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HIST2125
Hitler’s Germany
Lecture 16:
Total War Economy and Total War,
1942-45
6 December 2012
NS Economy: 3 Phases
• NS ‘economic miracle’ & rearmament,
36
1933-
• Four Year Plan & early war economy,
42
1936-
• 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 and
War 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