KZ Manager
| Industry | Video games |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1990 |
Area served | Austria, Germany |
| Products | Video games |
KZ Manager denotes a series of related resource management video games where the player takes on the role of a commandant overseeing a Nazi concentration camp. Depending on the edition, gameplay involves managing prisoners—including groups such as Jews, Turks, or Romani—alongside controlling supplies of poison gas, financial resources, equipment, and monitoring "public opinion" concerning the camp's efficiency. The German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons indexed the game, and in October 1990, the district court of Neu-Ulm ordered its confiscation due to violations of German Criminal Code Section 130 (Incitement of masses), effectively banning its distribution within Germany.
Gameplay
The player is tasked with sustaining camp operations by strategically allocating resources while ensuring "public opinion" or comparable indicators remain within acceptable limits. In one iteration, public approval rises when prisoners are executed using Zyklon B, an action that generates expenses covered through forced labor performed by inmates. A shortage of executions diminishes public satisfaction, whereas having too few working prisoners leads to deficits in resources and eventual closure of the camp, causing the player to lose. Prisoners must be "acquired" through purchase, and managing the disposal of deceased inmates—referred to as "Müllberg" ("garbage mountain")—also requires financial outlay.
This gameplay emphasizes careful timing and balancing costs, revenues, actions, and production targets, all framed within a highly contentious subject matter.
History
A 1991 report by The New York Times identified KZ Manager as part of a group of roughly 140 games featuring similar themes. Surveys conducted in Austria revealed that 39 percent of students in one city were aware of such games, with 22 percent having encountered them directly. The abbreviation "KZ" stands for Konzentrationslager, the German term for concentration camp.
Versions
Throughout the 1990s, several editions of the game were distributed across Austria and Germany. These included early adaptations for the C64, DOS in both text and graphical modes, as well as a Windows version called KZ Manager Millennium. A 1991 article also mentioned an Amiga version that offered enhanced gameplay mechanics and utilized 256-color graphics, distinguishing it from the original C64 and DOS versions.