Metal donation by the German people

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Collections of raw materials and meltdowns of metal objects in the First and Second World Wars were referred to as metal donations by the German people .

Since Germany has always imported certain raw materials, in times of war the foreign raw materials that were no longer supplied due to broken trading contacts or a lack of foreign exchange had to be procured domestically. The main focus was on non-ferrous metals such as copper , brass , tin , zinc , etc. as important raw materials for the armaments industry (e.g. for the manufacture of bullet casings) and iron .

Even precious metals like gold and silver and jewels were received in order paper money freely on the world market to procure essential war materials.

First World War

Delivery of bells in Rostock in 1917
Steel bell in front of the St. Urban Church in Borsfleth , inscription in Low German :
" GERMANY NOT WEER DE OLN KLOCKEN TOD "
Rest illegible
Result of the calculation of the compensation for the tin pipes of the organ in the parish church of Schwerdorff in the amount of 803.60 marks (6.30 marks per kilo plus 35 marks for the expansion). After the expansion, the pipes were stored in the elementary school and fortunately fell into oblivion, so that they could be reinstalled after the end of the war.

Under the motto gold I gave for iron the patriotically founded collection of precious metals on a voluntary basis during the First World War (not only in the German Reich ). If it was initially about jewelry , the sale of which was symbolically compensated for by an iron ring with the inscription “I gave gold for iron” , from 1916 there was an appeal to hand in historical gold coins and to exchange the gold coins for banknotes . The aim of these gold collections was primarily to obtain foreign currency to finance the war. From 1916 onwards, the population was forced to hand over household utensils made of copper , brass , bronze and tin in collections across the empire . An announcement was made about these expropriations and the delivery was ordered under threat of up to a year in prison or a fine of up to 10,000 Marks, which at that time corresponded to up to 2,857 kg of copper scrap. In return, the consignors received cast iron mortars or pans in many places. These were given a corresponding patriotic dedication.

By ordinance of January 5, 1917, inns and private households had to hand over all tin beer mugs or tin lids. Occurred mainly in southern Germany successively the seizure of copper Sudpfannen in the breweries .

On March 1, 1917, an official announcement was issued containing details of confiscation, inventory and expropriation, as well as the voluntary delivery of bronze bells . At the request of the Royal Ministry of War and under threat of punishment, all owners of bronze bells were expropriated - except for bells for signaling purposes for rail, tram and shipping traffic as well as fire services.

During the year 1917 began, all the bells of churches to capture and categorize according to their historical value. In particular bells of the 19th century were often delivered for melting, as well as numerous tin whistle from church organs . There was no compensation for the confiscated or actually melted down bells, not even after the end of the war. In some cases, the parishes succeeded in returning bells that had not yet been used.

After March 9, 1917, lightning protection systems, roof coverings, rain gutters and window cladding made of copper and with platinum components were, with a few exceptions, confiscated and expropriated. On May 15, 1917, the confiscation of stills and other distillery equipment made of copper and copper alloys was announced. On June 20, 1917, all furnishings made of copper and copper alloys mentioned in a list but not used for commercial trade or value creation were expropriated by the entry into force of an announcement by the War Resources Department (KRA). In the event of a voluntary submission by August 31, there was financial compensation and subsequently a reporting obligation was provided. This was followed by local extensions of the deadline, which continued to use the accompanying poster showing items to be confiscated, but extended the deadline to October 31 and advertised a surcharge of 1 mark (16-25%) for each kilogram purchased.

For example, on New Year's Day 1918, the Germans were called on to donate metal and valuables with these words:

“A new year in difficult times! Germany needs gold! Remember it! For gold the full gold value, for jewels the foreign price. Bring gold and jewels to the gold buying points! "

On March 26, 1918, all furniture made of aluminum, copper, brass, nickel and tin in the German Reich was expropriated and delivery was ordered. The basis was again an announcement by the War Resource Department.

Second World War

Press photo from 1940, original caption: Not 48 hours after the start of the metal donation, the metal objects donated by the population are piling up in mountains at the collection points [in Berlin].
Press photo from 1940, original caption: Following the Reichskriegerführer's appeal, the delegations of around 1000 Berlin war comrades gathered this afternoon on the Gendarmenmarkt to celebrate the common handing over of the old flag tips, each weighing 1 1/2 up to 2 1/2 kg have to make for the metal donation of the German people. Shown here is the unscrewing of the flag tips.
The bell cemetery in the Hamburg free port in 1947.

