The Anadolu News Agency of Turkiye—which nation has held the diplomatic line for peace against threats by Gulf kingdoms to join the war against Iran—ran the story March 26 that VW’s Osnabrück assembly facility was being pledged for arms production for Israel, in an attempt to restore production and revenue. The reports “were met with alarm by local residents,” said the Turkish news agency. It quotes one resident who swore that he would absolutely never agree to such retooling; and another who forecast that Osnabrück jobs would not, in fact, be saved; rather, they would be filled by Rheinmetall employees instead, since the reported production for Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems involves a partnership with Rheinmetall. The project was claimed to save the Osnabrück plant from having to close, and thereby to save the jobs of 2,300 workers there.
The idea that lost manufacturing productivity can best be restored by “leveraging war contracts” has become widespread, in both American and in European policy: That idea echoes Nazi central bank head and Economics Minister Hjalmar Schacht, his Mefo bills and “military-economic miracle” in early and mid-1930s Germany.
