Reichswerke Hermann Göring

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Company logo of the Reichswerke, used by Salzgitter AG until the 1980s and used by Salzgitter Maschinenbau AG to this day

The Reichswerke Hermann Göring , along with IG Farben and Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, was the largest group in the National Socialist German Reich . The designation "Reichswerke Hermann Göring" is a simplistic abbreviation that can designate both the entire group and individual companies in this group. The first Reichswerke company was the 1,937 later in Salzgitter founded Reich Werke AG for ore mining and ironworks "Hermann Goering" . Later, for example, there was also the Reichswerke AG for arms and mechanical engineering "Hermann Göring" and the Reichswerke AG for inland shipping "Hermann Göring" . From 1941 the AG Reichswerke "Hermann Göring" was the head of the group .

history

It was known as early as 1919 that iron ores near Salzgitter not only occur close to the day, but also up to a depth of 1000 meters in the area. Max Paschke and his assistant Eugen Peetz from the Bergakademie Clausthal provided the prerequisites for the large-scale utilization of these silicic acid-containing iron ores by means of a blast furnace process developed in 1934 with which it was possible to melt the acidic iron ore into Thomas iron . The first ironworks to use this method was built in Corby , England . Paul Pleiger traveled to England on behalf of the Reich government , visited the plant and gave Hermann Göring a positive report . After exploration by 396 deep boreholes, the occurrence near Salzgitter was estimated at around 3 billion tons of iron ore with a minimum content of 23 percent. As part of the four-year plan for war preparation, the National Socialist Reich government decided to build a plant with 32 blast furnaces in the Salzgitter area.

founding

One aim of the war preparation policy was to reduce the foreign dependency for raw materials to a minimum. This not only affected gasoline and rubber , but also iron and steel in particular. From April 1937 Hermann Göring, Paul Pleiger and Hermann Alexander Brassert planned to found the Reichswerke AG to exploit low-quality iron ores . This was intended to "secure the requirements of the war economy, which offered only inadequate profit opportunities for private capital ." This stock corporation , based in Berlin , was founded on July 15, 1937 with a capital investment of 5 million Reichsmarks initially to mine the iron-poor ores stored in Germany . The state took a ninety percent stake in the shares. In June 1941 the headquarters were relocated from Berlin to Salzgitter.

At the head of the stock corporation was Goering, who initially appointed Paul Pleiger as chairman of the board . On the first supervisory board after its establishment were Paul Körner (State Secretary and Deputy Goering for the four-year plan), Dietrich Klagges (Prime Minister of the Free State of Braunschweig), Kurt Lange (Head of Finance in the Raw Materials Office), Arthur Nasse (Ministerial Director in the Reich Ministry of Economics), Hellmut Röhnert (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rheinmetall-Borsig ), Wilhelm Voss (chairman of the board from 1939 to 1941) and Wilhelm Keppler (head of the economic organization in the NSDAP and chairman of the supervisory board of Braunkohle Petrol AG (BRABAG) ). Göring's power was enormous, because every appointment or dismissal of the board of directors and the supervisory board as well as the adoption of the rules of procedure required his personal approval.

The mining of the iron ore was unprofitable, but was considered necessary within the self-sufficiency efforts of the four-year plan for arms production. During the production of 1 ton of pig iron, 1.25 tons of slag were produced during "acid" smelting. Since refractory materials, such as firebricks , are absolutely necessary in steel production and the fireclay industry at that time could not meet a higher demand, it was essential for the achievement of the four-year plan that the capacities of the so-called refractory industry were multiplied in advance. For this purpose, Buchtal AG, ceramic companies of the Reichswerke "Hermann Göring" were founded in Schwarzenfeld in November 1937, of which the Reichswerke owned 52 percent. The agreed annual production is 50,000 tons of refractory materials. During the construction of the production facilities, Paul Pleiger and State Councilor Wilhelm Meinberg were personally on site in order to get an idea of ​​the construction progress together with the " operations manager " of the Buchtal-Werke Gottfried Cremer .

The Hermann-Göring-Werke were a state company, because ninety percent of the ordinary shares were held by the Reich, represented by the Reich Ministry of Economics . For the classic Ruhr industrialists, this group was an economic competitor, which they fought against. An exception to this was Friedrich Flick , who supplied the Reichswerke with hard coal and received a written confirmation from the National Socialists that he preferred the so-called " Aryanization ". On October 21, 1937, a “peace treaty”, as the corporations themselves called it, was finally reached when Paul Pleiger, Peter Klöckner and Friedrich Flick met at Karl Kimmich (board member of Deutsche Bank AG ) .

