HIST2125Hitler’s Germany

Lecture 16:

Total War Economy and Total War, 1942-45

6 December 2012

NS Economy: 3 Phases

• NS ‘economic miracle’ & rearmament, 1933-36

• Four Year Plan & early war economy, 1936-42

• Total War economy: Era Speer, 1942-45

Total War Economy (1)

• Albert Speer as minister for total war economy

↓→ Strict centralisation to increase industrial output

→ Minimum freedom of private industry

→ ‘Slave work’ by forced labour & camp prisoners

= Initially very successful strategy: Speer most powerful Nazi & possible successor of Hitler

Albert Speer (1905-81)

Hitler’s architect

Minister of Armaments andWar Production (1942-45)

Autobiographical works:Inside the Third Reich (German: 1969, English: 1970)Spandau: The Secret Diaries (German: 1975, English: 1976)

Total War Economy (2)

• Weapon + ammunition + aircraft production (3 x higher) - Tanks production (7 x higher)

• Limited modernization + rationalization effects

• Not all industrial capacities fully exploited

= Compared to USA: 3 x lower production

= General inferiority of Axis powers’ war economy ≠ Allies: Impossible to overcome

Foreign policy 4-phase-model

• Revisionist and high-risk foreign politics, 1933-36

• Expansionist foreign politics, 1938/39

• Blitz Wars and ideological warfare, 1939-42

• Total War and downfall, 1943-45

‘Unconditional Surrender’

Allied GB-US-SU conference in Casablanca, 25 Jan 1943

Strict demand of G’s ‘unconditional surrender’:

→ Increased popular support for NS regime

→ Weakened inner-German resistance

→ Stimulated Goebbels’ Total War propaganda, 18 Feb 1943

Ambivalent effects: Short-term pro NS regime, long-term contra NS

Allied air raids

Frequent Allied air raids on Germany since end 1943: ↓

• Aimed to break ‘moral’ of civilians + destroy important infrastructures

• Achieved complete air space superiority in early 1944

→ Insufficient German air defense: Too few anti-aircraft guns (Flugabwehrkanone = Flak)

→ 500,000 civilian killed + major cities & 50 % of traffic & industry infrastructures destroyed

Counter-productive influence on moral No decisive negative impact on total war economy

Allied Invasion in France, 6 Jun 1944 (D-Day)

Stalin’s continuous request for ‘second frontline’:

Strong fortification of Atlantic coastline from Pyrenees to Holland by Wehrmacht & RAD

Allied attack expected at Channel coast but not in Normandy

• Decisive break-through of Allies, 30 Jul 1944

• Liberation of Paris, 25 Aug 1944

Begin of final phase of WW II

Volkssturm (National Storm)

• All non-serving men 16 to 60 to support Wehrmacht: “Rise of the Masses” (Goebbels)

• Panzerfaust (anti-tank grenade launcher) only effective weapon

→ Absolutely irresponsible last attempt of NS regime

→ High casualties among untrained young & old men

→ Little effect on Allied warfare

Battle of Berlin, Apr-May 1945

Successful operation of SU armies vs. German capital:

• Marriage of Hitler & Eva Braun followed by joint suicide

• Last Reich government under Admiral Dönitz arrested by GB forces

• Successive military capitulations in Italy, 29 Apr 1945,+ South & Northwest Germany, 4 May 1945

= Unconditional surrenders in Reims, 7 May 1945 (for West) + Berlin-Karlshorst, 8 May 1945 (for SU)

= End of WW II in Europe + downfall of Third Reich