In 1936, almost full employment was achieved in the German Reich as a result of the accelerated rearmament and intensified war preparations, although there was a shortage of skilled workers and metalworkers, particularly in the construction industry. In order not to jeopardize the war preparations, the National Socialists made use of the Reichsanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlung und Arbeitslosenversichung, the local employment offices subordinate to it and the state or Gau employment offices superior to these. This meant that traditional bureaucratic institutions in National Socialist Germany were largely responsible for the distribution of workers and later also forced laborers - albeit under different premises: Whereas in the early 1930s the employment offices were still responsible for placing the unemployed and helping with careers advice, after the National Socialists came to power they developed into an instrument of state-planned management of labor according to overriding political requirements.-__-0000-__-

For the construction of such a gigantic complex as the Volkswagen factory and the associated "City of the KdF Car near Fallersleben", the procurement of labor was a central issue - and it was to remain so until the end of the war. The newly created employment office was initially set up as a branch of the Helmstedt employment office and housed in the back room of a pub. Just a few weeks later, it moved to a barrack complex in the communal camp on Fallerslebener Straße, before being housed in a barrack on Schachtweg in 1940. And this was not to be the last move during the war years. Initially, it was assigned an administrative barrack on the square in front of the Cianetti Hall. In 1944, it again moved into two larger barracks on Clausewitzstraße, today's Kleiststraße, where it was also housed in the post-war period.-__-0001-__- In the meantime, on February 15, 1942, the branch office was upgraded to an independent employment office by decree of the responsible Reich Minister of Labor, which was given the master number 471.-__-0002-__-

Due to various decrees and ordinances from the years between 1933 and 1939, the employment offices were given extensive powers, as a result of which they were able to exercise almost dictatorial control over the workers. One important innovation was the introduction of the labor book in February 1935.

Workers were only allowed to be employed if they had a properly kept work book; the employment offices, in turn, could use this document to register the qualification and career of the worker and coordinate his or her deployment. White-collar and blue-collar workers were required to keep such a work book; it had to be deposited with the respective employer.-__-0000-__-.

Their importance within the German war economy increased over the years to such an extent that they were even compared to military passports by the State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Labor, Friedrich Syrup, in 1942, while he referred to the employment offices as "civilian military district commands".__-0000-__- The employment offices received further central authorization in February 1939. They were now permitted to oblige workers to serve and to restrict job changes for reasons of state policy.-__-0001-__- Under the Thuringian Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel, who was appointed General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment (GBA) in 1942, the labour administration underwent further changes. Employment contracts could now only be terminated with the approval of the relevant employment office. Sauckel was also authorized to organize the deployment of labour in the conquered and occupied territories and to recruit forced labourers.

As the President of the State Labour Office of Lower Saxony informed the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des deutschen Volkswagens m.b.H. in February 1939, the recruitment of workers on the construction sites of the Volkswagen factory and the city was only permitted "through the mediation of the Labour Office".-__-0002-__- With the beginning of the war and the successful integration of the Volkswagen factory into the armaments production of the Nazi state, the company increasingly relied on the use of foreign forced labourers. A former employee of the employment office of the "City of the KdF Car" reported on this in the post-war period: "When foreign workers were required, our office reported this to the Gau employment office. -From there we were informed how many workers had been registered by the 'recruiters' working in the occupied eastern territories and when and where the transport could be picked up with how many people."-__-0004-__- The employment office in the Volkswagen city had hired a "transport attendant" specifically to receive the eastern workers. The workers were first taken to reception barracks, then led in groups to the employment office, where they were registered: "They showed their recruitment certificate with personal details or were questioned by an interpreter. Some were unable to sign and made three crosses -__-0005-__-. It was usually Poles or Russians who arrived on the transport."

-__-0009-__- Karsten Linne, "Von der Arbeitsvermittlung zum 'Arbeitseinsatz'. Zum Wandel der Arbeitsverwaltung 1933-1945", in: Marc Buggeln/Michael Wildt (eds.), Arbeit im Nationalsozialismus. Munich 2014, pp. 53-70.
-__-0010-__- "Ten years of the Wolfsburg labor office. It began operations on February 28, 1942", in: Wolfsburger Nachrichten of February 27, 1952.
-__-0011-__- "Employment office with master number 471. Typical for the young city of Wolfsburg - still in barracks today", in: Wolfsburger Nachrichten of July 4, 1953. In March 1939, the National Socialists had declared the state employment offices to be Reich authorities, which were subordinate to the Reich Minister of Labor. See Ordinance on the Use of Labor of March 25, 1939, in: RGBl. I, p. 575.
-__-0012-__- For more details, see Stefanie Werner/Harald Degner/Mark Adamo, "Hitlers gläserne Arbeitskräfte. Das Arbeitsbuch als Quelle von Mikrodaten für die historische Arbeitsmarktforschung", in: Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, vol. 2 (2011), pp. 175-191.
-__-0013-__- Linne, Von der Arbeitsvermittlung zum 'Arbeitseinsatz' (as note 1), p. 58.
-__-0014-__- Decree on the securing of manpower requirements for tasks of particular importance to state policy of February 13, 1939, in: RGBl. I, p. 206.
-__-0015-__- Letter from the President of the State Labor Office of Lower Saxony regarding the deployment of labor in Fallersleben to the Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des deutschen Volkswagens m.b.H. dated February 14, 1938, reprinted in Klaus-Jörg Siegfried, Wolfsburg City History in Documents. Origin and development 1938-1945. Wolfsburg 1982, pp. 94-96.
-__-0016-__- Here and in the following StadtA WOB, S 20/41, Records of a former employee of the city's employment office of the KdF-Wagen, undated.
-__-0017-__- Hans Mommsen/Manfred Grieger, Das Volkswagenwerk und seine Arbeiter im Dritten Reich. Düsseldorf 1996, p. 43.
-__-0018-__- Manfred Grieger, "Stadt Wolfsburg", in: Frank Ehrhardt (ed.), Topographie der Erinnerung. Memorials to the victims of National Socialism in the Braunschweig region. Brunswick 2004, pp. 159-189, here p. 165.