Assisted by the Reichsbahn railway system, the National Socialist regime waged a war of aggression and deported millions of forced laborers and Jews to labor, concentration, and extermination camps. Beginning in the occupied areas and later within the borders of the “Old Reich” as well, the Organization Todt (OT) attended to the transportation network and the construction of important armament and defense systems.
Beginning in July 2019, the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) has been conducting research on the functionality and significance of transportation within the National Socialist system of rule (project supervisors: Magnus Brechtken and Andreas Wirsching; project coordinator: Christian Packheiser). In addition to the activities of the Reich Ministry of Transport (RVM) and the OT, the project’s focus lies on the post-war history of the transport ministries of the two German states. Processes of reckoning with the past, involving social, political, and economic interests, are areas to be researched here along with other long-term developments. The first West German Federal Minister of Transport, Hans-Christoph Seebohm, is also a subject of particular interest to the project.