International expansion

Hermann Göring enters a steam excavator during the groundbreaking ceremony on May 13, 1938 in Linz

In March 1938, after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, the Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft was taken over, whereupon the Reichswerke AG for ore mining and ironworks "Hermann Göring" Linz was founded on May 4, 1938 as a subsidiary of the Göringwerke. The founding capital of 5 million Reichsmarks from 1937, which was no longer sufficient, was then increased to 400 million Reichsmarks in April 1938. This created the prerequisite for integrating further companies abroad. In Austria, these were Eisenwerke Oberdonau GmbH in Linz and the automobile, wagon and mechanical engineering factories .

After the so-called smashing of the rest of the Czech Republic in 1939, the Škoda works with the ASAP division (abbreviation for joint stock company for the automotive industry, today Škoda Auto ) were incorporated into the group, as was Československá zbrojovka Brno under the name Waffenwerke Brno . By the end of March 1939, the Reichswerke consisted of 84 companies u. a. with its own transport and shipping company. On July 7, 1939, the Holding Reichswerke AG "Hermann Göring" was founded . After the attack on Poland , all armaments factories in Poland were transferred in trust to the Reichswerke .

The next goal of the Hermann Göring Holding was its own coal base for expanded iron and steel production. For this purpose, among other things, the shares in the Aussiger Petscheks lignite mines in central Germany and northern Bohemia were aryanized . Their shares were exchanged with the Flick Group for the hard coal deposits of Harpener Bergbau AG . In Austria , the Donawitz coal deposit was added through the ownership of the Alpine Montangesellschaft . Sudetenländische Bergbau AG was founded in Brüx (then Reichsgau Sudetenland ), and Sudetenländische Treibstoffwerke AG , based in Oberleutensdorf, built a hydrogenation plant near Maltheuern north of Brüx (today Unipetrol RPA - refinery, petrochemicals, agrochemicals) to produce synthetic gasoline from the coal . In addition, the Upper Silesian coal deposits near Katowice were incorporated and the holdings in the Ruhr area at Bergbau AG Ewald-König Ludwig were increased.

After the campaign in the west , Paul Raabe , who had been a board member of the Reichswerke from 1940, was appointed general representative for the distribution of iron ore mining in Lorraine and Luxembourg to the responsible military commanders in France and Belgium, where the Reichswerke are the largest and most efficient coal and steel works in Hagendingen and Belgium Hayingen secured. After the division of the works among the German steel companies, Paul Raabe was the only one who retained the disposal of the iron ore deposits there for the Reichswerke.

After the attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, when the Ukraine was conquered, the ammunition production facilities in the Donets Basin were to be transferred to the Reichswerke. Edmund Geilenberg , the managing director of Stahlwerke Braunschweig GmbH, which was owned by the Reichswerke, was responsible for the so-called Ivan program of the Army High Command , which had the task of immediately restarting munitions factories in Ukraine. For this purpose, the Dnjepr Stahl GmbH was founded together with the Flick Group in January 1943 (50/50 participation). This happened, but shortly afterwards the Red Army recaptured the area.

After 1942

In 1942 the group was restructured and the most profitable subsidiaries were re- privatized . The company was to be completely re-privatized after the war.

On August 15, 1944, the Reichswerke owned 260 companies with a nominal capital of 2.8 billion Reichsmarks. The Reichswerke had become the largest and most financially strong company in the Reich.

In April 1945 the Allied troops liberated around 40,000 prisoners of war , concentration camp prisoners, forced laborers and other foreign workers who at that time made up around forty percent of the total workforce of the Reichswerke. After the war began, the Reichswerke deployed prisoners of war and deportees from the occupied territories as well as concentration camp prisoners. At the peak of its business activity, the group employed over 600,000 workers, including over fifty percent as slave laborers from 1943 onwards.

Example Salzgitter / Braunschweig

The situation of the employees of the Reichswerke has been best researched in the Salzgitter / Braunschweig area and exemplifies the conditions that applied to the Reichswerke as a whole. The newly founded Reichswerke were established in a rural area with a low workforce.

The Jammertal cemetery near Lebenstedt is one of the central memorial sites in Salzgitter today. Around 3,000 victims of German National Socialism were buried there.

Forced labor

In the pre-war period and in the first phase of the war up to 1941, industrial development for armaments targets was accelerated. From 1942 onwards, goals of rationalization and the expansion of armaments production predominated. The first recruitment campaigns for German workers in the Reich were quite successful because the Reichswerke paid higher wages or could offer opportunities for advancement. From 1938 onwards, more foreign workers were recruited in order to promote the further development of the plants. First, foreigners were recruited from the allied and neutral countries Italy and Romania . Subsequently, workers from occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia came as forced labor. In the next phase, workers were recruited from the occupied Netherlands , Belgium and France or prisoners of war were used. By the end of 1941, 4,650 prisoners of war from Western European countries were working in eight camps of the Reichswerke Hallendorf (camp with the numbers 8 and 10), Bruchmachtersen (camp 17), Heerte (camp 35), Gebhardshagen (camp 4), Salzgitter-Ohlendorf , Engelnstedt , Bad Reason and in the company's own utilities. From June 1942, Dutch judicial prisoners who were housed in Wolfenbüttel prison were used. In addition, civilian workers from the Soviet Union ( Eastern workers ) were forced to recruit , in September 1943 5,800 (including 1,700 women) and in May 1944 9,800 (including 2,300 women). At the beginning of 1942, the Salzgitter-Drütte (camp 32), Reppner (camp 24), Beinum (camp 13) and Heiningen (camp 16) camps housed 2,060 Soviet prisoners of war.

