<P> Even while the Marshall Plan was being implemented, the dismantling of ostensibly German industry continued; and in 1949 Konrad Adenauer, an opponent to Hitler's regime and the head of the Christian Democratic Union, wrote to the Allies requesting the end of industrial dismantling, citing the inherent contradiction between encouraging industrial growth and removing factories, and also the unpopularity of the policy . Adenauer had been released from prison, only to discover that the Soviets had effectively divided Europe with Germany divided even further . Support for dismantling was by this time coming predominantly from the French, and the Petersberg Agreement of November 1949 greatly reduced the levels of deindustrialization, though dismantling of minor factories continued until 1951 . The first "level of industry" plan, signed by the Allies on March 29, 1946, had stated that German heavy industry was to be lowered to 50% of its 1938 levels by the destruction of 1,500 listed manufacturing plants . Marshall Plan played a huge role in post-war recovery for Europe in general . 1948, conditions were improving, European workers exceeded by 20 percent from the earning from the west side . Thanks to the Plan, during 1952, it went up 35 percent of the industrial and agricultural . </P> <P> In January 1946 the Allied Control Council set the foundation of the future German economy by putting a cap on German steel production . The maximum allowed was set at about 5,800,000 tons of steel a year, equivalent to 25% of the pre-war production level . The UK, in whose occupation zone most of the steel production was located, had argued for a more limited capacity reduction by placing the production ceiling at 12 million tons of steel per year, but had to submit to the will of the US, France and the Soviet Union (which had argued for a 3 million ton limit). Steel plants thus made redundant were to be dismantled . Germany was to be reduced to the standard of life it had known at the height of the Great Depression (1932). Consequently, car production was set to 10% of pre-war levels, and the manufacture of other commodities was reduced as well . </P> <P> The first "German level of industry" plan was subsequently followed by a number of new ones, the last signed in 1949 . By 1950, after the virtual completion of the by then much watered - down "level of industry" plans, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants in western Germany and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons . Vladimir Petrov concludes that the Allies "delayed by several years the economic reconstruction of the war - torn continent, a reconstruction which subsequently cost the United States billions of dollars ." In 1951 West Germany agreed to join the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) the following year . This meant that some of the economic restrictions on production capacity and on actual production that were imposed by the International Authority for the Ruhr were lifted, and that its role was taken over by the ECSC . </P> <P> The Marshall Plan aid was divided among the participant states on a roughly per capita basis . A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival . Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed towards the Allied nations, with less for those that had been part of the Axis or remained neutral . The exception was Iceland, which had been neutral during the war, but received far more on a per capita basis than the second highest recipient . The table below shows Marshall Plan aid by country and year (in millions of dollars) from The Marshall Plan Fifty Years Later . There is no clear consensus on exact amounts, as different scholars differ on exactly what elements of American aid during this period were part of the Marshall Plan . </P>

Which was not part of the united states plan to promote democracy in europe