Roosevelt and Hitler both rose to power in 1933 amidst the Great Depression, which had unemployment rates of around 25% in the US and Germany. Both leaders promised change and hope to their struggling populations. Roosevelt established numerous New Deal programs to provide jobs and aid to Americans, such as the WPA and PWA public works projects. Similarly, Hitler offered subsidies to companies hiring workers and started infrastructure projects to employ Germans. Both leaders also opened work camps for youth, like Roosevelt's CCC, to keep them occupied and out of trouble. Additionally, both implemented agricultural policies to raise farm incomes and protect farmers through subsidies and credit programs.

1. America ComparedCh: 16Roosevelt and Hitler: New Deal and Nazi Reactions to the Depression

2. Roosevelt and Hitler Rise to Power1933 – The great Depression is at its lowest point with the United States and Germany being the worst hit countries in the world. Industrial production plummeted and unemployment reached nearly 25 percent of the workforce – between 13 and 16 million Americans and 6 million or more Germans are unemployed. Both countries had suffered from poor governorship from previous political leaders and shared a distrust of government and its political figures.January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler takes his seat as the new Chancellor of Germany, barely one month later on march 4, 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President of the United States. Both men were not seen as being the typical nor the most qualified for their newly elected positions yet with two countries peoples in poverty and lost in hopelessness and with a feeling of resentment towards previous leaders they were eager to embrace confident and charismatic men who promised change and offered hope to the people during the time of the depression.

3. Americas New Deal and Nazi GermanyRoosevelt’s New Deal America and Hitler’s Nazi Germany had some striking similarities in that both made providing aid to the unemployed a top priority. Under Roosevelt the U.S. Congress set up a $3.3 billion program under which more than 4 million people were put to work. Soon after came the creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA) which put millions more to work building roads, schools, bridges, and various other public works projects.Under Hitler, Nazi Germany offered subsidies and tax rebates to private companies who hired new workers and offered marriage loans to encourage consumer spending and started massive public works programs which put Germans to work improving the countries infrastructure and the began the creation of new railroads as well as the famous German Autobahn network. Both Roosevelt and Hitler also opened work camps. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Both Hitler and Roosevelt stated that the work camps were not meant to be a tool to aid in their countries economic depression but described them as a way to decrease the number of young men competing against older men for employment and mainly as a means of keeping the youth off the streets and out of trouble. The response from the countries youth was most positive as well as in the U.S. the military noted that the CCC was a great tool for providing training to possible enlisters to the army and establishing a sense of national pride among the young men.

4. Agriculture and Rural LifeRoosevelt’s New Deal America and Hitler’s Nazi Germany’s approach to dealing with the agricultural depression were also similar in that they both sought to organize commercial agriculture in order to increase farm income. Both parties set up programs that’s mission was to “raise agricultural prices and thus farm income through a system of subsidies, paid for in each case by processing taxes that fell ultimately on consumers.”In both countries these programs also protected farmers from losing their land through foreclosures as well as making agricultural credit cheaper and more accessible. Hitler and Roosevelt both shared an appreciation for rural life and sought to make initiatives that would enhance the lives of rural Americans and Germans and encourage citizens that there were privileges in getting away from the crowded urban cities.