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Sticky_Robot t1_j1vjy1x wrote

Reply to comment by Alt-One-More in Ukraine lessens projected GDP fall from 50% to 32% by sviterochec

1938 to 1945 -> Percent of 1938 GDP in 1945. Basically in 1938 they were at 100% so the following numbers represent the loss or gain by 1945.

US -> 184%

UK -> 116%

France -> 54%

Italy -> 65%

USSR -> 95% *hit 76% at the height of Barbarossa in 1942

Germany -> 88%

Japan -> 85%

Austria -> 50%

I can't find data for Romania, Hungary, Poland, China etc. Most data comes from at best 1950 so that probably says something for how bad things got.

Source

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die_a_third_death t1_j1vkfwl wrote

Germany surprisingly a lot higher than I assumed

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Sticky_Robot t1_j1vktyq wrote

I think it came down to

  1. WW2 bombers were notoriously inaccurate, it required hundreds of bombers to take out one factory.

  2. Factories of the time period were relatively simple, and could be rebuilt or just moved somewhere else.

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FROOMLOOMS t1_j1vqlko wrote

Also, most machines in that Era were all analog and built of 1000's of pounds of cast steel and plate, unless a bomb smoked the thing nose on, you could largely replace the belts and machine out the pock marks/replace a shaft or two and youre golden.

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sillypicture t1_j1w3wh4 wrote

wasn't there still a ginormous amount of civilian deaths to firestorms of dresden and similar?

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Mrsod2007 t1_j1xrcqk wrote

Also, Germany was hit way worse by the great depression than almost any other country

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OdinTheHugger t1_j209g7k wrote

There's also the factor of modern economies being largely services based, with production taking place at a massive and centralized scale.

That and the mass exodus of women and children into Poland and other surrounding countries.

Poland needs to be recognized in a big way after this war is over. They invited in over 2 million Ukrainian women and children, feeding, clothing, and housing them in arrangements that go from houses/apartments sharing with individual Polish families all the way up to mass government housing and relief shelters.

All while they're giving Ukraine everything they can spare in terms of war gear.

That's a HUGE penalty on any nations economy, and an even bigger risk in case of additional hardships.

And Poland took that on for Ukraine. It's must be a hell of a lot easier to fight a war when they know their families are safe and sound.

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Alt-One-More t1_j1vqoa0 wrote

Another commenter mentioned how Germany's looting and exploitation of neighboring countries helped prop up their GDP a lot.

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Ycx48raQk59F t1_j1w8lcp wrote

Its easy to forget than in end if 1944/ beginning of 1945, despite long bombing campaigns and resource shortage, miltiary production was at its peak in germany.

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kehaarcab t1_j1zhvoz wrote

With 1938 as base, one has to remember that until the winter 42-43, Germany was winning and had an economy that was growing. So they lost not just 12%, but 4 years of heavy, early war buildup as well. To compare, in that same timeframe, (38-42) the US GDP grew 50%.

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halee1 t1_j1vr74i wrote

And according to the Maddison series (which does differ in numbers, but let's ignore that for a moment), US economy was stagnant in the 2nd half of the 1940s thanks to the demobilization, and only surpassed its 1944 maximum in 1951. The UK economy, after mostly strong 1930s and early 1940s, fell in 1944-1947, and only reached new all-time highs in 1954, thanks to rationing resulting from practical bankruptcy and repayment of its massive debts to the US (as well as paying the ones it accumulated since the late 17th century in general).

Germany's first fall was in 1945, a whopping almost 29%, but even moreso in 1946, at the height of Germanophobia among policymakers (52.6%!), forcing it to wait until 1956 before West Germany's size became the all-time high. Austria, surprisingly, only fell in 1945, but lost nearly 60% at that, and only surpassed its 1944 level in 1953.

As for Japan, it fell about 24% each in 1945 and 1946, and only went above its 1944 maximum by 1955.

Everything else is broadly correct, even though the numbers themselves differ a bit.

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sillypicture t1_j1w43tv wrote

how did france and italy get shanked so bad?

Wasn't the fighting in france largely in the open fields, and the south remained more or less untouched?

what's up with italy too? did they put everything into the african campaign?

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raptorgalaxy t1_j1x6dxx wrote

The Germans looted the country during the occupation, and there were a number of city fights.

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Fuzzyphilosopher t1_j1xobij wrote

The port of Brest was occupied until the end of the war. And Caen wasn't the only place that got hammered into rubble. The rail lines and locomotive stock were trashed. The nazis had deported a lot of their working age men for forced labor as well. "600,000 to 650,000 French workers were sent to Germany between June 1942 and July 1944." More than 75,000 jews were deported and 72,500 of them murdered. Military and civilians deaths were 567,600

Those kind of things really hurt your GDP. There were also quite a number fighting in Free French divisions who weren't working. This is very similar in ukraine right now. They've got men and women serving at the front and in the military who are not contributing to normal economic activity. Ukraine is fighting heroically but it comes at great cost in so many ways when your country is a warzone. That's why it's so important to continue aid in not just weapons but financial support.

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Catsingasong t1_j1z2vp9 wrote

During WW2 Germany was at 88%?

C'mon, I can't be the only one appreciating the irony.

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