Werner Osenberg´s Visions of the "Totaleinsatz" of the entire German Research Potential in Total War

Abstract

The article deals with an example of a scientist who developed a number of visions how one could exploit science for the Nazi war aims. Werner Osenberg was professor at technical university of Hannover since 1938. Since 1933 he was a member of the NSDAP, the SS, and worked for the SD (the Nazi spy apparatus). He had access to the highest party and government bodies. From the beginning of the Second World War he was involved in war research, from 1943 acting as head of the planning board in the Reichsforschungsrat. Osenberg’s special attention was directed at scientific research designed to achieve the Nazi war aims. The development of weaponry especially for the Navy was one of his particular interests. In 1943 Osenberg addressed several memoranda to Hitler and other leaders of the Nazi state, in which he assessed the devastating German war situation. He deplored the insufficient utilization of available capacities of the German research potential. Following Hitler’s maxim that “this war ... [is] not only a war of soldiers, but especially also of the technician,” Osenberg developed a vision for the intensification of the German research program, in order to change the course of the war.