On March 27, 1940 , General Field Marshal Hermann Göring issued an appeal for the donation of the German people on the Fuehrer's birthday , the new metal donation, due to the upcoming Fuehrer's birthday . A corresponding decree to the Reich ministers had already been issued on February 23, 1940. As in the First World War, the aim was to procure essential raw materials. Metal objects, mainly made of brass, copper, bronze, iron and tin were accepted and brought down to be melted down in collection points set up across the empire. As a thank you, the donors received a certificate from the Führer .

Appeals were not only private individuals, but also municipalities , companies , associations and parishes . Clubs were expected to z. B. cups , flag tips and other metal objects of the club tradition, even - at least older - wind instruments from marching bands were not spared as the war continued. In many places, bronze grave angels, grave crosses and other metal grave decorations were used in cemeteries . In the further course of the war there was a systematic recording of metal objects in public space, i.e. of monuments, fountains , wrought iron fences and gates, bridge railings, building decorations, etc. With the outbreak of both world wars, all copper and nickel coins were taken out of circulation or replaced by coins of inferior alloy .

The high value attached to these metal collections by the state is shown by the fact that as early as March 29, 1940, two days after Göring's appeal, an ordinance for the protection of the metal collection of the German people was issued. a. means: "Anyone who enriches himself with collected metal or metal intended for collection by persons authorized to dispose of it, or otherwise withdraws such material from its use, damages the Greater German struggle for freedom and is therefore punished with death."

The highlight of the metal collections was the collection and dismantling of bronze church bells across the empire. They were brought to the so-called bell cemetery in Hamburg, where they were melted down and separated into their basic components, copper and tin. Of the around 90,000 bells confiscated in the German Empire and the occupied territories, around 15,000 had not yet melted down at the end of the war and were largely able to return to their original places after elaborate identification. There was no compensation for confiscated, melted down or lost bells, not even after the end of the war.

Almost without exception, the merged goods were melted down in the Reichswerke Hermann Göring joint stock company founded in 1937 for ore mining and smelting . It is no longer possible to determine how high the amount of raw materials obtained by remelting actually was. What is certain, however, is that these actions resulted in the destruction of artistic values ​​on an immeasurable scale.

According to its own information, Norddeutsche Affinerie AG melted a total of 70,000 tons of scrap metal from 2006 to the end of World War II, which it had received from the “Reich Office for Iron and Metals”. Of these, 10,900 tons were church bells. After the end of the war there were still 4,500 tons of broken bell; so a total of 15,400 tons of bell material.

In addition to the metal donation, there were numerous other calls for donations at the beginning of the war, e. B. to donate books for the Wehrmacht and to collect records for our submarines , furthermore collections of old materials of various kinds, collections of medicinal herbs, collections of textile fibers (e.g. fiber nettle ). The Hitler Youth were often asked to go from door to door and request the objects they wanted, which at the same time helped to generate social pressure, especially in apartment buildings, and not infrequently led to denunciations about existing and undelivered objects.

Example Frankfurt am Main

The equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I by Clemens Buscher

Here in 1940, on behalf of the city administration, among other things, the base figures of the Kaiser Wilhelm monument by Clemens Buscher in the Taunusanlage , the copper figures on the Schleswig-Holstein monument in front of the Paulskirche , the Sömmering monument and the Schützenbrunnen in front of the zoo (were built 1894) removed; The Frankfurter Volksblatt wrote about the dismantling of the latter : “The crushing work was quite difficult ... In a few hours nothing will remind you that the pompous Schützenbrunnen once stood here. At least he still did his job while dying and delivered a sizable chunk to the fatherland for the metal donation. ”In 1941, the city fathers even let the symbolic Bismarck monument from the Gallus complex and the equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I (see picture) wander into the smelting furnaces . The Heinrich Heine monument by the painter and sculptor Georg Kolbe (1877–1947) was saved ; After anti-Semitic vandalism, it had already been taken into custody by the Städel in 1933 and disguised as the “Spring Song” sculpture in the magazine.

Example Leipzig

The assembly point for the dismantled Leipzig monuments

After the call for metal donations by the German people to the Führer in 1940, all public bronze monuments in Leipzig were recorded. According to an expert opinion by the state monument conservationist and the state cultural administrator, the mayor Alfred Freyberg selected 30 pieces to be melted down.

