ml miRS-tonpon HI 'nrflJIBRCH 1945 Illi - 1GM

PART n
ORGANIZATION, ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATION.
23 • Introduct ion
Organization
The OT in the winter of 1945 is a radically different organization
from what it wag in the spring of 1938, in regard to status and scope
of function. Seven years ago it was a Wehrmacht auxiliary charged with
military construction, ranging from the tactical to the strategic, in
the various zones of operation. It has "by now become the sole agency
responsible for the entire war production programae in the Reich,
insofar as it is, directly or indirectly, affected by Allied air raids,
not to mention the part it plays in Nazi plans for a "fanatic" defence.
None of these functions, however, are representative of the role
assigned to it in German plans for the reconstruction of a Nazi postwar
Europe.
Whether the OT is to be assigned any role at all in Allied plans
for the reconstruction of the Continent, or whether it will be
demobilized, its internal organization* is of considerable importance.
For this reason the OT structure and chain of ooiamand is being
presented in two characteristic forms. One concerns itself with the
stabilised^ permanent organization, as it operated in German occupied
Europe, and as exemplified by Einsatzgruppe West (E£W) (France and
the Low Countries) in 1943» before the effect of Allied air raids had
made themselves felt* The other concerns itself with as up-to-date a
description of OT internal organization, at the present time, inside
the Reich, a3 can be given on the basis of available documentary
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material. For the sake of brevity the first will be henceforth
referred to as the "permanent organization" and the second will be
termed the "current organization".
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(a) "Permanent Organization"
24. "Permanent Organization"* The OT High Oomaand
Reich Minister for Armament and War Production, Albert SPEER,
succeeded TODT as Chief of the OT in February 1942; a decree by
HITIER signed 2 September 1943, made SPEER, in his capacity of Chief
of the OT responsible only to the Ftlhrer himself, without intervening
channels* SFEER's administrative director since 1942 has been
Ministerialdirektor Dipl. Ing. Xaver DQRSCH. DQRSCH is
responsible solely to SPEER, and his HQ is the OT Zentrale**(OTZ:
OT Central HQ) last known to have been located in BERLIN. Be is at
the same time chief of the Abteilung Wehrbauten und Ausland
(Section for Military Construction and Foreign Countries) of the
Inspectorate General of German Roadways.
The OTZ issues the fundamental directives for operational and
administrative functioning, and the basic territorial distribution of
manpower. Its most Important task is in the field of economy
engineering: the standardisation of material, building specifications
and methods of construction. Apart from that, its functions are
confined to the administration of the OT: it keeps the records,
i t checks incoming reports and accounts, i t regulates the relationship
between OT-Firms and the OT administration, as well as those
between the firm and the workers, and finally i t issues through the
Frontftthrungen (see III Bo) directives for the entire working and
social routine of all OT personnel.
See chart 1
Now known as Amt Bau-OTZ.
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See IB19 and Charts 4a and 4b.