Figure 1.--We see hundreds of images of Germany in the 1930s before World War II. And outside of the major cities, one question keeps occurring--where are the cars and trucks? For a country preparing to wage a modern, mechanized war, Hitler was not disuaded bythe fact that thecountries he sought toi conquer had much larger industrial establishments. Here we see HJ boys walking down the middle of a city street without the slightest concern of vehicle traffic--only a slowly plodding draft horse.

While Germany remained the most important industrial country in Europe, one area that Germany did not pursue intensively was the automobile industry, at least on a mass level. Germany of course had some notable automobile manufacturers (Mercedes and Porch). They produced finely engineered cars that would win international competitions. The German companies did not mass produce cars like American automobile companies (Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Studebaker, and others). The average German worker and farmer could not afford cars, especially the expensive cars made by German manufactures. And German industry made no real effort to produce an inexpensive car they could afford. Hitler actually did support a people's car--the Volkswagen. Production had not yet begun when the War broke out. The automobile industry would prove to be one of the most important assets in generating military power, probably second only to steel. Fortunately for us today, it was not an industry producing small numbers of finely engineered cars that was most important. It was a Henry-Ford mass production lines that were important. America, Britain, France, and the Soviet union had these, the Germans did not. And the German industrial mindset of high quality and high-end production mitigated against creating mass production assembly lines. The failure to develop a mass market product restricted the development of German industrial capacity. It also meant that the Germans had not developed some of the skills of mass production when the War broke out. This was a serious weakness for a country which planned to wage war on an unprecedented scale with a modern, mechanized army. The Wehrmacht could not field as large a force as the countries it sought to conquer. Hitler tried to deal with this by taking on only one country at a time which is the tactic he used in domestic politics. This meant Austria, Czechoslovakia, Lithuanians, and Poland. This list stopped with Poland because Britain and France saw that they would have to fight. The German generals planning military operations focused on quality -- modern high quality weapons. Of course the generals never thought Hitler would get them in a war with Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The flaw in this thinking is investing man hours and materials in a weapon system that might only survive a few days in combat is a terrible decision for a resource-poor country with a smaller population than the countries it was targeting. The poor efficiency of German industry was a major flaw in German design. And the Germans during the War would produce many finely engineered weapons, but weapons that were difficult to produce cheaply in large numbers, and commonly maintain. It was a recipe for disaster and Hitler and his cronies seems unaware if it. Göring who Hitler appointed to manage the Economy through Four Year Plan had no inkling. Speer who became Armaments Minister (1942), had a better understanding, but by that time is was way too late to do anything about it.

Created: 8:11 AM 2/10/2009
Last updated: 4:59 AM 3/22/2023