This volume investigates how the German state organized its domestic administration, economy, and manpower resources to sustain its war effort during the initial years of the Second World War. The authors, a team of distinguished military historians associated with the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, utilize extensive primary source documentation from German archives to analyze the structural transformation of the Third Reich. They argue that the mobilization of the German sphere of power was a complex, often contradictory process that balanced ideological goals with the pragmatic requirements of total war.

Historians and military scholars regard this series as the definitive, comprehensive account of the German war effort. Readers frequently note the academic density and meticulous detail of the prose, which serves as a foundational reference for serious students of twentieth-century history.