What Was The Morgenthau Plan?

The Morgenthau plan was a proposal by American Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau on how Germany should be treated by the victorious allies at the end of the Second World War. It called for Germany to be massively de-industrialised and reduced essentially to an agrarian peasant economy. In addition, the country was to be split up into two separate states with the chief industrial regions being taken out of German control.

The proposal was a serious one and was approved at the highest levels of the American government. The emergence of tensions with the Soviet Union, and the growing prospect of a war between the communist and non-communist worlds persuaded the Americans to abandon the plan, however.


It was felt that the interests of the West as a whole would be best served by a strong Germany operating within the fold of the non-communist nations, using the full industrial potential of its economy.

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