The Rise of the Third Reich

"...At present, the General Staff has already made a preliminary assumption. After the difficult time arrives, Germany's military industry will definitely be subject to many restrictions. This has been stated in Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points for Peace" Mentioned. The fourth item is to reduce the armaments to the minimum level to ensure the country’s internal security. We believe that this is a restriction on our side! "

Karl Haushofer folded his hands on his lap and looked at the Krupps seriously. Then he added: "Preliminary estimates indicate that the production of tanks, aircraft, submarines, large warships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, and poison gas will be banned. The size of the army will also be greatly reduced, even to the extent that it will be difficult to defend itself! To Krupp For an excellent military industrial enterprise like Bo Company, it will be a very difficult period... If there are not enough orders, the company's survival may be seriously affected, and naturally there will not be enough funds for research and development in ten to two years. In ten years, Krupp and other outstanding representatives of the German military industry will lose their current leading position. By then, our empire will become lagging behind that of Britain, the United States, and France. It is extremely difficult for a lamb to be slaughtered to rise again.”

Listening to Herschmann's words, Gustav Krupp couldn't help but nod. Krupp is a very large enterprise with many factories and workers. Once it loses the support of orders, it can only shrink. From a business perspective, it can only abandon the unprofitable military industry sector and concentrate its limited resources. For the civilian sector... over time, it will lose the ability to produce advanced weapons.

He coughed dryly, exchanged glances with his wife, and then said: "We will lose our lead in at most 10 years. Although the civilian industry and the military industry have something in common, there are still differences between the two."

Krupp's main business is arms and steel. The arms are mainly cannons and also involved in shipbuilding. If it lost its military products (cannons and warships), Krupp would become an ordinary steel producer. Moreover, the production capacity of special steel for military use will be idle and fall behind. We will lose our lead in ten years. In twenty or thirty years, we may not even have the ability to produce military products.

However, in the original history, the Krupp Company suffered from the "fuze patent" after the war. (Arsenals in Britain, France and other countries used Krupp's patented technology to produce artillery shells. After the war, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the intellectual property system, they paid for the use of it. (paid according to the number of German casualties) to survive the crisis, and then participated in the Soviet-German cooperation project (which existed in the original history), and at the request of the Wehrmacht, secretly participated in the plan to rearm Germany - in fact , all Hirschman did was to make certain historical events happen earlier or with greater intensity...

Hersman interjected: "Mr. Krupp, in order for our country to stand up again in the future and become a first-class power in the world, the General Staff ordered our Industrial Promotion Committee to formulate a top-secret military industrial export plan!"

"Military industry export?" Gustav Krupp was stunned, "Are you going to move Germany's arsenal abroad?"

"This is one way, but not all." Hersman said, "Relocating the production departments of certain military industrial enterprises that are restricted in Germany to friendly countries is an effective way to maintain vitality. As for the destination of the output, The first choice is of course the United Baltic Duchy... There are currently 700,000 to 800,000 Germans there, and it is a place we can control. "

In the process of formulating the "Gray Plan", Hersman asked the Baltic authorities to report on the current status of the country's industrial resources. The country's industrial resources are relatively poor. In addition to its rich forest resources, the Courland Autonomous State has basically no important industrial resources.

The situation in the autonomous state of Estonia is slightly better. In addition to the forests, oil shale, phosphate rock, and limestone are abundant and easily mined.

Among them, Estonian oil shale is very famous in later generations. During the former Soviet Union, the annual mining volume even exceeded 31 million tons! Historically, mining began in 1918, and the first oil shale retort plant was built in 1924.

But this is 1918 after all, not 1958. Although the retort method of refining petroleum from oil shale has long existed - industrial utilization began in the 19th century, even before the industrial utilization of petroleum - due to technical limitations, the refined oil extracted from oil shale The quality is not good and the cost is relatively high.

Therefore, Estonia's oil shale was mainly used for power generation and heating until the 21st century, replacing low calorific value coal. Of course, a small amount was also used to produce phenolic chemicals. Historically, in 1940, Estonia's shale oil production reached 174,000 tons, which was mainly used to produce chemical products (because of its high phenol content).

In addition, Estonia is also very rich in reserves of phosphate rock and limestone. The former is the main raw material for phosphorus chemical industry, the latter can produce cement, and oil shale can also be used as a fuel for cement production.

In other words, as long as the Estonian Autonomous State is not lost, the United Baltic Principalities still have some conditions for industrialization. There is no shortage of electricity - oil shale can be used to generate electricity; phenol chemical industry and phosphorus chemical industry can be developed. Wood-related industries can be developed - producing furniture, pencils, aircraft casings, etc. A lot of cement can also be produced. There are also 7 to 8 million Germans with very good qualities, and many Belarusian intellectuals and capitalists have also fled there - they will bring manpower and some capital.

Moreover, the transportation there is very convenient. It is close to the Baltic Sea and has four major ports: Windava, Liepaja, Tallinn and Riga. Among them, Windava, Liepaja and Tallinn are all ice-free ports. In addition, the United Baltic Principalities also have railways connecting Soviet Russia, Poland and East Prussia.

"Except for the United Principality of the Baltic States," Hersman finished introducing the United Principality of the Baltic States and then turned the conversation to other countries. "European countries that are friendly to us, such as Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands, can all be destinations for us to transfer our military production capabilities. Especially Sweden, which has rich iron ore resources and a very good foundation for its military industry and has long-term Neutrality national policy. I think Krupp can transfer an important military industry department to Sweden."

Gustav Krupp nodded: "In fact, we are already considering moving some factories to the Netherlands and Sweden."

The Netherlands and Sweden have historically taken over part of the military production capacity transferred from Germany, and Krupp actually began research in this area long before its defeat.

"Just adding a United Baltic Principality?" Big Beta seemed a little disappointed, "Gustav, I think we can send someone to investigate first."

Hersman shook his head: "No, ma'am, moving some factories to the Baltics, Sweden and the Netherlands is just part of exporting industrialization."

If it were just for this matter, a meeting of the Industrial Promotion Committee would be enough. Hersmann and Karl Haushofer would not have to go to Krupp's house to ask for advice.

"One part?" Big Beta asked, "What's the other part?"

“It is to export complete sets of industrial technology and equipment to improve a country’s industrialization level, or to turn an agricultural country that is lagging behind the times into an industrial country with a minimum industrialization system, or to make a country that has initially achieved industrialization progress into a relatively advanced and developed country. Industrial country. This is true export industrialization!”

"What?" Gustav and Big Beta were stunned at the same time. Big Beta frowned and said, "Lieutenant Colonel, then which country do you want to export complete sets of industrialization to?"

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