These included works by the following artists: Adolf Lehnert (relief panels from the List-Harkort monument on the Schwanenteich , 1915), Josef Mágr (figure of the blacksmith on the Bismarck monument , 1897, Märchenbrunnen on Dittrichring, 1906), Mathieu Molitor (figure of the guardian behind the Bildermuseum, 1908, Pro Patria Group, 1916), Johannes Schilling ( Reformation monument in front of the Johanniskirche , 1883), Carl Seffner (Karl Heine monument, 1896), Werner Stein (Froschbrunnen am Rabensteinplatz , 1906), Max Alfred Brumme ( Maria auf dem Reh, 1939) and Max Unger (girl figure on the Villersbrunnen , 1903). Walter Zschorsch (1888–1965) designed the youth memorial . It is very likely that the statue and bronze parts of the first Mendelssohn memorial by Werner Stein, which had already been demolished in November 1936, were melted down in the course of the action.

The affected plants had been dismantled by September 1942. They were collected for removal at the municipal building yard on Dauthestrasse.

Overall balance of both world wars

According to current sources (as of March 2020), there are apparently only officially audited and officially accessible figures on church bells due to the state-ordered “metal donations” in both world wars.

Saxon regional church and Evangelical Lutheran regional church of the Free State of Saxony (from 1926)

In the Evangelical Lutheran Saxon regional church, 3,835 church bells were counted in 1,294 churches and chapels in 1917, of which 3,708 were cast from bronze . After the end of the First World War and after buying back 117 undestroyed bronze bells, there were only 1,898 bronze bells left, which corresponds to a loss rate of 48.8% of the pre-war inventory. After the end of the war, 334 bells had to be handed over to the bell caster as a "material deposit" (copper and tin were scarce and expensive) for the casting of new bells; they were melted down for casting new bronze bells.

During the Second World War, another 470 bronze bells from the period up to 1917 had to be delivered. In 2014 there were only 1,094 bronze church bells from the period up to 1917 in the area of ​​the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saxony ; this corresponds to a loss rate of almost 70.5% compared to the state of 1917.

If you add up the weight of the bronze of all lost bells and other objects made of this material from the property of the Evangelical Lutheran churches, the Roman Catholic churches, the Russian Orthodox churches and the profane (non-church) owners in Saxony that were given for war purposes had to be, results in a total weight of 1,090,059 kilograms (i.e. more than 1,090 tons) of bell bronze.

