Neubaufahrzeug: A Weapon of Propaganda

In the mid-1920s, Germany quietly abandoned the Versailles restrictions and began covertly rebuilding its armored forces. In 1933, the army tasked Rheinmetall, whose Grosstraktor was the only 1920s design with any combat value, with developing a new heavy tank. The brief called for a vehicle of about 20 t with three turrets, armed with 75-mm and 37-mm guns plus multiple machine guns. The paperwork labeled the program Panzerkampfwagen Neubaufahrzeug — literally “new-construction fighting vehicle”. The name stuck and was later shortened to Nb.Fz.