The ''Jägerstab'' (Fighter Staff) was a
Nazi German
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
governmental task force whose aim was to increase production of
fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Established in March 1944, it was composed of government and
SS personnel, as well as representatives of the aircraft manufacturers. The task force played a key role in the
Emergency Fighter Program
The Emergency Fighter Program () was the program that resulted from a decision taken on July 3, 1944 by the Luftwaffe regarding the German aircraft manufacturing companies during the last year of the Third Reich.
This project was one of the ...
, including the "people's fighter"
Heinkel He 162
The Heinkel He 162 ''Volksjäger'' (German, "People's Fighter") was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Developed under the Emergency Fighter Program, it was designed and built quickly ...
.
The ''Jägerstab'' increased the exploitation of
slave labour
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
for the benefit of Germany's industry and its air force, the
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
. It was one of the impetuses for the
deportation of Hungarian Jews to
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, so that the able-bodied Jews could be used for aircraft production.
Background and formation
In early 1944, the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
focused on the destruction of the
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
in preparation for the
invasion of Normandy
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...
. Plans for the
Big Week
Big Week or Operation Argument was a sequence of raids by the United States Army Air Forces and RAF Bomber Command from 20 to 25 February 1944, as part of the Strategic bombing during World War II#US bombing in Europe, European strategic bombin ...
, intended to destroy Germany's capacity to produce fighter aircraft through targeted airstrikes on final assembly factories, were already underway in 1943. Between February 20–25, 1944, approximately 10,000 American and British aircraft, including about 6,000 bombers, attacked strategic targets across Germany. The attacks seriously damaged the German aircraft industry, and production rates fell drastically.
In response,
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
authorized the creation of the ''Jägerstab'', which superseded the
Reich Aviation Ministry with the aim of increasing fighter aircraft production. The task force was established by
Albert Speer
Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he ...
, the
Minister of Armaments and War Production in the
Hitler Cabinet
The Hitler cabinet was the government of Nazi Germany between 30 January 1933 and 30 April 1945 upon the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of the German Reich by president Paul von Hindenburg. It was originally contrived by the national ...
, with support from
Erhard Milch
Erhard Milch (30 March 1892 – 25 January 1972) was a German general field marshal (''Generalfeldmarschall'') of Jewish heritage who oversaw the development of the German air force (''Luftwaffe'') as part of the re-armament of Nazi Germany foll ...
of the Reich Aviation Ministry. While Speer and Milch played a key role in directing the activities of the agency, the day-to-day operations were handled by Chief of Staff
Karl Saur
Karl-Otto Saur (February 16, 1902 in Düsseldorf – July 28, 1966 in Pullach) was a high ranking official in the Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany and was named as ''Reichsminister'' of Munitions in Adolf Hitlerâ ...
, a previous head of the Technical Office in the Armaments Ministry.
Activities and use of slave labour
The organisation consisted of multiple committees, including the Airframes Main Committee, Equipment Main Committee and Development Main Committee, that coordinated the work on the development of new aircraft as part of the
Emergency Fighter Program
The Emergency Fighter Program () was the program that resulted from a decision taken on July 3, 1944 by the Luftwaffe regarding the German aircraft manufacturing companies during the last year of the Third Reich.
This project was one of the ...
. The Airframes Main Committee was chaired by Karl Frydag, who was also a deputy chair of the Development Main Committee and oversaw the day-to-day development and production activities relating to the
Heinkel He 162
The Heinkel He 162 ''Volksjäger'' (German, "People's Fighter") was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Developed under the Emergency Fighter Program, it was designed and built quickly ...
, the ''Volksjäger'' ("people's fighter").
The ''Jägerstab'' was given extraordinary powers over labour, production and transportation resources; its functions took priority over housing repairs for
bombed out civilians and restoration of vital city services. The factories that came under ''Jägerstab'' control saw their work-weeks extended to 72 hours. At the same time, Milch took steps to rationalise production by reducing the number of variants of each type of aircraft produced.
