| (Fighter Staff) | |
 Internal view of the planned underground factory,Weingut I, one ofJägerstab's projects, as found by theU.S. Army in 1945. | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 1, 1944 (1944-03-01) |
| Dissolved | August 1, 1944 (1944-08-01) |
| Superseding agency |
|
| Agency executives | |
| Parent agency | Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production Reich Ministry of Aviation |
TheJägerstab (Fighter Staff) was aNazi German governmental task force whose aim was to increase production offighter aircraft duringWorld War II. Established in March 1944, it was composed of government andSS personnel, as well as representatives of the aircraft manufacturers. The task force played a key role in theEmergency Fighter Program, including the "people's fighter"Heinkel He 162.
TheJägerstab increased the exploitation ofslave labour for the benefit of Germany's industry and its air force, theLuftwaffe. It was one of the impetuses for thedeportation of Hungarian Jews toAuschwitz, so that the able-bodied Jews could be used for aircraft production.
In early 1944, theAllies focused on the destruction of theLuftwaffe in preparation for theinvasion of Normandy. Plans for theBig Week, intended to destroy Germany's capacity to produce fighter aircraft through targeted airstrikes on final assembly factories, were already underway in 1943. Between February 20–25, 1944, approximately 10,000 American and British aircraft, including about 6,000 bombers, attacked strategic targets across Germany. The attacks seriously damaged the German aircraft industry, andproduction rates fell drastically.[1]
In response,Adolf Hitler authorized the creation of theJägerstab, which superseded theReich Aviation Ministry with the aim of increasing fighter aircraft production. The task force was established byAlbert Speer, theMinister of Armaments and War Production in theHitler Cabinet, with support fromErhard Milch of theReich Aviation Ministry. While Speer and Milch played a key role in directing the activities of the agency, the day-to-day operations were handled by Chief of StaffKarl Saur, a previous head of the Technical Office in the Armaments Ministry.[2]
The organisation consisted of multiple committees, including the Airframes Main Committee, Equipment Main Committee and Development Main Committee, that coordinated the work on the development of new aircraft as part of theEmergency Fighter Program. The Airframes Main Committee was chaired by Karl Frydag, who was also a deputy chair of the Development Main Committee and oversaw the day-to-day development and production activities relating to theHeinkel He 162, theVolksjäger ("people's fighter").[3]
TheJägerstab was given extraordinary powers over labour, production and transportation resources; its functions took priority over housing repairs forbombed out civilians and restoration of vital city services. The factories that came underJägerstab control saw their work-weeks extended to 72 hours. At the same time, Milch took steps to rationalise production by reducing the number of variants of each type of aircraft produced.[4]
The task force immediately began implementing plans to expand the use ofslave labour in the aviation industry. On 9 March 1944,Heinrich Himmler, the head of theSS, informed the Aviation Minister and head of the Air ForceHermann Göring that the SS would provide 100,000 prisoners to move aircraft production underground.[5] These prisoners were to be obtained by deporting Hungarian Jews toAuschwitz as part ofOperation Höss.[6][7] The need for labor to increase fighter production was used to justify the deportations to the Hungarian government.[8] Of the 437,000 Hungarian Jews deported between May and July 1944, about 320,000 were gassed on arrival at Auschwitz and the remainder forced to work. Only about 50,000 survived.[9]
The plan to protect the aircraft industry, especially the manufacture of the jet-poweredMesserschmitt Me 262, required relocating assembly plants to undergroundbunkers. A similar proposal had been considered in October 1943, but was never realized.[10] TheJägerstab's original plan included six locations, but by June 1944 theAllied landing in Normandy had forced theJägerstab to focus on two locations inUpper Bavaria. Three bunkers were to be built atKaufering concentration camp in theLandsberg am Lech district, and the code name "Weingut I" (Vineyard I) was chosen for the factory in theMühldorf concentration camp complex.[11]
Records show that SS provided 64,000 prisoners for 20 separate projects at the peak ofJägerstab's construction activities. Taking into account the high mortality rate associated with the underground construction projects, the historian Marc Buggeln estimates that the workforce involved amounted to 80,000−90,000 inmates. They belonged to the various sub-camps includingMittelbau-Dora,Mauthausen-Gusen andBuchenwald. The prisoners worked for manufacturers such asJunkers,Messerschmitt,Henschel andBMW.[12]
The progress achieved by theJägerstab was seen as a success by the German authorities. From February–July 1944, the production of theFw 190 andBf 109 fighters increased by 150 per cent.[2]
The cooperation between the Reich Ministry of Aviation, the Ministry of Armaments and the SS proved especially productive. Although intended to function for only six months, Speer and Milch discussed with Goring in late May the possibility of centralising all of Germany's arms manufacturing under a similar task force. On 1 August 1944, Speer reorganised the task force into theRüstungsstab (Armament Staff) to apply the same model of operation to all top-priority armament programs.[13] The new task force assumed responsibilities for theJägerstab's underground transfer projects.[14]