Reichswerke Hermann Göring

Reichswerke Hermann Göring
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Name	Reichswerke Hermann Göring
Native name	Reichswerke Hermann Göring A.G.
Founded	1937
Defunct	1945 (dissolution and Allied control)
Industry	Steel, mining, heavy industry, metallurgy
Key people	Hermann Göring, Paul Pleiger, Fritz Sauckel
Headquarters	Salzgitter, Goslar, Germany
Products	Iron, steel, armaments-related metals, coke, ore processing

Reichswerke Hermann Göring was a large state-directed conglomerate established in 1937 to consolidate and expand German heavy industry under the patronage of Hermann Göring. Created during the Nazi Party era, it rapidly grew through expropriation, mergers, and state investment to control critical sectors such as iron and steel production, coal mining, and ore processing, becoming central to Nazi economic policy and wartime industrial mobilization. The enterprise became implicated in forced labor, asset seizure in occupied territories, and coordination with agencies like the Four Year Plan administration and the Reichswerke bureaucracy.

Background and Founding

The company was founded amid mobilization directives from the Four Year Plan overseen by Hermann Göring and economic planning by officials from the Nazi Party and the Reich Ministry of Economics under Hjalmar Schacht (early influence) and later Walther Funk. Its creation followed debates in the Reichstag and consultations with industrialists from firms such as Thyssen AG, Krupp, and Friedrich Flick. The formal incorporation responded to strategic vulnerabilities highlighted by events like the Spanish Civil War and anxieties over access to raw materials after the Treaty of Versailles and during international trade tensions involving the United Kingdom and France.

Organization and Management

Leadership integrated political and industrial figures including Paul Pleiger as an executive and liaison with the Reichswerke supervisory apparatus, while senior management maintained operational ties with conglomerates such as Hermannstahl and regional administrations in Goslar and Salzgitter. Corporate governance merged state control mechanisms typified by appointments from the Prussian State and coordination with the Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production led by Albert Speer later in the war. The board and executive structure used industrial committees resembling those in Reichswerke-style entities and worked closely with agencies like the Organisation Todt on construction and logistics.

Industrial Operations and Production

Operations encompassed steelworks, coke ovens, sintering plants, and mineral beneficiation facilities located across the Harz region, the Ruhr, and newly occupied territories such as the Sudetenland and Poland. Production targets aimed to supply firms including Krupp, Siemens-Schuckert, Daimler-Benz, and BMW with iron and steel feedstock for armaments, shipbuilding at yards associated with Blohm+Voss and Kaiserliche Werften, and repairables for the Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine. Technological aspects involved blast furnace expansion influenced by international trends from United States Steel Corporation practices and German metallurgical research institutes such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.

Economic Role and Nazi Policy Integration

The conglomerate functioned as an instrument of Nazi economic policy, linking resource control to rearmament programs like the Z Plan naval ambitions and the rearmament priorities set in the Four Year Plan. It operated within a framework of autarky advocated by figures including Hjalmar Schacht initially and later managers aligned with Walther Funk and Hermann Göring’s circle. The enterprise collaborated with state planning organs to secure ores from sources influenced by diplomatic moves such as the Anschluss and the Munich Agreement, integrating seized assets into centrally managed production quotas for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe.

Forced Labor, Seizure of Assets, and Human Rights Abuses

Reichswerke participated in the expropriation of Jewish, Polish, Czech, and other properties during occupations following operations like the Invasion of Poland (1939) and the Invasion of Czechoslovakia. It utilized forced labor supplied by institutions such as the Reich Labour Service and the network of concentration camps and forced labor camps administered by SS authorities, linking to the broader system of coerced workers overseen by officials like Fritz Sauckel. Victims included prisoners from Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and other camps, while dispossessions paralleled policies enacted after the Kristallnacht era and during deportation campaigns orchestrated by the RSHA.

Wartime Expansion and Military Contributions

During World War II, the conglomerate expanded into occupied-industrial zones in Alsace, Lorraine, Poland, and strategic Balkan areas following campaigns such as the Battle of France and the Invasion of Yugoslavia. Its facilities produced inputs for weapons systems manufactured by firms like Krupp AG, Heinkel, Messerschmitt, and Focke-Wulf, and supported construction projects overseen by Organisation Todt. Coordination with the Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production increased under Albert Speer, while Allied strategic bombing campaigns by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces targeted its installations, disrupting output and supply lines.

Postwar Dissolution and Legacy

After World War II, Allied occupation authorities and the Nuremberg Trials context led to dismantling, sequestration, or transfer of assets to successor entities within zones administered by the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and later the Federal Republic of Germany institutions. Executives faced inquiries during denazification processes administered by occupation tribunals and tribunals connected to Nuremberg Military Tribunals. The legacy includes debates in historiography involving scholars referencing archives from the Bundesarchiv, works by historians of German industry and ethics assessments in studies on corporate complicity with Nazism.

Category:Companies of Nazi Germany Category:Industrial history of Germany