Fritz Todt in the uniform of a major general of the Luftwaffe

Fritz Todt (September 4, 1891 – February 8, 1942) was an German engineer and senior Nazi figure, the founder of Organisation Todt. Download high resolution version (588x868, 58 KB)Fritz Todt This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (588x868, 58 KB)Fritz Todt This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... September 4 is the 247th day of the year (248th in leap years). ... 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Organisation Todt (OT) was a German construction and engineering group. ...

He was born in Pforzheim, the son of a small factory owner. He studied engineering in Karlsruhe and the School for Advanced Technical Studies in Munich. He took part in World War I, initially with the infantry and then as an observer with the airforce, winning the Iron Cross. Post-war he finished his studies in 1920 and joined the civil engineering company Sager & Woerner. He joined the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) (better known as the Nazi Party) on January 5, 1922. He became an Oberführer (a rank equivalent to brigadier general) in the Sturmabteilung (S.A.), then commanded by Ernst Röhm, in 1931 and also completed his doctorate (on "Fehlerquellen beim Bau von Landstraßendecken aus Teer und Asphalt" - "Sources of error in the construction of land road layers from tarmac and asphalt"). Pforzheim is a town of 115,000 inhabitants in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-west Germany at the gate to the Black Forest. ... Map of Germany showing Karlsruhe Coat of Arms of Karlsruhe Karlsruhe castle at night Karlsruhe (population 282,595 in December 2003) is a city of Germany, in the Baden-Württemberg Bundesland, located near the French-German border. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German state of Bavaria. ... WWI redirects here. ... The Iron Cross (German: Eisernes Kreuz) is a military decoration of Germany which was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813. ... 1920 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... The Nazi swastika The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. ... January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Sturmabteilung (SA, German for Storm Division and is usually translated as stormtroops or stormtroopers) functioned as a paramilitary organisation of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. ... Ernst Röhm Ernst Röhm (or Roehm) (November 28, 1887, Munich; July 1, 1934, Munich-Stadelheim prison, murdered) was a German military officer and commander and co-founder of the Nazi Sturmabteilung or stormtroopers. // Early Nazi years Röhm served as a career officer with the Bavarian Army during... 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Following the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor (Reichskanzler) on January 30, 1933, Todt became (in July) Generalinspektor für das deutsche Straßenwesen ("Inspector General for German Roadways") and was involved in the new construction company for the motorways (Reichsautobahnen). He later became Leiter des Hauptamts für Technik in der Reichsleitung der NSDAP ("Director of the Head Office for Engineering in the Administration of the Reich of the NSDAP") and Generalbevollmächtigter für die Regelung der Bauwirtschaft ("General Commissioner for the Regulation of the Construction Industry"). As a special privilege, Todt was permitted to have considerable power and was not necessarily immediately answerable to any of the Reich ministries. He was also appointed to the rank of Generalmajor of the Luftwaffe after its official promulgation in March 1935. Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and chancellor) of Germany from 1933 to his death. ... January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Luftwaffe (literally, air weapon, pronounced looft-vaaf-feh) is the air force of Germany. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1938, he founded the Organisation Todt (OT), joining together government firms, private companies and the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labor Service), for the construction of the "West Wall", later renamed the "Siegfried Line", for the defence of the Reich territory. On March 17, 1940, he was appointed Reichsminister für Bewaffnung und Munition ("Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions") and oversaw the work of Organisation Todt in the occupied west. After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, he was appointed to manage the restoration of the infrastructure. 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Reichsarbeitsdienst (or RAD, Reich Labour Service) was an Auxiliary formation which provided support for the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. ... Bunker on the Siegfried line The original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany along their border with France in 1916-1917 during World War I. However, in English, Siegfried line more commonly refers to the similar World War II defensive line, built... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1941, he became increasingly distant from the commanders of the Wehrmacht and from Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe) in particular. He did remain close to Hitler at this time, yet, after an inspection tour of the Eastern Front, he complained to him that, without better equipment and supplies for the armed forces, it would be better to end the war with the USSR. Inevitably, Hitler rejected such an assessment of the situation and carried on the offensive against the Soviets regardless. Wehrmacht   listen? was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also Goering or Goring in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was an early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main perpetrators of Nazi Germany. ... The Luftwaffe (literally, air weapon, pronounced looft-vaaf-feh) is the air force of Germany. ... The Eastern Front was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...

On February 8, 1942, while flying away from the conclusion of a meeting with Hitler at the Wolfsschanze ("Wolf's Lair") at Rastenburg, his aircraft exploded and crashed. He was succeeded as Reichsminister by Albert Speer, who had narrowly missed being on the same aircraft. He was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof, located in the Scharnhorst-Strasse in Berlin and became the first holder, albeit posthumously, of the Deutscher Orden ("German Order"). It was even suggested that Todt was the victim of an assassination plot, but this has never been confirmed. What was never in dispute was that the OT used millions of forced laborers (Zwangsarbeiter) from the occupied countries of the Reich during World War II, and that the judging panel at the Nuremberg Trials (formally, the "Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Court") in 1946 sentenced Speer to 20 years' imprisonment for having headed this organisation and thus sanctioned the international illegal use of forced labor. February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... One of larger bunkers in Wolfsschanze complex. ... Kętrzyn is a town in north-eastern Poland with 30,300 inhabitants (1995). ... Albert Speer Albert Speer was born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer on the 19th of March 1905 in Mannheim, Germany, the second of three sons. ...   Berlin? (pronounced: , German ) is the capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,426,000 inhabitants (as of January 2005); down from 4. ... The German Order was the highest decoration that the Nazi Party could bestow on an individual for duties of the highest order to the state and party. This award was first made by Adolf Hitler posthumously to Reichsminister Fritz Todt at his funeral in February, 1942. ... Jack Ruby murdered the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ... The Nuremberg Trials is the general name for two sets of trials of Nazis involved in World War II and the Holocaust. ... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

See also

• Nazi architecture

Model of the unbuilt Volkshalle Nazi architecture is an often dismissed and derided aspect of Nazi plans to create a cultural and spiritual rebirth in Germany. ...

External link

• Hitler's oration at Todt's funeral