A Wehrwirtschaftsführer was, during the time of Nazi Germany (1933–1945), an executive of a company or of a large factory. Wehrwirtschaftsführer were appointed, starting in 1935, by the Wehrwirtschafts und Rüstungsamt being a part of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), that was pushing the build-up of arms for the Wehrmacht. Appointments aimed to bind the Wehrwirtschaftsführer to the Wehrmacht and to give them a quasi-military status.
Albert Speer (right) congratulates Wehrwirtschaftsführer Edmund Geilenberg (left) on the bestowal of Ritterkreuz des Kriegsverdienstkreuzes (May 1944)
Willy Messerschmitt (1958)
Dr. Ernst Heinkel was a German aircraft designer, manufacturer, Wehrwirtschaftsführer in Nazi Germany, and member of the Nazi party. His company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke produced the Heinkel He 178, the world's first turbojet-powered aircraft, and the Heinkel He 176, the first rocket aircraft.
Ernst Heinkel
Ernst Heinkel (right) with Siegfried Günter.
Heinkel He 111P dropping bombs over Poland, September 1939