West European Studies

In the 1920s, the German economy greatly suffered from high rates of recession. According to Cap (2000, pg 230) any bank needed a lot of courage to lend Germany capital to offset the acute foreign exchange deficit. The situation deteriorated and it was worst by June 1931. The inflation had depleted all the countrys savings and it had to rely on loans from Britain to offset the deficit. The capital flight from the economy was worsened by the World Wars which preceded this period. (Cap, 2000, pg230). It was in 1930s that the research and development in airplanes critically began a campaign to redesign and modify the earlier existing planes to improve the capability and effectiveness of the military. This led to massive investment in the aircraft industry with many industries being established for the same purpose under high level of secrecy in Germany (Suckert, 2010). It led to the development of many aircraft industries in Germany, which slowly started to heal the badly hit economy by reducing the unemployment levels as well as reducing the recession levels in the country. The jet model developed in 1939 was later to revolutionarize the jet industries not only Germany but also in Britain and other European countries. (Pavelec, 2007, pg 5). Therefore, the jet engine and the aviation development in Germany became a handy solution in reconstructing German economy at the time. The paper tries to analyze the sectors of the German economy that were affected by the invention of the jet engine and the implications that the jet development had on them.

Textile Industry
The early development of the jet engine units had very negative impact on the textile industry in Germany. According to Suckert (2010), the government repossessed many of the textile industries at the Germany Poland border. The aim was to proceed with the aircraft development under high security and secrecy due to the ongoing cold wars and avoiding technology to be used by enemies. The remote areas provided conducive locations for the establishment of the jet industries. Suckert (2010) explains that this move crippled the textile industry, which was at the time on the blink of collapse caused by the war. Therefore, although it was a noble idea, the development of the jet engines spelled doom to the already struggling textile industries. This led to massive unemployment as thousands lost their jobs but some employees were later absorbed in the jet production plants. After the production was discovered, the plants were hurriedly closed and many people were reported to have lost their lives in the camps after they were left desperate Suckert (2010).

Reducing the Economic Depression
According to Crozier (1997, pg103), the recession experienced in Germany started to ease due to the army rearming which included the drastic development of the  jet industry. Therefore, the government reinvested heavily in the sector, which saw the economy being boosted out of the recession levels. The rearmament process was so severe that the unemployment levels fell by 2milion between 1932 and 1939 Crozier (1997, pg102). However, some analysts denied the argument that the recession drop was due to the rearming exercise though it remains a contentious issue with both the opponents and proponents of the providing economic facts to the debate. There is though a consensus that rearming of the army shifted most of consumer goods in favor of capital goods (Crozier, 1997, pg102). It would be therefore appropriate to link the high rate of the jet industry production to reduction of recession at the time.
                                                             
Industrial Growth
The jet engine was responsible for the development of several industries all aimed at developing the aerospace industries. According to Pavelec (2007 pg 4) 1930s was the period which saw numerous numbers of aerospace industries being developed. Some of these included Heinkel, Messerschmitt, Junkies, and Daimler all specializing in airplane bodies. Several engine-making companies also surfaced at the time. These included BMW, Daimler, Benz and the Junken engine department Pavelec (2007, pg5). The emergence of these companies opened a new window to fast development in the German economy with the government fully supporting and funding. The government invested a good share of its budget on the research and development in the aeronautical sector. However, according to Pavelec (2007, pg5), the development was not well grounded and had to stop after sometime and then regained several years after the Second World War.
         
The industrial development was a foundation for the future development, which was all aimed at increasing the German air strength in combat operations. It also marked the beginning of passenger planes, which would later revolutionaries the transport system several decades after. This was achieved through development of passenger planes at the same time with the jet planes (Crozier, 1997, pg 102). The German government through the military rearming and robust development in the planes industry discouraged the growth of consumer goods in favor of capital goods (Blackbourne, 2009). Through encouraging the growth of capital goods, heavy industries developed fast in Germany particularly in the aeronautics and automobile industries. This marked the beginning of heavy industries proliferation in Germany in the early 1930s.

The Labor Market
The fact that the first jet engines were specifically developed for military use made the industries to grow at a sporadic rate because of the military influence in the country at that time. Many people found employment in the aircraft industries as the government rushed to regain the Air supremacy in the world. According to Croizier (1997, pg 102) between 1932 and 1934 the aircraft industry increased the number of employed staff from 3000 to 125,000. This high employment rate was very positive to the German economy and contributed to the economic growth that superseded the growth of other European countries. This lead the industrial production to rise above 100 compared to the production in 1928 specifically between 1936 and 1939 (Crozier, 1997 pg 102). The high production rate and high rate of employment meant an increased in the living standards of the German citizens. After development of the aircraft industries, the labor market became oversaturated and there were a lot of people willing to work in the industries (Blackbourn, 2009). The high labor availability during this duration contributed to the robust economic development in Germany. The saturation of the labor market provided cheap labor to the industries also. The cheap labor on the other hand was an incentive for more entrepreneurs to venture into different productions due to the high margins got from exploiting the skilled and unskilled labor. Therefore, from the jet industries, many more industries sprouted to take advantage of the labor market, which greatly boosted the German economy.
         
The government discovered that the labor force had very low skills and education. According to Blackbourne (2010), the government came up with incentives to encourage the low skilled workforce to improve their skills so as to professionalize the labor market. Introduction of pay scales where the low skilled workers would be paid less opened another chapter in Germany education where many people retrained to get higher wages. (Blackbourne, 2010), The German skilled labor was thus introduced into the market through this policy. Therefore, from the jet industry labor market requirements and skills were developed prompting the government to encourage training of skilled workers who ended up being very instrumental in the German economy and the industries.

Conclusion
The jet engines invention marked a revolutionary period in the German economic development. Although much of the intended invention in jet industry was focused on rearming the military, the production of the jets was used to stimulate almost all sectors of the economy. Coming at a time when the German economy was plagued in recession, the inflation was spiraling out of control the robust development of the engines gave a boost to the country and instilled a positive momentum to development. The whole period between 1930 and 1939 saw the establishment of many industries related or derived from the jet industries. The establishment of these industries was very instrumental to the drastic reconstruction and improvement of the German economy. It would be therefore appropriate to consider the development of the jet engines as the key element which propelled the German economy.