Draft
Military Economy Staff Berlin, 19 December 1936
No. 4610/36 g.K. F.O. IaF.
Reference: L No. 2098/36 g.K. IV a of 9 December 1936 In re: Law for War Administration.
SECRET COMMAND MATTER
To: L
The Military Economy Staff expresses the following opinion on the letter of reference:
1.. The control of war economy in the civilian sector in case of war is possible only for that person, who, in peacetime has made preparations for war under his own responsibility. Upon recognizing this fact, a year and a half ago, Reichsbank President Dr. Schacht was appointed Plenipotentiary General for War Economy and an Operations Staff was attached to his office. This arrangement has only the one disadvantage that the right of the Reich War Minister to give him directives is disputed by the Plenipotentiary General; the latter intends also in case of war, to place himself outside the executive power to be given to the Reich War Minister. There is unanimity between L and the Military Economy Staff regarding the necessity of a new arrangement on this matter.
2. The Military Economy Staff does not deem it compatible with the principle laid down in Number 1, Paragraph 1, if the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy is now placed under the Minister President Colonel General Goering's command. If the service agency of Colonel General Goering should not continue to exist in case of war and, therefore, would also not be able to assume any responsibility, from this arrangement will ensue a disastrous division of responsibilities.
Should, on the other hand, the intention be to keep Colonel General Goering's service agency going, also in case of war, for logical reasons, one must go all the way and entrust it, also in peace time, with the full and exclusive responsibility for the preparation of the war economy. Anything else would be a half measure, which would, like any half measure, avenge itself in case of war. But such a solution spells great danger under the prevailing circumstances.
3. So far, the Military Economy Staff has proceeded from the assumption that the service agency of Colonel General Goering is a temporarily established office set up to deal with peace time tasks. If this assumption is correct, in our opinion only the following delimitation of tasks of the Plenipotentiary General and
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Colonel General Goering's service agency, respectively, are possible. All measures, which above all, serve peace time economic purposes (e.g. the assurance of the German gasoline and buna (rubber) production) and all measures which, with the consent of the Reich War Minister and of the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy, will be taken over, totally or in part, into the Four Year Plan, will be carried out responsibly by Colonel General Goering's service agency and with the cooperation of the Reich War Minister and of the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy. All remaining war preparations in the economic field will continue to be the responsibility of the Reich War Ministry or of the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy who is bound by the instructions of the deputy chairman of the Reich Defense Council.
4. The Military Economy Staff proposes, after settling the question whether the service agency of Colonel General Goering will remain in existence in case of war or after establishing the fact that it will be dissolved upon outbreak of war, to begin negotiations with Staatssekretaer Koerner. The whole question touches so decisively on the jurisdiction and the responsibility of the Military Economy Staff that the Military Economy Staff has to request, to conduct all further negotiations on this matter in closest understanding with the Military Economy Staff. Every step which is now done in the wrong direction out of ignorance of the inside facts and the effects resulting therefrom, must influence disadvantageous^ the Military Economy Staff in its work. .
Therefore, it is being proposed to advocate absolutely that in case of war the service agency of Colonel General Goering as Commissioner for the Four Year Plan be dissolved and that for the preparation of this measure the following arrangement be prescribed :
a. The delimitation of tasks in peace time in the sense of the above made statement.
b. To keep the individual departments of the present service agency of Colonel General Goering in case of war which would then have to be attached partially to the Reich War Minister (fuels) and partially to the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy.