WHW.

I get that to at my work. Every year they pester you to contribute to the United Way. So I just give them $0.10 week.

[xcalibur]

I want to know about the taxes in Nazi Germany. Pierre Miquel says in his Second World War that Germany financed the war with the communal taxes. Were the rates high? I want to know if the punishment for not pay the taxes were severe and all of these things.
Another thing. Which was the office that collect the taxes?. I suppose an office of the Finance Minister.
And which were the most common taxes? Did exist a Nazi tax?

Thanks

What do mean by "Did exist a Nazi tax"?

[Vikki]

I believe the Nazi government also financed the building of the Wehrmacht using the Winter Help campaign.

I would also like to know the primary source for that information. Seriously, not being pissy, but because I'm interested in the civilian organisations, and would like to know the source for it, if one exists. I've always understood that the proceeds of programs like the WHW and Hunger und Kälte went directly to the needy.

I find being pestered by The United Way (although they've changed the name of the "campaign" now, where I work) as inappropriate as Landser and Enigma, and even more so because it's done at work. I give to private organizations of my own choosing, and it's none of the bureaucracy's business. I'm sure I would have found the Third Reich's model of "voluntary" contributions just as offensive. But at least they went to the designated charity, without as great as a 60 percent knockoff for "administration".

~FV

[Vikki]

I believe the Nazi government also financed the building of the Wehrmacht using the Winter Help campaign. I believe I read that each individual was expected to contribute an amount. In fact people who did not contribute usually came to official attantion. Sometimes they even had their names published in the local paper.

I don't recall having heard or read about official attention. But from personal accounts I've heard, there was quite a bit of "unofficial" pressure, both from the Party Blocleiter, and from local representatives of the organization charged with collecting that week. As I heard it, with the ominous stance and hand motions, from one lady: "So, Herr Schmidt, I see that you're not wearing the pin of the Frauenschaft that was given out for donations this week." (Slow jingle, jingle off to the side of the Pfennigs in the organization's duly labelled little red can.) "Why is that, Herr Schmidt?"

Landser and HaEn, I'd be very interested in whether your remembrances of the nature of the Winterhilfswerk collections agree.

~FV

[walterkaschner]

I sincerely doubt that any significant portion of the Winter Help campaign went to directly support the war effort, although there were suspicions that a portion of the funds collected might be leaking out to Nazi bigwigs.

There was a joke going around Germany concerning two Nazi "Bonzen" who were taking a stroll through a park when one of them noticed a 50 RM note which someone had dropped in the gutter. Said one, picking up the banknote:"I'll donate that to the Winter Help campaign." Said the other: "Why do it the long way around?" Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany: 1933-1945 (Ballantine Books, 1972, paperback ed.) at 370. But according to the same source, despite almost full employment, about 10 million Germans (c. 17% of the population) were still receiving Winter Help parcels or subsidies in 1937. Id. at 208.

But seriously, I think the principal means of financing the German War effort were the following (not necessarily in order of magnitude):

(a) the benefit, which I have never seen accurately measured, of the direct or virtually forced confiscation of the considerable wealth of the Jewish population in Germany as well as in the conquered areas. It is well known, for example, that the Jewish community was alone assessed a fine of 1 billion RM on account of Kristallnacht, and that must have been a mere drop in the bucket compared to the amounts realized from the confiscation or pressured sales of Jewish properties during the entire course of the oppression ;

(b) the take over by German ownership of industries (not just Jewish) in the occupied territories, which substantially increased their direct tax base;

(c) the use of foreign conscripted and slave labor at barely life sustaining cost, which enhanced the profits of German industry and therefore increased the base for income taxation;

(d) the overall increase in the level of tax rates, both upon industry and individuals. Overall tax receipts went from 17.7 billion RM in 1938 to 34.7 billion RM in 1942 - almost doubling in 4 years!

For individuals: for those earning RM 1,500-3,000 a year tax payments increased by an average of 20 per cent; for those earning between RM 3,000 and 5,000, by 55 per cent! R. J. Overy, War and Economy in the Third Reich (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995) at 271 and Table 9.3.

In answer to Panzertruppe2001's specific question, the most productive taxes (in 1942) were:

Income and business tax......21.8 billion RM
Sales tax...............................4.2 " "
Purchase tax..........................6.2 " " (on beer, travel, ..................................................... entertainment, tobacco, etc)
Customs & Misc......................2.5 " "

Ibid.

(e) the substantial reduction in the availability of consumer goods and the institution of consumer rationing. The effect was to divert to savings accounts a substantial portion of consumer income which would otherwise have been expended on consumer goods. With nothing available to spend one's money on, the only reasonable alternative is to save it. The trick was that the savings institutions were quietly required to then turn over the liquid funds to the German Treasury in exchange for Treasury notes or longer term governmental obligations. In 1937 total private credit accounts amounted to only 6.2 billion RM; by 1941 they amounted to 44.6 billion RM. Overy, op cit supra at 273, Table 9.5.

