Why is German industry so much more powerful than allied industry?

[Praetonia]

A lot of reasons why German Industry was historically smaller had to do with resources, for eg: In 1913, Germany had somewhere around 67% or so of the USA's per capita industrialisation and in 1939 it had actually slipped to less than 60%.
Why? more to do with the drastic fall due to the War, Depression and Versailles resulting in loss of "exports" and subsequent "belt-tightening".

If the Resources are available, the German Economy could have expanded, the proof that they could have is in the 1960s and 1970s, when West Germany surpassed first France and then UK and reached about 75% of the USA's per capita levels and has more or less maintained that position till date despite an extremely costly unification in the 1990s. All this while being on the "Gold Standard".

Again, historical data tells us that in the 1500s and pre-30 year War, the German states had higher per-capita income than the UK, the 30 year War and subsequent Industrialisation in the UK changed all that and made England twice as rich as Germany in the 1850s (as a whole and in per-capita terms), but by 1913, Germany had surpassed the UK though in per-capita terms it was still only 80% of the UK. That is a phenomenal growth curve for an economy on the "Gold Standard".

If and a BIG IF, Germany wins against the USSR and creates a puppet state on the A-A line as it envisaged in various memorandum, it would have become an Industrial Giant, the Oil Fields of the Caucasus, the Minerals in the Donetsk basin, etc will make them the premier Industrial Power of the World at par with the USA.

In the long term that might be true, in the course of the war itself they will only take (a fraction of) what was there before.

The main reason Germany had a smaller economy than the USA (and a bigger one than the UK) was simply population difference; Germany had a population 33-50% larger than the UK and the USA had a population 60-80% larger than Germany. The UK and US economies were more productive than the German economy but the population differences were larger than the productivity differences.

Conquering Europe even without improving the territory is still enough to give rough parity with the USA, if one includes the USSR to the Urals, but Germany shouldn't in any possible case be 2x USA.

 

[Secret Master]

but Germany shouldn't in any possible case be 2x USA.

Yeah, that would be silly. Even the best case scenarios of German planning with their conquests assumed that they were trying to reach some kind of parity with the US, not double her GDP or industrial production. And they were absurdly optimistic.

 

[shri]

In the long term that might be true, in the course of the war itself they will only take (a fraction of) what was there before.

The main reason Germany had a smaller economy than the USA (and a bigger one than the UK) was simply population difference; Germany had a population 33-50% larger than the UK and the USA had a population 60-80% larger than Germany. The UK and US economies were more productive than the German economy but the population differences were larger than the productivity differences.

Conquering Europe even without improving the territory is still enough to give rough parity with the USA, if one includes the USSR to the Urals, but Germany shouldn't in any possible case be 2x USA.

But i wasn't really advocating 2X of the USA. What i was trying to say- that the German economy had a lot of potential to improve and as proved by History in the late 19th century and again in mid-late 20th century, they grew by leaps and bounds when they could import the required raw materials and foodstuffs.

Again, i am not advocating what happened in WWW is right, but there are several reasons for the odd WWW that we had-
1. Trotsky plot meant USSR was a-historically weak.
2. USA had AI till 1941, which meant the "BOOM" was much smaller than possible.
3. Daniel is World No:1 in HOI4 today, better than the next 2 players put together (no disrespect to anyone).
4.. USA and UK did not co-operate properly

 

[amalric de g.]

But i wasn't really advocating 2X of the USA. What i was trying to say- that the German economy had a lot of potential to improve and as proved by History in the late 19th century and again in mid-late 20th century, they grew by leaps and bounds when they could import the required raw materials and foodstuffs.

Again, i am not advocating what happened in WWW is right, but there are several reasons for the odd WWW that we had-
1. Trotsky plot meant USSR was a-historically weak.
2. USA had AI till 1941, which meant the "BOOM" was much smaller than possible.
3. Daniel is World No:1 in HOI4 today, better than the next 2 players put together (no disrespect to anyone).
4.. USA and UK did not co-operate properly

That summarises the problems in the WWW.
I think that the US AI neglected a proper upramping of the economy CF and MF wise, the AI spammed Divisions out like mad, in one WWW i saw 150 Divisions in US proper and that in 1940, if i remember correctly. Daniel churned out around 600 Divisions, thats also total bonkers.
UK had a manpower pool of 200 million as base factor, without the RAJ, thats ridiculous.

Some guy from PI allready stated that they changed a lot of stuff, so in the final game such numbers (2X the IC, manpower etc.) is hopefully no longer possible.

 

[Noctoras]

The bigger danger might be a boring game due to being too realistic in the end. So I will wait before I judge ...

 

[Axe99]

The bigger danger might be a boring game due to being too realistic in the end. So I will wait before I judge ...

I'm not sure I'd characterise WW2 as it happened historically (ie, a realistic set-up) as boring! That said, I know some people look for different things in there games than others .