WAR ECONOMY AND SPEER

Question 1

4-YEAR PLAN

Answer 1

• 1936
• beginning of preparation for war
• Focused on increasing iron and steel production, investing in machine tools, developing artificial alternatives to oil and rubber
• After this, full-scale production of armaments would begin
• Outbreak of war in 1939 disrupted these plans

Question 2

Decree for conversion into War economy

Answer 2

• 3 September 1939
  > German economy did not reach full mobilisation until 1942
  > 39-41: Germany’s armed forces suffered from shortages of weapons and equipment; but did not hamper success of Blitzkrieg
  > Beginning of operation Barbarossa and war with Mediterranean began hindering war effort

Question 3

Cause of problems

Answer 3

• Despite 4-year plan, Hitler had not anticipated war beginning 1939; fully expected Britain and France to accept invasion of Poland like they accepted demands over Austria and Czechoslovakia
  > Expected to war begin during Operation Barbarossa 1941; military and economic planning based on this assumption

Question 4

Problems with armament

Answer 4

• Suffered structural weaknesses
• Different branches demanded highly specialised equipment of high quality
• Proportion of labour force armament production- 21% to 55% 1939-41- supply of weapons still grew shortly
• Mass production of standardised weapons faster, but German firms not set up this way; standardisation nearly impossible to achieve as military designed and ordered many different versions of the same weapons

Question 5

Political problems

Answer 5

• Göring in charge of 4 year plan-lacked technical and economic knowledge; poor relations with military and large company leaders and banks
• Göring incapable of providing needed greater centralised coordination
• 1939-40- Göring’s failings masked by military successes but by 1941 they became increasingly evident
• Albert Speer appointed Armaments minister 1942- describing Göring’s years in charge as an era of incompetence and egotism

Question 6

Speer- context

Answer 6

• Architect
• Designed settings for Nuremberg rallies, designed iconic buildings like Hitler’s Reich Chancellery

Question 7

Speer

Answer 7

• Hitler had ignored calls for rationalisation of industrial production- until death of Todt in plane crash February 1942 (then armaments minister)
• Replaced Todt in 1942

Question 8

Rationalisation of Production under Speer

Answer 8

• Centrally coordinated all allocations of labour, equipment, and materials to armaments factories
• Concentrated production in fewer factories and narrower range of standardised products
• Greater use of mass production techniques
• Kept factories operating 24 hours a day

Question 9

Production Miracle

Answer 9

• Speer’s innovations resulted in this
• 1941-43 German aircraft production increased 200%; tank production by 250%
• Messerschmitt Bf 109- main fighter aircraft now concentrated in 3 instead of 7 factories- increased from 180 to 1000 a month

Question 10

ALLIED BOMBING

Answer 10

• 1942-45- British and Americans sustained bombing offensive against industrial capacity and civilian morale
• Gains in production 1943-44 occurred despite air raids; though they impacted production by damaging supply lines, causing factories to disperse and morale to be affected
• January 1945- led to 35% less tanks, 31% less aircraft, 42% less lorries
• Intense bombing campaign of Jan-May 1945 caused great reduction in armament production

Question 11

Mobilisation of Labour Force

Answer 11

• Increase in number of men conscripted + need for more production led to need of using female labour force more efficiently and using foreign labour
• German reverse outside Moscow December 1941- brought labour supply issue to a head; efforts to focus on armaments production objected by local Gauleiters who needed employment in their areas
  > serious threat as Hitler was opposed to an increase of women in work- foreign labour only choice left
• January 1943- Hitler issued decree for mobilisation of labour; women 17-45 and men 16-65; small businesses closed down and labour shifted to armament - demands of total war had significant impact
• Defeat at Stalingrad January 1943- led to more drastic measures

Question 12

Foreign Labour

Answer 12

• June 1940-1942; foreign workers mainly recruited from occupied territories in western Europe
• After invasion of USSR- dramatic increase in number of prisoners of war- October 1941; Hitler agreed to use Russian prisoners of war for slave labour
  > December 1941: 4 million foreign workers employed in Germany
• March 1942- Plenipotentiary General for Labour Allocation led by Sauckel
  > 1942-1945, 2.8 million workers from eastern Europe transported
  > by 1944: 7 million foreign workers in Germany, 7 million in occupied countries
• Foreign workers: conditions harsh, wages low, discipline severe- goal was to exploit them to highest extent at the lowest expenditure
• Volunteer “guest workers” from Western Europe given same wages and conditions as German workers
• Prisoners of war and concentration camps: slave labour on starvation ratios
• By 1944; 1/4 of labour force was foreign labour