Heinrich Schlattmann

Heinrich Schlattmann (born January 6, 1884 in Dortmund-Eving ; † January 24, 1943 in Berlin-Nikolassee ) was a senior German civil servant at the time of National Socialism , who played a key role in replacing republican federalism in the field of state mining administration and to replace it with totalitarian centralism .

Live and act

Early years

Heinrich Schlattmann was the son of Evinger farmer Heinrich Carl Schlattmann and his wife Friederike. From 1894 to 1903 he attended the Real- and Oberrealschule in Dortmund until he graduated from high school and then went through training for the higher civil service in the Prussian mining administration. Between 1904 and 1907 he studied at the university and at the royal mining academy in Berlin . In 1912 he was appointed mountain assessor. Afterwards Schlattmann took a job in the private sector on and did military service in the First World War . In 1920 he returned to the public service of the Prussian mining administration, where he initially served as an unskilled worker at the Dortmund Oberbergamt . After a rapid rise (1921 Bergrat , 1925 Oberbergrat, 1929 Oberbergamtsdirektor) he was transferred as Mining Captain to the Oberbergamtsviertel Wroclaw .

Significant participation in the integration of the coal and steel sector in the NS policy of self-sufficiency

Although Schlattmann was not a member of the NSDAP , he was appointed chief miner and ministerial director in the Reich Ministry of Economics (RWM) in mid-1934 at the instigation of Hjalmar Schacht . In this function Schlattmann supported the integration and subordination of the previously independent Prussian Ministry of Economics and Labor to the newly formed Reich and Prussian Ministry of Economics. In February 1935 - after Prussia - the other German states also lost their mining powers to the RWM through a Reich law . “For the coal and steel sector within the economic bureaucracy, this meant the dissolution of republican federalism in favor of the implementation of totalitarian centralism as an essential element of the National Socialist ' seizure of power '. As the highest mining official, as well as chairman of the supervisory boards of numerous state mining companies, S [chlattmann] played a key role in the integration of the German mining industry into the National Socialist self-sufficiency and rearmament policy. "

The Schlattmann program of 1935: subsidy increases by order of the state

As a result of the global economic crisis , the German export industry has not been able to redeem sufficient foreign currency since the early 1930s to be able to import the raw materials necessary for production. The continuing shortage of raw materials and foreign exchange also hindered the NSDAP's plans for accelerated armament . Against this background, Schacht and Schlattmann urged the German steel industry to mine and smelt larger amounts of domestic iron ore. Because of the high production and smelting costs of the ores, which are extremely problematic from a chemical and physical point of view, this met with little approval. After lengthy negotiations, the Ruhr industry finally accepted the so-called Schlattmann program at the end of 1935 , which provided for additional extraction of 5.8 million t of iron ore with an iron content of 1.7 million t. Wilhelm Keppler , Hitler's economic advisor, however, demanded far higher increases in funding for reasons of armament. Schacht and Schlattmann strictly rejected this because they did not want to endanger the international competitiveness of the German export industry. Schacht informed the Reich Labor Ministry on November 11, 1935 that the German mining operations were to be set up in such a way “that in times of war they quickly enable a necessary large increase in production, but that they may not be developed too extensively in order to meet normal international requirements in times of war Exchange of goods not to have to suffer operational restrictions that would be connected with a layoff of workers and a waste of capital. "

Failure in the four-year plan of 1936

The conflict between self-sufficiency-based armament and global economic integration ended in the complete defeat of Schlattmann and Schacht. With the aim of making the German economy fit for war within four years, Adolf Hitler decided in August 1936 to embark on a radical course of self-sufficiency, which was reflected in the four-year plan announced a little later . Hermann Göring , who was commissioned to enforce it, founded the Office for German Raw Materials , which - disregarding the responsibilities of the RWM - enforced massive increases in production in the armaments and basic materials industry and, with the establishment of the state-owned Reichswerke Hermann Göring, the private metallurgical industry came under considerable pressure could put. As a result of the conflict of competencies between Göring's four-year plan authority and the RWM, which escalated in the course of 1937, Schacht and his chief miner resigned at the end of 1937. Most recently, Schlattmann was director and board member of the Charlottenburg waterworks in Berlin. His successor in office at RWM was Oskar Gabel on February 1, 1938 .

Fonts

• Picture book vom Steinfall , approx. 1930. (together with Hugo Scheulen)

literature

• Dietmar Petzina : Autarky Policy in the Third Reich. The National Socialist four-year plan . German publishing house, 1968.
• Matthias Riedel: Iron and coal for the Third Reich. Paul Pleiger's position in the Nazi economy . Musterschmidt Göttingen, 1973, ISBN 978-3-7881-1672-9 .
• Gerhard Mollin: Mining corporations and 'Third Reich' . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988, ISBN 3-525-35740-0 .
• Michael Farrenkopf, “Schlattmann, Heinrich”, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 23 (2007), pp. 28–29 [online version]; URL: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd143148613.html .
• Wolf-Ingo Seidelmann: "Making iron for the fighting army!" Doggererz AG - a contribution by the Otto Wolff Group and the Saarland steel industry to the National Socialist autarky and armaments policy on the Baar in Baden. UVK Verlag Konstanz and Munich, 2016, ISBN 978-3-86764-653-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biographical data from: Walter Serlo: Die Prussischen Bergassessoren . Essen, 1938, p. 438 . and Farrenkopf, Michael, “Schlattmann, Heinrich”, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 23 (2007), pp. 28–29 [online version]; URL: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd143148613.html .
2. ↑ Schacht had shortly before become Reich Minister of Economics and Acting Prussian Trade Minister in personal union
3. ↑ Reichsgesetzblatt 1935, Part I, p. 315. Quoted from: Wolf-Ingo Seidelmann: "Creating iron for the fighting army!" Doggererz AG - a contribution of the Otto Wolff Group and the Saarland steel industry to the National Socialist autarky and armaments policy on the Baden Baar. UVK Verlag Konstanz and Munich, 2016, ISBN 978-3-86764-653-6 , p. 32 .
4. ↑ Michael Farrenkopf, “Schlattmann, Heinrich”, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 23 (2007), pp. 28–29 [online version]; URL: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd143148613.html .
5. ↑ Wolf-Ingo Seidelmann: "Making iron for the fighting army!" P.  30-37 .
6. ^ Matthias Riedel: Iron and Coal for the Third Reich. Paul Pleiger's position in the Nazi economy . Musterschmidt Göttingen, 1973, ISBN 978-3-7881-1672-9 , pp. 100 ff .
7. ↑ Quoted from: Wolf-Ingo Seidel man: "iron provide for the fighting army!" S.  61 .
8. ↑ Dietmar Petzina: Autarky Policy in the Third Reich. The National Socialist four-year plan . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1968, p. 61 .
9. ^ Gerhard Mollin: Mining companies and 'Third Reich . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988, ISBN 3-525-35740-0 , pp. 44-46 u. 59 .