All of the above was accompanied and most made possible by rigidly enforced wage and price controls, as well as foreign exchange controls which latter prevented foreign owned companies (of which there were many substantial ones) from repatriating their earnings and thus required their reinvestment in the German economy and war effort, regardless of the nationality of their ownership. And of course these latter companies were taken over by the German government when war was declared.

Hope this is of some help.

Regards, Kaschner

[maxxx]

But things like furs, skiing equipment and warm clothing WAS collected- on a semi - volunteer base for the Wehrmacht. Got a propaganda picture, where a female member of the german olympic ski teams gives her skis for this fund. Looks very similar to WHW.

And as my parents told me, there WAS some pressure to wearing the WHW-Pins. (otherwise you could have been asked a ten or twenty times by some eager HJ-boys or SA-men on your way to work) On Campaign-day there were a lot of them on the streets....

As some of those, who were involved, told me: Actors of some reputation where "asked" to take part for propaganda reasons in the collecting campaign. It was not wise to refrain.

Panzertruppe,
I also did not fully understand the question about the "nazi tax"-
do you mean a "party tax" that every member or official had to pay from his income? I dont know if there was such a thing. But even today , Members of Parlament in Austria pay a percentage of their income out of public office into the party treasure.

[bwh]

Thank you, Kaschner, for your resume of taxes in the third Reich!
It should put a stop to the nonsense about WHW-collections etc. - one source of income that should be reltively easy to account was the surcharge on Winterhilfe stamps - a 6pf stamp was sold with a surcharge of 3 pf - the surcharge went to WHW; not very many were sold though, the official number can be found in any stamp catalogue, and I doubt that all those stamp campaigns netted more than a couple of millon RM each.
But it is an interesting question!

[walterkaschner]

bwh wrote:

.......one source of income that should be reltively easy to account was the surcharge on Winterhilfe stamps - a 6pf stamp was sold with a surcharge of 3 pf - the surcharge went to WHW; not very many were sold though, the official number can be found in any stamp catalogue, and I doubt that all those stamp campaigns netted more than a couple of millon RM each.
But it is an interesting question!

It is indeed an interesting question, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to calculate.

The first Winterhilfswerk semi-postal stamps were issued in 1936 and the aggregate surcharge for the complete set of 9 stamps was 82 Pfg. The same pattern was followed for the next 4 years, but 1940 was the last year special stamps were issued for this purpose. Neither my Scott Postage Stamp Catalogue nor my Michel Deutschland-Spezial-Katalog 2000 lists the number issued, and although I suspect that number can probably be found readily enough somewhere, the number of each denomination actually sold is probably much more difficult to determine.

In any event, I quite agree that the net proceeds to the Winterhilfswerk from the sale of these stamps could not have been all that great and probably right in line with bwh's estimate of no more than a couple of million RM per year. If in truth some 10 million Germans were still on Winter Relief by 1937, then obviously the great bulk of the supporting funds had to come from elsewhere.

But I do think that, although the Winter Relief Funds were not utilized to finance the war effort, there was probably some, and possibly considerable, leakage to higher Nazi officials. Corruption was notoriously rampant among the more senior members of the Party, and, according to Richard Grunberger "it became a verbal reflex action for passers-by to exclaim 'There goes the Winter Relief!' whenever a party official drove past in his new motor car." The 12-Year Reich, cited in my above post, at 107-8.

Regards, Kaschner

[panzertruppe2001]

I want to know about the taxes in Nazi Germany. Pierre Miquel says in his Second World War that Germany financed the war with the communal taxes. Were the rates high? I want to know if the punishment for not pay the taxes were severe and all of these things.
Another thing. Which was the office that collect the taxes?. I suppose an office of the Finance Minister.
And which were the most common taxes? Did exist a Nazi tax?

Thanks

What do mean by "Did exist a Nazi tax"?

A tax that was typically nazi. An example. Did the Jews paid more taxes than the non jews. Did you paid less taxes for being a member of the nazi party?

Thanks everybody for the answers

[maxxx]

the most vicious tax was the so called "reichsfluchtsteuer" (reichsescapetax"). Jews which had to leave the country had to sell all their properties cheap and often unvoluntarily and also had to pay a tax UP TO 90% OF EVERYTHING to be allowed to take the meager rest with them.
This was really adding insult to injury....

Jews had to bring up additional amounts of money on special occations e.g. after the "reichskristallnacht" a 1.000.000.000. Marks as "sign of remorse".
The german insurance companies were forbidden to pay for all - insured-properties owned by jews which were destroyed during the pogrom.