Transportflotte Speer

Transportflotte Speer was a government owned waterways transportation company in Nazi Germany. At its creation it was tasked with the transportation of building material on the German inland waterways. During the war, it became subordinated to the Ministry of Armaments, and was given extensive coastal and inland transportation missions in occupied Europe, mainly in the service of Organisation Todt. The company was named after Albert Speer.

Transportflotte Speer

Company type	GmbH[1]
Industry	Shipping
Founded	1937
Defunct	1945
Fate	Liquidated by order of the Allied Powers
Headquarters	Berlin
Key people	Professor Dr. Hettlage, director Grosskapitän Erik Seyd, operations manager[1]
Number of employees	10,000

Creation

Transportflotte Speer was founded in 1937 with the task of transporting Swedish and Danish granite from the German coastal ports, to the major Nazi rebuilding projects in Berlin under Albert Speer, as inspector general of building and construction in the capital.^[2]

During the war

After the outbreak of the war, the Transportflotte Speer was initially used for transporting coal and other supplies to Berlin. During Operation Sea Lion, its operational headquarters were moved to Groningen in the Netherlands, in order to make better use of Dutch sailors and shipping. In 1942, the Transportflotte Speer was given the mission to supply the Organisation Todt activities in Norway, Denmark and Finland. Personnel strength now rose to about 10,000 sailors, mainly Norwegians who were trained in Sandefjord. Allied bombings of the German rail and road networks, made the inland waterways increasingly more important. In 1944, the Transportflotte Speer had a fleet of more than 2,000 vessels, with a combined deplacement of 500,000 ton dwt. The company serviced 31 sea and canal ports in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Russia, Roumania and Italy.^[2][3][4][5]

Norway

Transportflotte Speer was used for the transportation of building material and machinery for German military projects along the Norwegian coast. At the end of the war, the company had a fleet of more than 700 larger and smaller vessels in Norway, with an extensive administrative organization in many Norwegian ports.^[6][7]

Ranks

Insignia[8]	Ranks in the Transportflotte Speer	Comparative ranks in the Kriegsmarine
	Grosskapitän	Vizeadmiral
	Generalkapitän	Konteradmiral
	Kommodore	Kapitän zur See
	Stabskapitän	Fregattenkapitän
	Kapitän	Korvettenkapitän
	Hauptschiffsführer Einsatzleiter	Kapitänleutnant
	Oberschiffsführer Dienststellenleiter von grossere Dienststelle	Oberleutnant zur See
	Schiffsführer Dienststellenleiter	Leutnant zur See
	Hauptbootsmann Hauptverwaltungsführer Oberinspektor	Oberbootsmann
	Oberbootsmann Verwaltungsführer Inspektor	Bootsmann
	Bootsmann geh. Fourier	Obermaat
	Unterbootsmann Fourier Buchhalter	Maat
	Hauptmatrose	Obergefreiter
	Obermatrose	Gefreiter
	Vollmatrose	Matrose
	Matrose
Source:	[9][10]

References

Notes

1. "Generalbauinspektor für die Reichshauptstadt." European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
2. Military Intelligence Research Section 1945, vol. 1, p. 83.
3. Seidler 1984, p. 635.
4. Thomas 1992, pp. 5-7.
5. Lepage 2015, p. 122.
6. "Innledning til katalog for arkivet etter Organisation Todt Einsatzgruppe Wiking," p. 32. Riksarkivet. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
7. Bohn 2000, p. 367.
8. "Die Neuen Uniformen der Transportflotte Speer" (in German). Retrieved 25 April 2019.
9. Thomas 1992, p. 35.
10. Kurylev 2000, p. 487.

Cited literature

• Bohn, Robert (2000). Reichskommissariat Norwegen: »Nationalsozialistische Neuordnung« und Kriegswirtschaft. München.
• Kurylev, Oleg (2000). Третий рейх. 1933–1945. Полный атлас [Third Reich. 1933–1945 Complete atlas]. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Lepage, Jean Denis G. G. (2015). Hitler’s Armed Forces Auxiliaries. McFarland & Co.
• Military Intelligence Research Section (1945). Handbook of the Organisation Todt. London.
• Seidler, Franz W. (1984). "Das Nationalsozialistiche Kraftfahrkorps und die Organisation Todt im Zweitem Weltkrieg." Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 32(4): 625-636.
• Thomas, Nigel (1992). Wehrmacht Auxiliary Forces. London.
• Thomas, Nigel (1992). Wehrmacht auxiliary forces. Osprey. ISBN 978-1-78200-259-8. OCLC 1100847083.