# Who was 'Dr. Roland,' German 'head of tank production' in  WW2

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-dr-roland-german-head-of-tank-production-in-ww2/812974>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 23, 2018, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-dr-roland-german-head-of-tank-production-in-ww2/812974 "2018-04-23T13:52:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-dr-roland-german-head-of-tank-production-in-ww2/812974/1 "2018-04-23T13:52:04Z")

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Another question from the 1976 documentary [Memory of Justice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Memory_of_Justice).

In one scene, the filmmaker and Albert Speer are watching home movie and Speer is identifying numerous people in the film. He points out a man identified only as ‘Dr. Roland, head of tank production,’ who, according to Speer, actually shot most of the film.

Haven’t been able to find a first name for ‘Dr. Roland.’

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**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-dr-roland-german-head-of-tank-production-in-ww2/812974/2 "2018-04-23T15:45:54Z")

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He was Dr. Walter Rohland. Speer mentions him several times in _Inside the Third Reich_. I don’t recall that he was specifically in charge of tank production, but he was an industrialist and ran much of the Ruhr valley production factories, so it makes sense.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-dr-roland-german-head-of-tank-production-in-ww2/812974/3 "2018-04-23T16:08:39Z")

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Thanks.

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-dr-roland-german-head-of-tank-production-in-ww2/812974/4 "2018-04-23T16:45:28Z")

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Brief Wikipedia article:

> **[Walter Rohland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rohland)**
>
> Walter Rohland (14 December 1898 – 26 February 1981) was a German industrial leader during World War II. In 1916, during World War I, Rohland joined the engineering corps as a teenage volunteer. Rohland worked was chief engineer for the company Bochumer Verein headed by Walter Borbet (1881–1942). Borbet's company had pioneered the introduction of low-cost gun steels in World War I. In the 1920s Bochumer Verein became one of the centers for the development of centrifugal casting, a revolutionar...