BERNHARD DERNBURG

Germany was in a terrible recession with hyper inflation. The industrialists and the government wanted to roll back the 8-hour work day that had recently been won in many German industries. The logic of the Finance Minister was that no one would invest new capital in Germany, yet Germany needed capital to grow to the level where it could be stable again. Therefore, if the German workers were to work an additional two hours every day without compensation, there was a way to turn that into capital. Of course none of the wealthy Germans would sell off some of their lands, estates, and factories and give that money to the Government and didn’t want to pay more taxes. The burden of recovery would be borne by the German workers. See {590485}.

Germany was in a terrible recession with hyper inflation. The industrialists and the government wanted to roll back the 8-hour work day that had recently been won in many German industries. The logic of the Finance Minister was that no one would invest new capital in Germany, yet Germany needed capital to grow to the level where it could be stable again. Therefore, if the German workers were to work an additional two hours every day without compensation, there was a way to turn that into capital. Of course none of the wealthy Germans would sell off some of their lands, estates, and factories and give that money to the Government and didn’t want to pay more taxes. The burden of recovery would be borne by the German workers. See {590485}.