Concentration camp inmates

The SS was built specifically for the kingdom of plants in the Braunschweig / Salzgitter three concentration camps as external commands / satellite camp of Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg: the concentration camp Salzgitter Drütte, the concentration camp Salzgitter Watenstedt and the concentration camp Salzgitter Bad.

The Salzgitter-Drütte concentration camp was built on October 13, 1942 by 250 concentration camp prisoners in the storage rooms under Hochstrasse. The number of concentration camp prisoners rose to over 2,700 men by mid-1944, only to increase to 3,150 in September 1944. It was numerically the largest satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp.

In the Salzgitter-Watenstedt concentration camp , up to around 2,000 concentration camp prisoners were housed in the immediate vicinity of the village of Leinde near Salzgitter-Watenstedt , who had to work in the factory of Stahlwerke Braunschweig GmbH . According to estimates, 20 to 30 prisoners died every day under the deliberately induced inhuman conditions.

The KZ Salzgitter-Bad was in September 1944 by the SS and the Hermann Goering Works in Salzgitter-Bad built. Around 500 women were housed in a former “civil workers' camp” operated by the “Bergbau- und Hüttenbedarf AG”.

All three camps were evacuated on April 7, 1945 before the approaching Allied soldiers.

Labor education camp

In 1940 the Gestapo Braunschweig set up the Hallendorf labor education camp near Salzgitter-Watenstedt, also called Camp 21, on the grounds of the Reichswerke , which not only served to deter and suppress the population, but also to discipline foreign forced laborers (especially the Poles). In 1942 this men's camp was expanded to include a women's camp in the immediate vicinity. An estimated 26,000 to 28,000 men and 7,000 women were harassed, forced to work, and housed, tortured and punished in inhumane conditions in this camp. Up to 1,000 people murdered in these labor education camps are known by name.

Location overview

Locations of the group with the most important works in 1944 were among others (the Reichswerke AG for ore mining and ironworks Salzgitter were outsourced, the so-called Reichswerke AG for mining and smelting operations Montanblock and the Reichswerke AG Linz ):

Reichswerke AG for ore mining and ironworks Salzgitter
(Headquarters)
Montanblock Reichswerke AG for mining and metallurgical operations

Governing bodies

The group managed:

After 1945

After the Second World War, from 1945 to 1951, the British occupying forces demilitarized and dismantled the Hermann Göring works, which the workers opposed. The Hermann-Göring-Werke became part of Salzgitter AG , which was owned by the Federal Republic of Germany until the end of the 1980s and was then privatized through sale to Preussag AG .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karsten Watsack: Verkehrsbetriebe Peine-Salzgitter. From the beginning to the present . Publishing house Dipl.-Ing. Karsten Watsack, Ilsede 2003, ISBN 978-3-935944-01-4 , p. 81.
  2. ↑ Heinz-J. Bontrup / Norbert Zdrowomyslaw, The German Armaments Industry (see literature), p. 110 f.
  3. ^ Hans Mottek, Walter Becker, Alfred Schröter: Economic History of Germany , Volume III. 2., unchanged. Edition. German Verl. D. Sciences, 1959, p. 127, OCLC 630708791
  4. ↑ Gerd Wysocki: Work for the War . P. 27.
  5. ↑ Karsten Watsack: Verkehrsbetriebe Peine-Salzgitter . P. 81.
  6. ↑ Gottfried Cremer: Buchtal-Chronik , (without location) 1982, p. 23. There is also a picture of Pleiger, Meinberg and Cremer from this visit. P. 19.
  7. ↑ Gerd Wysocki: Work for the War . P. 27 f.
  8. ↑ Loan from STW AG from 1942 ( Memento of the original dated January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.militaria321.com
  9. ↑ Gerd Wysocki: Work for the War . P. 28.
  10. ↑ Johannes Bähr et al .: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. P. 462. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 .
  11. ↑ Johannes Bähr et al .: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. P. 826.
  12. ↑ Gerd Wysocki: Work for the War . P. 28 f.
  13. ↑ Gerd Wysocki: Arbeit für den Krieg , p. 119.
  14. ↑ Gerd Wysocki: Work for the War. P. 132.
  15. ↑ Hallendorf Labor Education Camp ( Memento from September 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Gerd Wysocki: Work for the War . P. 31.

Coordinates: 52 ° 9 ′ 3.7 ″  N , 10 ° 24 ′ 11.5 ″  E