Imperial Coal Association
The Reichsvereinigung coal (also: Reichsvereinigung coal for mining and coal industry ; abbreviated: RVK ) was a steering association (= cartel-like large structure) of the German coal-processing industry during the Second World War . It was formed in the spring of 1941 under the supervision of and with the support of the Reich government and united all coal-producing industrial groups. The main tasks were to increase productivity, control distribution and transport, and coordinate and implement all government measures in the coal sector . Until 1945 the chairman of RV coal was Paul Pleiger , co-founder of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring , its managing director the former ministerial director Erich Flottmann .
Under the regime of RV coal, special shifts, price fixing, the use of foreign and forced laborers and private-sector disposal of coal deposits were introduced in the areas occupied by the German Wehrmacht (e.g. in Poland and Belgium ). Through its organizational work, the Reichsvereinigung secured profitability for the corporations on the one hand and the Nazi regime the coal supply needed for armaments production on the other.
The exploitation of people from the occupied countries and their possession were later indictments in the Nuremberg follow -up trial against those responsible for the economy of the German Reich ( Flick trial , 1947).
literature
- Liselotte Eckelberg, The Importance of Reich Associations in the Framework of Economic Control for the Commercial Economy , Diss. Univ. Hamburg 1944.
- Avraham Barkai : The National Socialist Economic System . Ideology, theory, politics. 1933 - 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt 1988, ISBN 3-596-24401-3
- Werner Bührer, Edgar Grande (ed.): Entrepreneur associations and the state in Germany. Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2000, ISBN 3-7890-6592-7
- Daniela Kahn: The control of the economy by law in National Socialist Germany. The example of the Reichsgruppe Industrie. Frankfurt a. M. 2006, ISBN 978-3-465-04012-5
- Hans Ch Seidel, Klaus Tenfelde (ed.): Forced labor in the mine. The work in the coal mining of the German Reich and the occupied territory in the First and Second World War. Klartext, Wuppertal, 2005, 638 pages. ISBN 3898613895
Web links
- Industry and Economy 1939-45 on the website of the German Historical Museum
- Werner Müller : Hitler's benefiting helpers. The SS delivered forced laborers to German mining companies, whom they were allowed to and should exploit to the point of death. The Basic Law draws a lesson from this: "Property obliges". In: The time . May 4, 2005.