Ekonomski odnosi Kraljevine Jugoslavije i Nemačke od 1929. do 1941. godine

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to use a critical analysis of the data available from unpublished archival material and published sources of domestic and foreign origin, as well as relevant historiographic literature, in order to contribute to a better understanding of economic relations between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Germany between 1929 and 1941, with a necessary overview of all political and economic factors influencing them, both in these two countries, and on the international scene in the mentioned period. The results obtained are based on a chronological and thematic principle. Observed from the point of view of economic history, the mentioned period was marked by the Great Depression (1929-1933) and its devastating consequences, while in the domain of political history and international relations, such a role was played by one of the most important and most defining events in the entire interwar period – the coming to power of the Nazis in Germany in 1933, which at the same time marked the beginning of their intense efforts to revitalize plans to create the so-called Grosswirtschaftsraum as one of the main backbones of German foreign policy since the time of national unification, and in which Yugoslavia, severely affected by the consequences of the crisis, was to play an important role. When the Nazi regime came into power, securing political and economic influence in the countries of Southeast Europe became one of the imperatives of German foreign policy, and the entire economic policy of the National Socialist regime was subordinated to the same foreign policy goal – the economic onslaught into the Balkans and the Danube region in order to suppress the French, Italian and British influences from this part of Europe and work on the formation of the Grosswirtschaftsraum, which Germany should use to supplement the lack of agricultural products and strategic raw materials necessary for the decisive victory in the future war conflict. In the case of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, German efforts came to fruition thanks to a trade agreement of 1934, which opened the period of the most intensive trade exchange between the two countries, leading gradually to the growing dependence of the Yugoslav economy on the Third Reich on the eve of World War II, contributed by the increasing participation of German capital in some of its most important branches.