# war office

> Government agency of German Empire for World War I

**Wikidata**: [Q1479903](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1479903)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsamt)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/war-office-q1479903

## Summary
The war office, known in German as the *Kriegsamt*, was a government agency of the German Empire established during World War I to manage and coordinate the nation's war economy. Operating under the Prussian Ministry of War, it served as a central instrument of the Hindenburg Programme, Germany's sweeping effort to mobilize industrial and economic resources for total war.

## Key Facts
- **Official name:** Kriegsamt
- **Entity type:** government agency
- **Country:** German Empire
- **Parent organization:** Prussian Ministry of War
- **Classification:** subclass of war economy; facet of World War I and the Hindenburg Programme
- **Wikipedia title:** Kriegsamt
- **Wikipedia languages:** German (de), English (en), Korean (ko)
- **GND ID:** 65057-2
- **VIAF ID:** 130774102
- **Kalliope Verbund (GND) ID:** 65057-2
- **Google Knowledge Graph ID:** /g/121l0kw2
- **Sitelink count:** 3
- **Director/Manager — Wilhelm Groener:** November 1, 1916 to August 1917
- **Director/Manager — Heinrich Scheuch:** August 1917 to 1918
- **External description (German):** https://archivewk1.hypotheses.org/tag/kriegsaemter
- **Aliases:** Kriegsamtsnebenstelle, Kriegsamtstelle

## FAQs

### What was the organizational structure of the war office?
The Kriegsamt functioned as a government agency subordinate to the Prussian Ministry of War. It also maintained subsidiary branches, referred to as *Kriegsamtsnebenstelle* or *Kriegsamtstelle*, which handled regional or local implementation of economic directives.

### Who led the war office during World War I?
Wilhelm Groener directed the agency from its founding on November 1, 1916, until August 1917. Heinrich Scheuch then assumed leadership, serving from August 1917 until 1918.

### What was the Hindenburg Programme and how was the war office connected to it?
The Hindenburg Programme was the German Empire's ambitious plan to massively ramp up war production and reorganize the national economy for prolonged conflict. The Kriegsamt was a core facet of this initiative, responsible for administering the centralized war economy that the programme demanded.

## Why It Matters
The war office represented a pivotal shift in how modern states organize for total war. By embedding economic mobilization directly within the military bureaucracy under the Prussian Ministry of War, the German Empire recognized that industrial capacity, labor allocation, and resource distribution were as critical to victory as battlefield strategy. As the administrative backbone of the Hindenburg Programme, the Kriegsamt centralized control over production targets and raw materials in ways that foreshadowed the command economies of later 20th-century conflicts. Its creation demonstrated that sustained industrialized warfare required dedicated bureaucratic infrastructure, fundamentally changing the relationship between government and the economy during wartime.

## Notable For
- Serving as the German Empire's dedicated agency for administering the war economy during World War I
- Acting as a central implementation mechanism of the Hindenburg Programme, one of the most ambitious economic mobilization efforts of the war
- Operating under the direct authority of the Prussian Ministry of War, bridging military command and economic governance
- Having been led by Wilhelm Groener, who later became a prominent figure in German military and political history
- Maintaining a network of subsidiary offices (Kriegsamtsnebenstelle, Kriegsamtstelle) to coordinate war economy measures at regional levels

## Body

### Establishment and Purpose
The war office, or *Kriegsamt*, was a government agency of the German Empire tasked with managing the war economy during World War I. Classified as a subclass of war economy, it functioned as a facet of both World War I and the Hindenburg Programme — the large-scale effort to dramatically increase munitions and artillery production while reorganizing Germany's industrial base for sustained combat operations.

### Organizational Hierarchy
The Kriegsamt operated under the Prussian Ministry of War as its parent organization. This structural placement ensured direct coordination between military leadership and the agencies responsible for economic output. The war office extended its reach through subsidiary bodies known as *Kriegsamtsnebenstelle* and *Kriegsamtstelle*, indicating a distributed administrative network designed to implement centralized economic policies across different regions.

### Leadership
The agency was led by two directors during its operational period:

- **Wilhelm Groener** directed the war office from November 1, 1916, through August 1917. His tenure coincided with the launch of the Hindenburg Programme and the initial push to centralize war production under state control.
- **Heinrich Scheuch** succeeded Groener, serving from August 1917 until 1918, guiding the agency through the final year of the war.

### Identifiers and External References
The Kriegsamt is cataloged in multiple library and knowledge systems:
- **GND ID:** 65057-2
- **Kalliope Verbund (GND) ID:** 65057-2
- **VIAF ID:** 130774102
- **Google Knowledge Graph ID:** /g/121l0kw2

A German-language resource providing further detail on the war office and its branch offices is available at: https://archivewk1.hypotheses.org/tag/kriegsaemter.

### Wikipedia and Online Presence
The agency's Wikipedia article is titled "Kriegsamt" and is available in three languages: German, English, and Korean. The entry has a sitelink count of 3 across these language editions, reflecting a modest but multilingual documentation footprint.