Ironworks Upper Danube

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ironworks Oberdonau were part of the annexation of Austria from 1938 to 1941 newly erected steel and armaments large company "cottage Linz Empire Werke AG for ore mining and ironworks Hermann Goering" and thus a major division of the parent company , Hermann Goering Works (RHG) in Linz, Upper Austria . The ironworks were responsible for producing armor steel . During the Second World War , the ironworks site became the most important armored steel supplier for tank construction in the German Reich from 1933 to 1945, possibly all of Europe. After the war, the ironworks were initially merged with the nationalized company VÖEST (United Austrian Iron and Steel Works), and later (1995) in the Voestalpine and Siemens VAI companies .

history

The Reichswerke company logo, used by Salzgitter AG until the 1980s
Hermann Göring enters a steam excavator during the groundbreaking ceremony on May 13, 1938

War preparation measures

From October 1936 operational Hermann Goering as agent for the second four-year plan , the rearmament of Germany and thus prepared the war. The four-year plan was of great bureaucratic importance, which is why a political apparatus with the rank of Supreme Reich Authority was formed around it. It was planned that the German Reich should make itself largely independent of raw material imports. Shortly before, Göring had presented his organization to the public for the first time. He commanded them from the Prussian State Ministry in Berlin . Due to the new political structure, traditional industries in the Linz region, such as consumer goods and food production, have been neglected in favor of the capital goods industry . Trade and service industries also flagged.

Linz location

The “Anschluss” of Austria in 1938 meant access to the large iron ore deposits of the Erzberg in the Eisenerzer Alps of Upper Styria . The Erzberg is still the largest mineral deposit (Fe [CO3]) in Europe. The iron content fluctuations are between 22% and 40% ( greywacke zone ).

In addition to the iron ore deposits, there were other reasons for establishing a steelworks in the Linz area. The infrastructure of coal mines in Silesia and Bohemia was easily accessible. There was enough lime as an aggregate for steel production in the Upper Austrian Northern Limestone Alps . The area around Linz also offered itself due to its convenient location on the Danube and the Western Railway .

"Upper Danube Iron Works"

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 13, 1938. The first blast furnace went into operation on October 15, 1941. 12 blast furnaces were originally planned. A separate steel mill was also planned for "Hermann Göring AG", which was not built. Instead, the "Eisenwerke Oberdonau" were built, which processed the molten pig iron directly into armor parts. These were assembled in the nearby Nibelungen factory in St. Valentin . The Nibelungenwerk (also: Ni-Werk ) was built on September 19, 1939 under the initial code name "OKH Spielwarenfabrik". The plant was the only one in German tank production that had a well-structured assembly line . So while the final assembly was being carried out in St. Valentin, the “Eisenwerk Oberdonau” produced the individual parts on the other side of the Danube harbor basin of the “Hütte Linz” (with the attached coking plant and an attached power station ).

The works of this company consisted of a steelworks , a tempering shop (responsible for supply and trade), a foundry , a rolling mill and drop forging . There was also a large administration building and two bunkers .

In 1941 about 1400 people were employed in the association of the "Eisenwerke Oberdonau", the "nitrogen works Ostmark" ( IG Farben ), the aluminum works Ranshofen (later Austria Metall ) and the "Zellwolle Lenzing AG" (today Lenzing AG ). In 1944 there were already 14,100 workers.

Use of forced labor

Puch high-rise Graz-Thondorf

During the war, thousands of forced laborers were deployed in the "Hütte Linz" . Many were killed, including during the bombing raids. The same number of concentration camp prisoners were deployed. The concentration camps "Linz I" and "Linz III" were built to accommodate them . In the Linz I concentration camp, around 600 people were employed in processing blast furnace slag . Heavy bombing raids in July 1944 led to the prisoners being transferred to the Linz III concentration camp. The Linz III concentration camp was the largest concentration camp in Linz with around 5500 prisoners. Both camps are no longer preserved today.

The Upper Danube Economic Report from 1943 showed that over 42,000 people, more than half of all workers, came from Poland and the Soviet Union in the large-scale industry in Linz . The "Eisenwerke Oberdonau" continued production with thousands of concentration camp inmates from 1944 and was the production facility in the Linz area, which produced almost exclusively with forced labor. In the "Eisenwerke Oberdonau" the highest work pressure, the longest working hours and the highest proportion of foreigners prevailed.