![Birkenau Women pronounced fit for labor from the Tet Ghetto standing on the platform after a selection](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Birkenau_Women_pronounced_fit_for_labor_from_the_Tet_Ghetto_standing_on_the_platform_after_a_selection.jpg)
The task force immediately began implementing plans to expand the use of
slave labour
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
in the aviation industry. On 9 March 1944,
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
, the head of the
SS, informed the Aviation Minister and head of the Air Force
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
that the SS would provide 100,000 prisoners to move aircraft production underground. These prisoners were to be obtained by deporting Hungarian Jews to
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
as part of
Operation Höss
The Holocaust in Hungary was the dispossession, deportation, and systematic murder of more than half of the Hungarian Jews, primarily after the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944.
At the time of the German invasion, Hungary had a Jewi ...
. The need for labor to increase fighter production was used to justify the deportations to the Hungarian government. Of the 437,000 Hungarian Jews deported between May and July 1944, about 320,000 were gassed on arrival at Auschwitz and the remainder forced to work. Only about 50,000 survived.
The plan to protect the aircraft industry, especially the manufacture of the jet-powered
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Germa ...
, required relocating assembly plants to underground bunkers. A similar proposal had been considered in October 1943, but was never realized. The ''Jägerstab''s original plan included six locations, but by June 1944 the Allied landing in Normandy had forced the ''Jägerstab'' to focus on two locations in
Upper Bavaria
Upper Bavaria (german: Oberbayern, ; ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany.
Geography
Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat o ...
. Three bunkers were to be built at
Kaufering concentration camp
Kaufering was the common name of a system of eleven subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp which operated between 18 June 1944 and 27 April 1945 and which were located around the towns of Landsberg am Lech and Kaufering in Bavaria.
Previou ...
in the
Landsberg am Lech district, and the code name "
Weingut I
In 1944 the Third Reich began work on the construction of a partially underground bunker factory codenamed Weingut I (English: Vineyard I) in the forest known as the , slightly to the west of Mühldorf am Inn in Upper Bavaria. Plans for the bunk ...
" (Vineyard I) was chosen for the factory in the
Mühldorf concentration camp complex
Mühldorf was a satellite system of the Dachau concentration camp located near Mühldorf in Bavaria, established in mid-1944 and run by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The camps were established to provide labor for an underground installation for t ...
.
Records show that SS provided 64,000 prisoners for 20 separate projects at the peak of ''Jägerstab''s construction activities. Taking into account the high mortality rate associated with the underground construction projects, the historian Marc Buggeln estimates that the workforce involved amounted to 80,000−90,000 inmates. They belonged to the various sub-camps including
Mittelbau-Dora,
Mauthausen-Gusen
Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...
and
Buchenwald
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
. The prisoners worked for manufacturers such as
Junkers
Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (JFM, earlier JCO or JKO in World War I, English: Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works) more commonly Junkers , was a major German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer. It was founded there in Dessau, Germ ...
,
Messerschmitt
Messerschmitt AG () was a German share-ownership limited, aircraft manufacturing corporation named after its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt from mid-July 1938 onwards, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, in partic ...
,
Henschel
Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...
and
BMW.
Results
![Weingut I bogen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Weingut_I_bogen.JPG)
The progress achieved by the ''Jägerstab'' was seen as a success by the German authorities. From February–July 1944, the production of the
Fw 190
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' ("Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, t ...
and
Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...
fighters increased by 150 percent.
The cooperation between the Reich Ministry of Aviation, the Ministry of Armaments and the SS proved especially productive. Although intended to function for only six months, Speer and Milch discussed with Goring in late May the possibility of centralising all of Germany's arms manufacturing under a similar task force. On 1 August 1944, Speer reorganised the task force into the ''
Rüstungsstab
''Rüstungsstab'' (Armament Staff) was a Nazi German governmental task force whose aim was to increase production of military equipment and munitions during the final year of World War II. Established in August 1944 on the basis of the '' Jägerst ...
'' (Armament Staff) to apply the same model of operation to all top-priority armament programs. The new task force assumed responsibilities for the ''Jägerstab'' underground transfer projects.
See also
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German aircraft production during World War II
The following is a list of aircraft production by Germany during World War II by type and year. Note that some figures may not be accurate, and it is not comprehensive. Aircraft variants of different roles are listed separately. Related types are l ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jägerstab
1944 establishments in Germany
1944 disestablishments in Germany
Luftwaffe
Unfree labor during World War II
War crimes of the Wehrmacht