Was Stalingrad that critical a city to take in WWII or was it more a case of prestige?

 (My Answer on Quora).

There is no doubt that the City’s name placed a huge target on its back. The prestige of capture was immense especially after the Axis failure to capture Moscow in December 1941.

However Stalingrad did offer strategic importance. For one it would have given the Germans a chokehold on the Volga which did have supply line significance. In addition victory here would have allowed the 6th Army and the 4th Panzers to join up with the Caucasus Army to push towards the oil fields further south. The Wehrmacht’s campaign here had stalled by December 1942. It may have been re-energized.

Stalingrad success followed by a south linkage would have greatly benefited the German war effort providing them with necessary fuel for further drives elsewhere. It would also have interrupted Allied Lend lease supplies coming through Persia.

Defeat for the Red Army would likely have negatively impacted Soviet morale. They needed win to legitimately turn around fortunes on a longer term. The gains from the win at Moscow a year earlier did not materialize to the extent that Stalin expected them to do. They did after the real world victory at Stalingrad.