Export Association for War Equipment

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The Export Community for War Equipment (AfK, also Ageka or AGK at the time) was a self-governing body of the German arms industry under the control of the Reichsgruppe Industrie , which, after official arms exports were resumed, acted as a cartel. As early as 1937, the German share of the global arms trade reached 15% again.

activity

The articles of association drafted on October 21, 1935 stipulated that the company should take care of the regulation of exports, the avoidance of “waste” of goods (price control), the joint use of existing sales structures and the handling of very large orders. The most important result of the AfK's efforts was a considerable reduction in competition between German companies and thus higher prices for their products.

After the provisions of the Versailles Treaty regarding military sovereignty had been declared revoked, the AfK issued the companies involved, which had mostly already moved arms in neutral countries through partners such as the Swedish Bofors or cover organizations in neutral countries . These certificates were formally checked by the Foreign Ministry and in the War Ministry by the " Reich Commissioner for the Supervision of Exports and Imports ."

From the early summer of 1935 onwards, Hermann Göring sought to secure the supply of raw materials for the Wehrmacht through personal influence, particularly on exports to Latin America and the Balkans . From November 1935 to July 1940 the industry officially closed deals valued at RM 1¼ billion . Initially, the government of the Chinese warlord Chiang Kai-shek was the most important customer with almost 57% of the order volume in the years 1935–1937. Weapons and ammunition had also been smuggled into this country before, such an attempt by the trading house Siemssen & Co. was exposed. After the political shift towards Japan, the Chinese market collapsed after the export ban on May 2, 1938. In 1936 a trade agreement was signed with Afghanistan on arms deliveries, which were settled in the clearing process. Until 1941, cotton, karakul skin and the like were obtained from there in exchange . Brazil became an important arms buyer after the fascist coup in 1937 . The 1938 payment agreement with Iran also led to arms deliveries, increasingly from 1940 onwards.

Until the summer of 1939 they delivered to Hungary, Turkey but also to Lithuania, France and z. B. Components such as submarine batteries also in the Soviet Union. Due to the prevailing foreign exchange shortage, the deals were settled as compensation transactions, so hardly any foreign exchange was generated. From the summer of 1939, delivery permits were limited to neutral countries in South America, Scandinavia and Bulgaria.

The office of the "Wehrmacht Intendant z. b. V. “at the OKW settled the goods delivered to friendly armies, and had the values ​​set by the AfK. At least one Tiger E-tank was brought to Bordeaux in October 1943 to be shipped to Japan by submarine. The purchase price of 645,000 RM was settled through the AfK.

Involved

At the top was the diplomat Ernst Trendelenburg , former ambassador of Germany to the League of Nations until the exit of the German Empire. Managing director from 1935 to 1941 was Dr. Friedrich Freiherr von Lupine (* 1895), who made a career in the Foreign Office after the war . One of the speakers was Burkhard Nadolny , and the general director of the Mannesmannröhren-Werke Wilhelm Zangen became head of the Reichsgruppe Industrie and AfK . The representative on the Iberian Peninsula was Hans Eltze , who was not only responsible for paying bribes in the run-up to the Francoist coup, but also became a confidante of the dictator Salazar after his relocation to Portugal in 1941 . For military equipment delivered during the Spanish Civil War, including via the ROWAK , bills totaling 481 million RM were never paid.

Škoda , Zeiss , AEG , Siemens delivered goods to China, and later Japan (even goods only indirectly serving military purposes) . Inevitably, one of the biggest profiteers was Friedrich Krupp AG - Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was on the AfK advisory board.

literature

  • Knoblich, Hans; Export cartels in Germany since 1880; Nuremberg 1960.
  • Wilhelmus, Wolfgang; The importance of the Swedish iron ore for the fascist war economy; Economic History Yearbook, 1973, No. 4th

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krupp held 32% of the shares.
  2. ↑ Reichstag speech of the Führer of May 21, 1935. Exclusion of the War Equipment Act (i. D. F. of 1927), replaced in September by initially secret new regulation, then published RGBl. I, 1935, p. 1337.
  3. ↑ Price of an aircraft, for example 100,000-250,000 RM. Volkmann, Hans Erich; Economy and expansion: basics of Nazi economic policy; P. 115.
  4. ↑ Removal of trade barriers in 1938. Above all, supplied chrome in exchange.
  5. ↑ Anonymous, unaccounted for post in an online forum for war games ( memento from December 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), March 21, 2012.
  6. ↑ The company denied the historian CM Leitz access to the relevant files in the company's archives, referring to the "independent" historians' commission. The report of the said commission overlooked AfK activities. [1]