Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG
The Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (abbreviated GBAG , Gebag or Gelsenberg ) was a German mining company based in Gelsenkirchen or Essen .
history
1873-1926
The founding contract of GBAG is dated January 3, 1873 and had initial capital of 4,500,000 thaler . According to the founding minutes, members of the supervisory board were:
- Secret Commerce Councilor Adolph von Hansemann ,
- Merchant Walther Bauendahl,
- Commercial Councilor Jakob Landau,
- Attorney a. D. Adolph Salomonsohn ,
- Senator Gustav Godeffroy ,
- Kaufmann Friedrich Grillo and
- Syndicus of the Disconto-Gesellschaft Emil Russell .
The coal mines Rheinelbe and Alma located in the communities of Ückendorf , Leithe, Gelsenkirchen , Bulmke , Hüllen , Röhlinghausen were acquired for a purchase price of 4,240,000 Thaler .
The original objective of the company was to merge all Gelsenkirchen collieries working with foreign capital under German management. After the acquisition of the " Aachener Hütten-Aktien-Verein Rothe Erde " and the Schalker Gruben- und Hüttenverein AG in 1907, GBAG was the largest German mining company in terms of output. In 1916 she also acquired the Hüstener union .
General director ( chairman of the board ) was Emil Kirdorf from 1893 to 1926 . During this time, GBAG expanded with the support of August Thyssen and Hugo Stinnes through the acquisition of shipping companies , coal trading companies and pipe works to become a vertically integrated mining group. In 1920 it merged with the Stinnes company, German-Luxembourgish Mining and Hütten-AG, and the Bochumer Verein to form Rhein-Elbe-Union GmbH.
1926-1933
In 1926 GBAG transferred a large part of its assets to Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG and in return received shares in the newly created mining group. The core of the property brought in by GBAG was made up of 41 coal mines , which were managed together with the Thyssen and Phoenix mines until December 31, 1933 under the umbrella of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG by the mining department based in Essen . The Monopol colliery and the Grillo and Grimberg shafts, which GBAG continued to operate independently, were excluded from the merger . After 1926, GBAG gradually expanded its stake in the colliery (independent of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG) through various takeovers and a merger with Essener Steinkohlenbergwerke AG (1930). The GBAG group thus consisted of two pillars: on the one hand, the participation in Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, on the other hand, the self-operated mines.
As a result of the global economic crisis, Friedrich Flick , who, among other things, was significantly involved in GBAG, threatened to get into financial difficulties. In order to avert bankruptcy, Flick sold his GBAG share package to the Reich at an inflated price in 1932. In this way, the Reich government under Chancellor Heinrich Brüning wanted to avoid a collapse of the group of companies, which might have resulted in parts being taken over by international investors. This measure was condemned by leading industrialists from the Ruhr such as Paul Reusch and Friedrich Springorum as a step in the direction of “state socialism”, who thereupon stopped working with the industrialists of the United Stahlwerke AG in the Ruhrlade . The transaction went down in history as the Gelsenberg Affair .
1933-1945
After the Reich government got involved in GBAG, the complicated shareholding structure between GBAG and Vereinigte Stahlwerke was dissolved in the course of a merger of the two companies. In this way, GBAG and its holdings (including the self-operated mines) were completely absorbed by Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG. After the completion of the merger, a restructuring took place within the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG group: all of the coal mines that were necessary for the operation of the group were spun off into a legally independent subsidiary, which is still 100% owned by the group. This so-called "operating company", which was based in Essen, was again given the traditional name of Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG . The former GBAG boss Emil Kirdorf , first chairman of the supervisory board Albert Vögler (also chairman of the board of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG) and Gustav Knepper was recognized as the chairman of the board. The 'new' GBAG was divided into four operating groups, each with its own administration (as of 1936):
- Dortmund group with 8 active pits (conveying capacity 28,300 t / d): Erin , Westhausen , Hansa , Adolf von Hansemann , Zollern 1/3, Zollern 2/4, Minister Stein , Fürst Hardenberg . Head office in the administration building of the former Union, AG for mining, iron and steel industry
- Bochum group with 6 active pits (conveying capacity 19,400 t / d): Bruchstrasse , Dannenbaum , Prince Regent , Peaceful Neighbor , Castel Sant'Angelo , Carolinenglück
- Gelsenkirchen group with 6 pits (conveying capacity 37,500 t / d): Nordstern , Graf Moltke , Holland , Pluto , Zollverein 12, Bonifacius
- Hamborn group with 5 active pits (conveying capacity 27,200 t / d): Friedrich Thyssen 4/8, Westende , Beeckerwerth , Friedrich Thyssen 2/5, Lohberg .
