If Hitler had died in 1938 he would have gone down in History as the greatest German leader.
Hitler did many good things for Germany, the most prominent being the way in which he brought the country out of economic depression after the Wall Street crash of 1929. For example, after the crash, government and private institutions lost faith and money and had to withdraw most of their investments from companies. Under the Nazi regime, within six years, investment rose from 2 billion Reichmarks to 20 billion Reichmarks. Part of the Nazi's plan was to make Germany much more self sufficient, in order that, in the event of war, they would be unaffected by economic sanctions. Hajlmer Schacht, the first economics minister of Germany, devised a "new plan", which would limit imports, expand exports, increase government spending in key industries (eg. synthetics) and introduce conscription. This meant that Germany began to grow industrially, and new industries were introduced, creating jobs for the 6 million unemployed. It was under Schacht that unemployment was reduced from 6 million to 1.75 million. After Schacht came another economics minister, Hermann GÖering. He introduced the "4 year plan". This maintained the basis of Schacht's plan, but with a few subtle differences: increased production (coal, iron, steel, synthetic oil, armaments and war related machinery - all helping provide Germany's footing for war); reduced imports; control of prices and wages; forced labour if necessary and the rationing of non-essential luxury goods. He further reduced the employment, though not on the same scale as his predecessor, from 1.75 to 0.5 million. In the struggle to reduce unemployment, it was impossible to just redistribute everyone. Jobs had to be created. The DAF (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, German Labour Front) was formed in order to employ people in creating and building useful public services. During the period between 1932 to 1939, the unemployed were used to build Autobahns (motorways), hospitals, prisons, schools and public projects.