literature

Web links

Commons : Metal donation  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c David Waechtler: What the bells tell us . P. 25–38 in: Jutta Heller / Fanny Wuttke: The history of the parish church of St. Wenceslai in Wurzen. Publisher: Friends of the Wurzner Stadtkirche (chairman: Karl-Heinz Maischner), A4 format, 74 pages, Wurzen 1999. Noted on page 27 (The documentation is available in the archive of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Community of Wurzen.)
  2. ↑ a b Announcement No. M. 2001. 17. KRU regarding confiscation, reporting obligations, expropriation [...] lightning protection systems and amounts of copper used for roofing [...] gutters, waste pipes, window and cornice coverings [...]. From March 9, 1917. (Let. 1144a.), (479. 16. IIIa.), Bildarchivaustria.at at europeana.eu , accessed on September 18, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b Announcement No. Mc. 100/2. 17. KRU concerning seizure, repeated inventory and expropriation of stills [...] other distillery equipment [...]. From May 15, 1917. (let. 1168a.), Reichsdruckerei Berlin (727. 17. IIIa.), Bildarchivaustria.at at europeana.eu , accessed on September 18, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b c Announcement No. Mc. 1/3. 17. KRA, concerning the confiscation and voluntary delivery of furnishings made of copper and wrought copper alloys (brass, gunmetal, tombac, bronze). From June 20, 1917. , let. 1219a, Deputy General Command 13 Royal Württemberg Army Corps (publisher authorized to stamp for the Stuttgart region)
  5. ↑ The expropriation of the church bells . In: Mecklenburg. Journal of the Heimatbund Mecklenburg , vol. 12/1917, p. 75 ff.
  6. ↑ Louis Oppenheim: Aluminum Copper Brass Nickel Tin is enough in the country! Give it up - the army needs it! , Kunstanstalt Weylandt, Berlin 1917, digitalcollections.hoover.org , accessed on September 26, 2018.
  7. ↑ 1918! A new year [...] . Display. In: Vossische Zeitung . Ullstein & Co., January 1, 1918, OCLC 844054423 , ZDB -ID 2711236-6 , p. 5 , middle column ( staatsbibliothek-berlin.de [accessed on March 8, 2020] Fifth page is the first page of the first supplement to the Vossische Zeitung).
  8. ^ Poster for the collection of valuable metals in March 1918. State Office for Museum Care Baden-Württemberg (publisher), Stuttgart 2014, accessed on September 16, 2018.
  9. ↑ Louis Oppenheim : Furnishings made of aluminum, copper, brass, nickel are expropriated - hand them in! (Poster for the announcement M.8./1.18 KRA), Kunstanstalt Weylandt , Berlin 1918, dhm.de , accessed on September 16, 2018.
  10. ↑ 1939–1945 - Industry and Economy. on: dhm.de
  11. ↑ In this decree by Göring of February 23, 1940 it says: “In the last world war the collection of metal objects was initiated so late that the collection results could not be used to the necessary extent for the purposes of warfare. I therefore order that all objects made of copper, tin, nickel, lead and their alloys, which are owned by public authorities in administration and teaching buildings, libraries, state hospitals, recreation homes, etc. ), to be sorted out and (...) to be kept ready for free delivery to the offices to be named by the Reich Economics Minister. ” - Quoted from: David Waechtler: What the bells tell us . P. 25–38 in: Jutta Heller / Fanny Wuttke: The history of the parish church of St. Wenceslai in Wurzen. Publisher: Association for the preservation of the Wurzner Stadtkirche (chairman: Karl-Heinz Maischner), A4 format, 74 pages, Wurzen 1999. Quotation from page 33 (The documentation is available in the archive of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Community of Wurzen.)
  12. ^ Metal donation of the German people: Donation receipt for the metal donation on Adolf Hitler's birthday at: dhm.de
  13. ↑ Ordinance for the protection of the metal collection of the German people of March 29, 1940. In: Gerhard Werle: Justiz-Strafrecht und police crime fighting in the Third Reich. Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 1989, ISBN 3-11-011964-1 , p. 304.
  14. ↑ The delivered bells were classified in 4 categories: The newer A-bells manufactured around the middle of the 19th century were melted down immediately after delivery. They could only be returned in exceptional cases. Older bells were classified as B or C bells depending on their artistic value and, if they were still present after the end of the war, make up the main part of the bells that were later returned. D-bells of the oldest production or of special artistic value were often allowed to get stuck on the towers.
  15. ↑ a b Florian Meier: 1866–2006 - special issue for the 140th anniversary of Norddeutsche Affinerie AG . Ed .: Norddeutsche Affinerie. Self-published, Hamburg January 23, 2009, p. 5 ( Archive.Org ( Memento from April 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 2.6 MB ; accessed on March 8, 2020]).
  16. ↑ Chronik des Ostend - 1940. on: frankfurt.de
  17. ↑ Urban planning office (master builder), 6.X.42: Report on the acceptance of the monuments for the city history museum (city chronicle) . In: Claus Uhlrich: Disappeared - Fates of Leipzig monuments, memorial stones and sculptures. Verlagbuchhandlung Bachmann Leipzig 1994, pp. 88/89.
  18. ^ Photo of the assembly point with the dismantled monuments , Leipzig 1942, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  19. ↑ Thomas Lackmann: Honors in ore. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. October 15, 2008, accessed August 12, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Thomas Schinköth: The demolition of the Mendelssohn monument. In: The Leipzig Music Quarter. Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum Leipzig, 1997, ISBN 3-930433-18-4 , pp. 27-29.
  21. ↑ for example art objects of all kinds, statues, statues and monuments made of bronze
  22. ↑ pp. 120–124 in: Rainer Thümmel ; Roy Kress; Christian Schumann: When the bells went into the field ... - The destruction of Saxon bronze bells in the First World War . Ed .: Evangelical Lutheran State Office of Saxony. Evangelical Publishing House, Leipzig-Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-374-05203-5 .
  23. ↑ Content text , accessed on February 28, 2020.
  24. ↑ Table of contents , accessed on February 28, 2020.