Arms industry/armament

The defense industry is an industry for the production of weapons, vehicles, ammunition and other products necessary for the military defense of a country or warfare. After coming to power in 1933, the Nazi leadership swiftly initiated a massive rearmament of the German Armed Forces, which became public knowledge at the latest with the announcement of the Four-Year Plan of 1936. The goal was to achieve German domination of Europe as quickly as possible through war. In the course of the Second World War, the German armament effort was once again considerably intensified. In 1942, Hitler appointed Albert Speer as Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions. Centralized control of the war economy and rationalization and restructuring measures significantly increased the production of armaments. In mid-1944, German armaments production reached its peak – but this could only be achieved through the mass exploitation of forced laborers.