Germany’s remarkable economic growth over the preceding half century had been based largely on its own plentiful energy source—coal. Whereas in the late 1930s coal provided just about half of the United States’ total energy, it supplied 90 percent of Germany’s energy—while oil accounted for only about 5 percent. But already in 1932, Hitler was planning for the future, and oil would be essential to his ambitions. He became Chancellor in January 1933 and then, over the next year and a half, seized complete power. He wasted no time in launching a motorcar campaign that he would hail as “a turning
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