Due to the intensive gas management between the coking plants and blast furnace operations that supply blast furnace gas , GBAG also had a 26 percent stake in Ruhrgas AG , which was founded in 1926 .
In 1940, a subsidiary, Gelsenberg Petrol, issued shares that were named as responsibilities and owners: "Production of fuels on a coal basis ." Founded on December 18, 1936; registered December 24, 1936. All shares with the founders: Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, Düsseldorf; Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG Essen, August-Thyssen-Hütte AG, Duisburg-Hamborn, Bochumer Verein für Gußstahlfabrikation AG, Bochum, Dortmund-Hoerder Hüttenverein -AG, Dortmund. This was after the war a successor, now with gasoline from petroleum, at the former VEBA , after E.ON .
Like many other large German companies, GBAG employed forced laborers during World War II . For this purpose, the Gelsenberg camp was maintained as a satellite camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp on the premises of Gelsenberg Petrol AG .
After 1945
In the course of the unbundling of the coal and steel industry operated by the Allies after the Second World War, GBAG was created in 1953 as a pure financial holding company . Independent companies were formed from the individual groups. Some could not exist: Dortmunder Bergbau AG , Bochumer Bergbau AG , Hamborner Bergbau AG and Friedrich Thyssen-Bergbau AG , Rheinelbe Bergbau AG, etc.
In 1962 the company employed 66,000 people and achieved an annual turnover of 3 billion DM. In 1965 the turnover of the group fell to 2.8 billion DM and the number of employees to 54,100 employees. Parts of this property went later in the Thyssen Group , the RWE and in E.ON on. Finally the name was changed to Gelsenberg AG .
After Wilhelm Brandhoff , Friedrich Funcke became CEO of Gelsenberg AG in 1967 . When he moved to the supervisory board in 1969, Walter Cipa was his successor, who headed Gelsenberg until it was taken over by VEBA in 1975.
people
- CEO (incomplete)
- 1893–1926: Emil Kirdorf
- 1934–1942: Gustav Knepper
- 1943–1955: Otto Springorum
- 1955–1967: Wilhelm Brandhoff
- 1967–1969: Friedrich Funcke
- 1969–1975: Walter Cipa
- Chairman of the Supervisory Board (incomplete)
- 1896– ?: Adolph von Hansemann
- 1912–1930: Arthur Salomonsohn
- 1933– ?: Albert Vögler
- 1942– ?: Gustav Knepper
literature
- Alexander Donges: The United Steel Works AG under National Socialism. Group policy between market economy and state economy . (= Family - company - public: Thyssen in the 20th century , vol. 1). Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-76628-1 .
- Gebhardt, Gerhard: Ruhr mining. History, structure and interdependence of its societies and organizations, with the participation of the Ruhr Mining Societies , Verlag Glückauf, Essen 1957.
- Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks Aktiengesellschaft - 10 years of coal mining at Vereinigte Stahlwerke A.-G. 1926-1936 . Essen 1936.
Web links
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG in the 20th Century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b To celebrate the twenty-five year existence of the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-Actien-Gesellschaft zu Rheinelbe near Gelsenkirchen, Düsseldorf, Bagel, 1898, Münster online edition: Univ.- und Landesbibliothek, 2012, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn : de: hbz: 6: 1-29779
- ↑ Alfred Reckendrees: The "Stahltrust" project. The foundation of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG and its corporate development 1926–1933 / 34 . CH Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45819-X .
- ↑ Alfred Reckendrees, Kim Priemel: policy as a productive force? The "Gelsenberg Affair" and the Flick Group's crisis (1931/32) . In: Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook . tape 47 , no. 2 , January 2006, ISSN 2196-6842 , doi : 10.1524 / jbwg.2006.47.2.63 ( degruyter.com [accessed on 20 November 2018]).
- ↑ Alexander Donges: The United Steel Works AG in National Socialism. Group policy between market economy and state economy . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-76628-1 , p. 42-48 .
- ↑ Alexander Donges: The United Steel Works AG in National Socialism. Group policy between market economy and state economy . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-76628-1 , p. 74-77 .
- ^ Documentation about the Gelsenberg camp .
- ↑ Documentation on the inventory of the Dortmunder Bergbau AG archive.nrw
- ↑ Documentation on the inventory of Bochumer Bergbau AG archive.nrw
- ↑ Documentation on the inventory of Hamborner Bergbau AG archive.nrw