Internal group activities

The Panzer IV program in Austria

The coking plant of the "Reichswerke Hermann Göring (RHG)" produced blast furnace coke from coal from the Ruhr . From this and from iron ore from Erzberg, crude steel was extracted for the production of stainless steel , raw parts and semi-finished products . This production step required molybdenum , which came from the BBU molybdenum mining. After the "annexation of Austria" to the German Reich, the BBU began to be integrated into the German economy . As a result, an extensive investment program, supported by "lost grants", cheap loans and integration into the "promotional bonus procedure", is being carried out. The "Eisenwerke Oberdonau" produced armored hulls, superstructures, "high-speed gearboxes SSG 77" and the crankshafts for the "HL-120 engine". Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG from Graz-Thondorf was involved in this until 1942. The Schoeller-Bleckmann-Werk Ternitz delivered gun barrel blanks to the Böhler Kapfenberg, tank production for installation and the steelworks Traisen (formerly Fischer), track chains Kgs 61/400/120 and drive wheels for final assembly in the Nibelungenwerk in St. Valentin.

The "Panther Program" (Panzerkampfwagen V) in Austria

In the Panther program, the iron works produced the tub, superstructure, tower and running wheel crank.

The “Jagdtiger” building in Austria

The production sequence here was the same as in the previous programs. The Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke (DEST), which was subordinate to the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler , was involved here. It was shot in at the Döllersheim / Allentsteig military training area .

The Jagdtiger

Parts produced

literature

  • Dietmar Petzina : Autarky Policy in the Third Reich. The National Socialist four-year plan (=  quarterly books for contemporary history . Volume 16 ). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1968 (also: The National Socialist Four-Year Plan of 1936. Dissertation, Business School, Mannheim 1965).
  • Wilhelm Treue : Documentation . Hitler's memorandum on the four-year plan 1936 (=  quarterly journals for contemporary history . No. 2 ). 1955, p. 184–210 ( ifz-muenchen.de [PDF; 5.0 MB ; accessed on September 22, 2012] 3rd year; In contrast to Michalka, among others, it contains Hitler's memorandum in full in full).
  • Anton Zischka : Science breaks monopolies . Goldmann, Leipzig / et al. 1936 (numerous issues, also in foreign languages; Nazi propaganda pamphlet for the four-year plan).
  • German history 1933–1945. Documents on domestic and foreign policy . In: Wolfgang Michalka (ed.): Fischer 50234 The time of National Socialism . Limited special edition edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-50234-9 .
  • Helmut Lackner: The Linz economy in the first half of the 20th century . In: Linzer Wirtschaftschronik . Vienna 1990, p. 170 ff .
  • Timothy Kirk: Nazism and the Working Class in Austria: Industrial Unrest and Political Dissent in the “National Community” . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge August 8, 2002, pp. 208 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reichstag protocols in 1936 / 1938.1. In: reichstagsprotocol.de. February 13, 1937, accessed May 24, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Dietrich Eichholtz : Four-year plan. In: Wolfgang Benz , Hermann Graml , Hermann Weiß (eds.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism . 5th, updated and expanded edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-34408-1 , p. 851 f.
  3. ^ Colloquium Johann Beckmann. Conference, “Luxury and Consumption”: A Historical Approach. P. 197 ff.
  4. ↑ Of the 6 blast furnaces completed by 1945, one was sold to Sweden after the war in 1947 and one was blown up in the 1980s. Of the 4 remaining furnaces, one is used as a spare parts store and 1–2 are still operated today by “VA Stahl” ( Voestalpine ).
  5. ^ Josef Moser: Upper Austria's Economy 1938 to 1945. P. 37 ff. ( Books.google.nl ).
  6. ^ Siegfried Haider : History of Upper Austria. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1987, p. 419 ( books.google.nl ( memento of the original from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / books.google.nl
  7. ↑ Oliver Rathkolb : Nazi Forced Labor: The Linz Location of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring AG Berlin, 1938–1945. Volume 1. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2001, p. 71 ff. ( Books.google.nl ).
  8. ↑ Economic report on the Reichsgau Oberdonau 1938–1943. Published by Oskar Hinterleitner, Linz 1943.
  9. ^ Economic report Upper Danube. Diary October 1942 – December 1943, cit. based on Josef Moser: Upper Austria's economy 1938–1945. Vienna 1995, p. 327.
  10. ^ National Archives, Washington DC, USA, World War II Records Division, Record Group 1040, T 83 Roll 77, Reports of Eisenwerke Oberdonau, Monthly Report September 1943, p. 7.
  11. ↑ Monthly report of the iron works of June 1943: National Archives, Washington DC, USA, World War II Records Division, Record Group 1040, T 83 Roll 77, Reports of the Eisenwerke Oberdonau, monthly report September 1943, p. 8.
  12. ^ Josef Moser: Upper Austria's Economy 1938 to 1945. P. 37 ( books.google.nl ).

Coordinates: 48 ° 16 ′ 42 ″  N , 14 ° 19 ′ 3 ″  E