Katowice AG for mining and ironworks

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The Kattowitzer AG for mining and ironworks was an Upper Silesian coal and steel company .

history

Beginnings until 1922

The company "Kattowitzer AG für Bergbau und Eisenhüttenbetrieb" (abbreviation KAG) was founded on June 11, 1889. As a contribution from Count Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler , it took over coal mines, ironworks, iron ore mining, land and authorizations, as well as 348 Kuxe of the Mysłowice mine from the manor owner von Löbbecke. The company operated the coal mines Florentine , Ferdinand , Mysłowice , Neu Przemba , Carlssegen, Leopoldina and Jakob. In order to put the AG on a broader basis with regard to hard coal mining, it took over half of the Preußengrube in 1906 and the remaining shares in 1912. The Hubertus and Marthahütte were added to the society.

Since the supply of iron ore through the mining in the area of ​​the city of Tarnowitz was insufficient, three ore mines were acquired in Hungary in 1900.

The twenties

At the end of the First World War , not only was Poland restored as an independent state , but large parts of Upper Silesia were also being ceded to this new state. That is why numerous Silesian entrepreneurs such as Count Schaffgotsch, Georg von Giesche Erben and the Tiele-Winckler family were interested in either selling their property or converting it into legal forms that would protect them from being expropriated by the new Polish state. For example, B. 1921 the Charlottenhütte, which was 100% owned by Friedrich Flick , 53% of the share capital of the Bismarckhütte in Chorzów and transferred these shares immediately to the three holding companies "Metafina", "Nedehand" and "Commerce", which in the Netherlands had their seat. Friedrich Flick's commitment in Upper Silesia continued in the following years.

Due to the division of Upper Silesia in 1922, the situation arose for many coal and steel companies that part of their properties was in West Silesia, another part in East Upper Silesia. Often the coal mines and smelting works of the same company were separated from each other by the new German-Polish border.

In this situation, Friedrich Flick seized the opportunity to expand his involvement in Upper Silesia. He turned his attention to the Kattowitzer AG, whose possessions, with the exception of the Prussian mine, were entirely in Polish Upper Silesia. Through contacts with the Tiele-Winckler family, he and his negotiators succeeded in acquiring a larger block of shares in the KAG in autumn 1921. Although the Prussian mine in the west had already been spun off from the KAG and transferred to an independent AG based in Berlin, Flick became the de facto owner there too, because the mine had been sold to the Oberschlesische Eisenindustrie AG (Obereisen) and he himself had also financially committed to this company.

In the years of hyperinflation and the subsequent consolidation, there were numerous shifts in the holdings in the Upper Silesian mining companies. In the meantime, reducing his shares in Bismarckhütte and Kattowitz-AG, Friedrich Flick controlled 80% of the Kattowitz capital through Charlottenhütte in 1929.

Share for 680 złoty of the Katowice AG for mining and ironworks from June 1929

In 1926, the economic situation of Kattowitzer AG as well as of the United Königs- und Laurahütte (abbreviation in the stock market jargon "Königslaura") came to a head when the Polish government continued to burden the profitability of the companies through new tax laws. Friedrich Flick saw a solution in forming a community of interests between the two companies and thus being able to achieve synergy effects. Because the ownership structure of the Königslaura was in flux at that time and the Bohemian industrialists Weinmann and Bosel wanted to part with their shares, Flick founded Fiduciaire Industrielle SA in Basel in June 1925 with the support of the German Empire and Prussia. 80% of the KAG belonged to it and those parts of Königslaura that had previously been in the possession of the Bohemian industrialists.

When the earnings situation of the companies in Polish Upper Silesia had not improved sustainably by 1929, the Bismarckhütte and Kattowitzer AG merged to form the so-called "new" Kattowitzer AG and the creation of a community of interests between this new company and the Königslaura. The shares of these production companies were no longer with the Swiss Fiduciaire, but with an American holding company called "Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation".

IG Katowitz and the end

In November 1935, due to the utterly desperate economic situation of IG Kattowitz-Königslaura, negotiations between Germany and Poland about the termination of Germany's economic involvement in the company mentioned. The negotiations on the German side led by Alfred Rhode were concluded in July 1936. “The German owners and their holding companies sold the shares in KAG and Königslaura to a Polish state company for a total price of 80 million zł.” Both companies were liquidated.

Although it is noticeable that with the Prussian, Ferdinand and Myslowitzgrube, three important mines of the "old" KAG fell into the hands of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring at the beginning of the Second World War , this is hardly likely with the relations between the German Reich and the West German industrialists. Presumably the efficiency of the pits and the fact that they didn’t have to consider previous owners such as the heirs Schaffgotsch, Ballestrem and Giesche were decisive.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The following presentation is almost exclusively limited to the development of the company named in the title. It does not do justice to the diverse developments and relationships that characterized the entire Upper Silesian coal and steel industry in the twenties of the last century.
  2. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Axel Decroll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Published by the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 , p. 15.
  3. ^ A b Johannes Bähr, Axel Decroll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Published by the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 , p. 14.
  4. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Axel Decroll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Published by the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 , p. 18.
  5. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Axel Decroll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Published by the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 , p. 19 ff. As well as Norbert Frei, Ralf Ahrens, Jörg Osterloh, Tim Schanetzky : Flick: The group, the family, the power. Karl Blessing Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89667-400-5 . Without page numbers.
  6. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Axel Decroll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Published by the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 , p. 21.
  7. ↑ quoted from: Kim Christian Priemel: Flick - A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 , p. 313.
  8. ↑ Werner Röhr: On the role of heavy industry in annexed Polish Upper Silesia for the war economy in Germany from 1939 to 1949. In: Yearbook for economic history. University of Cologne, No. 4, 1991, p. 22 ff.

literature

  • Yearbook for the Upper Mining District Wroclaw. Phönix-Verlag, Kattowitz / Breslau / Berlin 1913. (Digitized version at http://www.dbc.wroc.pl/dlibra/publication?id=3349&tab=3 last accessed on May 5, 2015)
  • Johannes Bähr, Axel Decroll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Published by the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 .
  • Norbert Frei, Ralf Ahrens, Jörg Osterloh, Tim Schanetzky: Flick: The group, the family, the power. Karl Blessing Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89667-400-5 .
  • Jerzy Jaros: Słownik historyczny kopalń węgla na ziemiach polskich. Śląaki Instytut Naukowy, Katowice 1984.
  • Kim Christian Priemel: Flick - A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 .
  • Werner Röhr: On the role of heavy industry in annexed Polish Upper Silesia for the war economy in Germany from 1939 to 1949. In: Yearbook for economic history. University of Cologne, No. 4, 1991, pp. 9-58.

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