Legion Speer was a

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

paramilitary motor transportation corps founded in 1942. The members of the Legion were non-German citizens, and as such could not belong to the Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK). The legion was disbanded in 1944, and its members absorbed into the Transportkorps Speer. It was named after

Albert Speer Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production, Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of W ...

Creation

Legion Speer was founded in 1942, as a corps of drivers and mechanics recruited in

occupied Europe German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

. Motor transportation for

Organisation Todt Organisation Todt (OT; ) was a Civil engineering, civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior member of the Nazi Party. The organisation was responsible ...

(OT) was organized by the NSKK, but non-Germans could not become members, as it was a sub-organization of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. Hence a special corps had to be created.

Personnel

The first members of the Legion were

White Russian emigrants White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no colorfulness, chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) diffuse reflection, ref ...

. The majority of its members were

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

s serving as Hiwis. They were only allowed to serve in Western Europe. The Legion was open to all citizens of occupied Europe; Belgians, Czech, Norwegians, and others. Command positions were reserved for Germans. Some Germans also served as drivers. The Legionaries took a personal oath of allegiance to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

.''Handbook of the Organisation Todt'', p. 78. A number of Norwegians were members of the Legion; some of them were drafted, but most of them had volunteered.

Organization

The Legion was a motor transportation corps, operating within the framework of the NSKK, in the service of the OT, the Ministry of Armament, the army, and the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

. The Legion had ''Ersatzabteilungen'' (

depots Depot may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Glacier (disambiguation) * Depot Island (disambiguation) * Depot Nunatak * Depot Peak Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in Chicago, United States * Office ...

) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

and

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

.Seidler 1984, p. 634. From 1943 the organization of the Legion corresponded with the organization of the OT:Lepage 2015, p. 121. * Legion Speer Italien,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

* Legion Speer Norwegen, Oslo * Legion Speer Reich, Berlin *Legion Speer Südost, Belgrade * Legion Speer West, Paris

Disbandment

The Legion was disbanded on September 12, 1944, and its members transferred to Transportkorps Speer.Thomas 1992, p. 35.

Ranks

References

Notes

Cited literature

* ''Handbook of the Organisation Todt'' (1945), London: MIRS. * Lepage, Jean Denis G. G. (2015). ''Hitler’s Armed Forces Auxiliaries.'' McFarland & Co. * 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 1992. {{Ranks, uniforms and insignia of Nazi Germany Organizations established in 1942 Military history of Germany Economy of Nazi Germany 1942 establishments in Germany