Figure 1.--The men responsible for Hitler armments, fid not fare well in the Third Reich. The exception was Albert Speer, probably because he was a rare personal friend. Speer was also targeted by Himmler's Gestapo, but prived untouchavke because of his friendship with Hitler. The reason was that NAZI industry was inefficient and could not live up to the Fühjrer's grndiose expctations. His armanmengts men could thus not mee Hitler's needs. Hitler like Stalin saw capitalism as chaotic and inefficent, Noth blieved thst the state could manage the economy more effuicently, meanin out prouce the democracies with their capialist economies. This ultimately would determine the oucome of the war. World War II was an industrial war and NAZI fsctories could not comete with the American Arsenal of Democracy and Britidh industry once mobiized. Uttimstely the NAZIs could not even compete with Soviet factories. Here we see Speer at a munitiions factory (May 1944). Part of Speer's success was the massve use of slave labor. Notice the boys working here. There were also surely slave workers, but not included in the photograph.

The central figure in German rearmament was of course Adolf Hitler. Upon becoming Chancellor he immediately began the rearmament process and authorized enormous funding for arms production (1933). A problem for German arms production was Hitler's tendency to micro manage. This would continue throughout the NAZI era. 【Tooze】 His orders and changing priorities adversely affected arms production because it introduced uncertainties into the system. The companies involved were this faced with major changes in financing and the availability of raw materials. But the once certainty under Hitler was the huge flow of Government orders and funding. The initial problem was that Germany did not have the money for all this spending. Here Hjalmar Schacht solved the problem. As President of the Reichsbank (Central Bank) (1933–39) and as Minister of Economics (1934-37). Schacht was a financial genius and devised a system of borrowing huge sums, disguising the vast amounts being borrowed with MEFO bills so that Reich finances would not be affected by level of borrowing. 【Kopper, pp. 59-60.】 Schacht was, however, appalled by the massive and growing debt as well s the growing violence against Jews. He had been in favor of rearmament, but complained to Hitler aboutthe mounting debt as it was becoming obvious that Hitler was preparing for war. As a result, Hitler removed him from office. Schacht was eventually arrested by the Gestapo (1944), but only survived the War by a nrrow margin. Another key araments figure was, Herman Göring one of Hitler's key cronies who unlike Schacht knew where Hitler was going from the very beginning. Hitler placed him in charge of the Economy to be managed through the Four Year Plan. Also unlike Schacht, Göring knew nothing about economics, he was a fighter ace. Göring was not an armaments minister, but as the primary economic goal was rearmament, Göring played an important role in the process. The vast sums being spent transformed the German military into the most powerful in the world. Göring helped prepare Germany for a short sharp war. This had been the approch of Prussian leaders since the time of the Great Elector (17th century). 【Citino】 Göring did little, however, to reform the chaotic NAZI economy in to one that could meet the needs of a lengthy war of attrition-- he profited too much from it. And was was a primary practicioner of cronyism--one of the major defects. One such crony was another World War I ace -- the flmboyant Ernst Udet, who did more to defeat NAZI Gernmany than most Allied generals. Hitler and Göring also believed that capitalism was economic anarchy and that Government management would create a more efficient system. Of course nothing could be further from the truth, even if they were competent. And of course neither had the foggiest idea about economics and anything but competent. Hitler did not have an Armaments Minister, until after the outbreak of the War. While not having that title Gen. Karl Heinrich Emil Becker was a German weapons engineer and head of the Army Ordnance Office. He was a highly competent officer with a strong scientific background and close ties to the scientific community. Becker was interested, for example, in a nuclear program. (Hitler was not, seeing it as Jewish Physics.) Becker played a major role in the rearmament program. Problems began with the outbreak of the War and the invassion of Polan (September 1939). 【Tooze】 Hitler was dissatisfied with the performance of the arms industry and began criticizing Becker and not the economic system that he and Göring created. Becker committed suicide (April 1940). He may have been in Gestapo custody at the time, so the nature of the suicide is not clear. Hitler created a new cabinet position--the Ministry of Armaments to correct the production issues (March 1940). The first minister was Fritz Todt, a fervent NAZI and construction engineer who Hitler had put in charge of the Autobahn program. Todt faced the same problems that Becker had faced the chaotic NAZI economy. He did nothing to transform the system, but did his best within the confines of the NAZI system. With the failure of Barbarossa it was clear Germany faced another war of attrition (December 1941), Todt saw that Germany was faced with a grueling war of attrition it could not win and told Hitler. That was not what Hitler wanted to hear and proved an unwise career choice. Shortly after Todt was killed when his plane crashed after an unpleasant meeting with Hitler (February 1942). Hitler unexpectedly chose his architect, Albert Speer, as his new Armaments Minister. Speer also has no economics training, but did attempt to transform the NAZI economics system, running into trouble with many Party officials, most prominently Göring, Himmler, and Bormann--few men survived such enemies. They resented Speer because his reforms adversely affected their persinal bureaucratic empires. As the War unfolded, Speer amassed emense authority by absorbing additionaslm poers, including some of the powers of Göring's Four Year Plan. 【Smith】 He also created enemies of other powerful Party officials and imprtasnt segments of private industry. Speer toured the Reich, using the banner of patrioism and wartime needs to cut through beaureacratic contraints and deny pet projects unrelated to the war. He was willing to shame and force both state and party officials into compliance. One of his major targets were the NAZI Gauleiters, seasoned and tough political infighters with powerful local power bases and persinsl reltiiondhips with Hitler. 【Smith】 Top NAZIs like himmler were jealous of his relationship with Hitler. Himmler had Speer thorughly investigated and Speer believes thst Himmler tried to have him killed. 【Speer】 Speer's reforms did, however, result in some successes, most prominently in tank and aircraft production. Part of Speer successes were the fact that the NAZI economy had not been geared for total war. Hitler bdcause of World War I at first wanredvtio shield civilians from privations. Thus once even minmimal slack and waste were cut out of gthe system, productivity imprived. The inherent inefficiencies of the NAZI economy and the Allied strategic bombing campaign meant, howeverr, that Germany could not compete with the Allies in arms production.

Sources

Citino, Robert M. The German Way of War: From the Thirty Year's War to the Third Reich (University Press of Kansas: Lawrence, 2005), 428p.

Kopper, Christopher. "Banking in National Socialist Germany, 1933–39". Financial History Review. No. 5 (1) (April 1998), pp. 49-62.

Smith, Bradley F. The Road to Nuremberg.

Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich (Avon, New York, 1970), 734p.

Tooze, Adam. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the NAZI Economy (Penguin Books: Mew York, 2007), 800p.

Created: 7:59 PM 5/9/2023
Last updated: 7:59 PM 5/9/2023