Reich Ministry for Armaments and Munitions

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The Reich Ministry for Armament and Munitions (RMfBuM) in the Hitler cabinet , from September 2, 1943 Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production , was a ministry of the German Reich established on March 17, 1940 , whose task is to improve the supply of the Wehrmacht with the necessary supplies Guns and ammunition was. It had about 500 employees.

Fritz Todt

Since the first warlike actions of the Nazi Reich (" smashing the rest of the Czech Republic ", attack on Poland ) had shown that the German armaments industry could hardly keep up with the Wehrmacht's need for weapons and ammunition, Hitler was instructed to do so on On March 17, 1940, the Reich Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition was founded and Fritz Todt was appointed minister (see Fuehrer's Decree ( RGBl. I, p. 513)). Todt was supposed to bring the war economy to the level necessary for the planned further campaigns.

Economic Management Staff East

Responsible for drafting the war economy planning over the case of the Soviet Union was the economic management Staff East (WiFüStab East), which of the Secretaries of State of the Office of the Four Year Plan was dominated. His practical result was the green folder .

On July 14, 1941, the WiFüStab Ost called for the Wehrmacht High Command to “ghettoize” the Jews in the newly occupied parts of the Soviet Union so that “the reliable non-Jews can get a chance”.

On July 28, 1941, the co-organizers of the euthanasia murders , Viktor Brack and Richard von Hegener , had a meeting with the chief of the military economics and armaments office of the OKW Georg Thomas . It was about the support of the Defense Economics and Armaments Office for the execution of the special assignment of the Führer.

On July 31, 1941, Defense Economy General Thomas and Hermann Göring's State Secretary Paul Körner spoke about "organizational issues in Russia". In the subsequent meeting of the WiFüStab Ost , Backe stated again that “only very small quantities are available” to supply the urban population of the USSR. A little later, Göring commissioned Reinhard Heydrich to prepare “an overall solution to the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence in Europe”.

Academization of the military economy

Todt was informed about the balance sheets of the armaments factories and the strategic means of production in the German sphere of influence and fulfilled his duty to report to Hitler. The German defense economic strategies for the Second World War were thoroughly checked by scientific expertise. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy alone prepared more than 1,600 reports on these topics. However, Hitler proved to be largely resistant to advice. Minister Todt pointed out to Hitler the imbalance between the superior economies of Great Britain and America and the German / continental European economic potential; he died on February 8, 1942 in a plane crash near Wolfsschanze .

Albert Speer

After Todt's death, Hitler appointed his previous General Building Inspector for the Reich capital , Albert Speer , as successor to the ministerial post and all of Todt's posts, including the offices of General Inspector for German Roads, General Inspector for Fortifications and General Inspector for Water and Energy . Unlike Todt, Speer was no longer dependent on Göring, but was considered Hitler's close confidante. With a Führer order of March 31, 1942 Speer was authorized to order drastic measures to standardize the armaments industry. At the same time, this Führer decree highlighted the alleged self-responsibility of the men in the German economy (who in fact were increasingly integrated into a tightly planned state economy ) and thus also created a new basis for the survey system.

With the central planning created in April 1942 , Speer achieved centralized control of the economy according to state interests and was able to fall back on all areas of the war economy (e.g. the important raw material quotas for companies). The armaments index compiled by the Speer Ministry for propaganda purposes (but not always based on real principles) rose continuously and reached its maximum in July 1944 (1944 = 322 versus 1940 = 100).

In addition, machine reporting (MB) was also subordinated to the Ministry of Armaments . The MB was based as a service on the punch card technology that was widely introduced in the armaments factories . With the MB, the available means of production could be scheduled promptly from the Ministry of Spear and production decisions could be made. These means of production included - which was often downplayed in contemporary and later publications - forced laborers and concentration camp inmates.

This rational, in the polycratic Nazi system, unusual authority to issue directives over all areas of social life that are essential for the military economy makes Speer, conversely, responsible for the deployment of prisoners in Auschwitz . Speer had in individual assessments and later sweeping -farms SS the approval of war importance to certify.

Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production

From September 2, 1943, the former Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition - after subordinating all economic sectors - acted as the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production (address: Viktoriastraße 11 , Berlin). From September 16, 1943, Hans Kehrl headed the planning office, from November 1, 1943 the raw materials office in the Reich Ministry of Economics. He later became President of the Armaments Office in the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production. The Reichskuratorium für Wirtschaftlichkeit (RKW) , which in 1938 was concerned with the rationalization of the Austrian economy as well as the Aryanization and liquidation of Jewish companies, was in fact transferred to the Ministry of Armaments and War Production in August 1943. His head Georg Seebauer became head of the “Production Office for Consumer Goods”.

Under Speer's direction, new record figures for armaments production were constantly being published, but these were not always based on real increases or were based on increases in productivity, which occurred automatically without any external intervention with a longer duration of production after the start-up phase. In order to further increase this production, millions of forced laborers were used, who were recruited by the general agent Fritz Sauckel, who had been in office since 1942 , and in many cases to the SS group leader Dr.-Ing. Who was responsible for the construction of many factory and production facilities. Hans Kammler were made available. In view of the increasing Allied air raids on the German armaments industry (but also on the fuel production of the hydrogenation works ), the Speer Ministry, in consultation with Hitler and Göring, increasingly relied on the relocation of armaments factories underground. Thousands of forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners were killed during this work, for example during the construction of the rocket and aircraft production cave system Dora-Mittelbau .

In an undated, publicly distributed printed work, The Experience of the Reichsautobahn, which is bibliographically dated to 1943, the Reich Ministry Speer acts as the publisher . This name for the ministry is a sign of how far the personalization around Speer had progressed under National Socialism.

See also

Web links

Commons : Reichsministers für Armung und Munitions  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ RGBl. 1940 I, p. 513
  2. ↑ Götz Aly and Susanne Heim: Pioneers of Destruction . Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl. 1993, ISBN 3-596-11268-0 , p. 506.
  3. ↑ Aly / Heim: Vordenker der Vernichtung , p. 507.
  4. ↑ Aly / Heim: thought leader of annihilation. P. 12.
  5. ↑ See google books “Führererlasse 1939–1945” Compiled and introduced by Martin Moll. Stuttgart 1997.
  6. ↑ As stated by the deputy head of the DAF, State Councilor Rudolf Schmeer in the reorganization of reporting , in: Der deutsche Volkswirt , edition of August 21, 1942, p. 1502; Reproduced from Götz Aly, Karl Heinz Roth: The complete collection: census, identification, weeding out under National Socialism. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-596-14767-0 ( English version ) at books.google.com online p. 139.
  7. ↑ Special program Prof. Speer in Auschwitz-Birkenau : »In the presence of his senior staff for armaments, manpower and construction, he approved the head of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office, Oswald Pohl, and his head of construction, Hans Kammler, to enlarge the barracks in Auschwitz. With this he approved the SS construction project as armaments minister and supreme contingent administrator, and promoted it as a general agent for the regulation of the construction industry (general agent (GB) construction). «  Http://www.wdr.de/tv/speer_und_er/02Nachspiel02AufsatzWillems.phtml
  8. ↑ Austrian National Library: ÖNB-ALEX - German Reich Law Gazette Part I 1867-1945. Retrieved July 16, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Aly / Heim: Vordenker der Vernichtung , p. 322.
  10. ↑ the same name is also used in the publication: Reichsminister Dr. Todt , design tasks in road construction. Two speeches. Ed. Reich Ministry Speer. Without publisher's information, speeches from August 31, 1940 and January 31, 1942. 50 pages, 4 photos of Todt's autobahn and alpine road.