German engineer who was responsible
for building the first autobahns (German motorways) and, in World War
II, the Siegfried Line of defence along Germany's western frontier, and
the Atlantic Wall.
Todt's success as minister for road construction led Nazi dictator
Hitler
to put him in charge of completing the Siegfried Line 1938. His Organization Todt, formed for this task, continued constructing defences on the Atlantic
Coast using forced labour until 1944. He was made minister for arms and
munitions 1940. In 1942, alarmed at the attrition of equipment on the
Eastern Front, he advised Hitler to end the war with the USSR. He was
killed in an air crash on the way back from this meeting. |