Page "Carl Friedrich Goerdeler" Paragraph 42

After a visit to western Germany where Goerdeler was horrified by the damage caused by Anglo – American bombing, in July 1943 Goerderler wrote a letter to Field Marshal Günther von Kluge that read as: The idea fostered by the High Military authorities that the devastation in the West was not so bad and that after a few days, during which they ' gathered up their chattels from among the ruins ', the workers return to work, induced me to look at the devastation for myself.

You would be as shocked as I was.

The work of a thousand years is nothing, but rubble.

There is no point in describing my feelings when I looked down from the Trolleturm on the ruins of the town of Barmen and on Elberfeld, half of which is destroyed.

In Essen it is almost impossible to find one's way through the streets because all of the familiar landmarks are lost in the rubble.

Sixty per cent of Krupps is destroyed and it is only working to 30 per cent of capacity.

It is untrue to say that the contrary is the case.

The damaged sections have not even been rebuilt in other parts of Germany ; the process of shifting the industry is only in its initial stages.

Whoever has the courage to think must realize even without special technical knowledge that buildings must first be found, then adapted, then machinery must be procured, most of it new, and then coal and labour must be obtained.

In Elberfeld even undamaged factories in the Vohwinkel area are only working to 30 per cent capacity, because the workers have left.

In Essen and Wupertal about two-thirds of the population have disappeared and in Cologne about four-fifths.

That is how it is with the people who in three days gather up their chattels from the rubble.

The coal output of the Ruhr has now dropped from 420, 000 to 300, 000 tons a day and is decreasing daily.

In June the output of the South German armaments industry declined sharply for the first time, because the drop in supplies from the Ruhr is making itself felt.

Furthermore, nothing can be done with these ruins.

They are heaps of debris, concrete, and iron.

Reconstruction will take generations.

The debris cannot be disposed of on German soil, it would ruin too much land.

It must therefore be dumped into the sea.

The removal of debris from Essen alone will take 3 years, using 100 wagons a day. One hundred milliard marks would not be too high a estimate for the damage sustained so far.

At present our national debt is 250 milliards, in 3 months our debts will be as high as our total assets .. You, Field-Marshal know that all theories which maintain that this means nothing and that a pernicious economy based on debt can go on unpunished are sheer nonsense.

No, the German people is faced with the decision either to declare itself bankrupt ; then we have all lost everything and industry has no capital.

As this is an impossible situation because it would mean revolution on the largest scale, those whose money is invested in real estate must part with some of this, in order to finance the firms which must be kept going in order to maintain economy and avert revolution.

Thus everyone will be poor.

Or the German people can again disguise the truth and start on the road to inflation by incurring further debts and by letting things go on as they are doing now.