Was there any German organization that functioned like DARPA does in the US today? a central clearinghouse for medium and long term tech breakthroughs for national security concerns, not just military ones?
My alt-history project revolves around a guy who ends up overthrowing Hitler, but in the begin ing becomes pals/willing tool of Hitler because he knows WW2 is coming, but he thinks it’s gonna be Stalin doing C&C: Red Alert. So basically, he formally or informally creates a Darpa like organization. I was thinking Hitler making him head of the Waffenamt but this guy’s concerns and ideas are not just military equipment., he’s trying to prep Germany for a long arduous war in Russia because he spent eight or nine years fighting in Eastern Europe almost always against Russians, so he knows ALL the problems. And Hitler I think would appreciate both the intense anti-communism and understanding of strategic issues like war critical resources, railways, the Rasputina
I don’t think something like that existed early war, and the wiki article on DARPA doesn’t list any antecedents to the organization, and if there is none, I’ wondering if there was something in the culture of the political class that would have kept such a thing from occuring to them?