Ruhr Coal in Nazi Germany

当国家社会主义者开始准备战争时，他们急于避免第一次世界大战期间所犯的错误，这主要影响了在英国海上封锁威胁下保障食品和战略原材料的供应。从一开始，他们就强调用国内替代品替代供应不足的战略原材料。尽管有第一次世界大战的经验，当煤炭成为战争经济的瓶颈时，煤炭作为许多替代品的来源材料的供应是毋庸置疑的。然而，早在战争开始之前，就已经很明显，没有足够的煤炭供应得到保证。除了强迫劳动的主题领域外，历史研究对“第三帝国”的煤矿开采历史不太感兴趣。鲁尔区几乎所有的矿坑都属于大型重工业企业，对于这些企业的历史来说，煤矿部门的重要性并不大。一方面，煤矿属于鲁尔煤炭辛迪加，另一方面，从第一次世界大战开始，国家对德国的采矿业产生了异常强大的影响。因此，企业的矿业部门在很大程度上存在着他律性。因此，该项目的主要问题是- -硬煤对战争和自给自足的重要性- -鲁尔矿区的管理在部队管理领域的影响范围，煤炭集团和国家，——所有参与者的决定背后的逻辑，——卡特尔的私营部门监管与国家准备战争的努力之间的相互作用，——国家试图在战争（或缺乏这种尝试）的情况下保障充足的煤炭供应的手段。由于鲁尔煤炭辛迪加对德国煤炭的生产和分配具有突出的重要性，因此该项目将其目标视为一个工业部门的历史，该工业部门的历史有条不紊地符合商业历史方法。在审查中有四个不同的层面：鲁尔煤炭作为德国军备和自给自足政策的一部分，辛迪加作为私营部门监管机构的作用，经济部和四年计划办公室作为公共部门监管机构的作用，以及卡特尔成员及其母公司的不同利益。考虑到问题的各个方面，并且由于主要来源研究的数量，申请了两个研究项目。项目的第一部分侧重于辛迪加、矿业公司和公共当局之间的复杂关系，项目的第二部分涉及扩大煤炭转换和建立新的燃煤替代材料工厂。

When the national socialists started their war preparation they were eager to avoid the mistakes done during World War I. Primarily, this affected the safeguard of the supply of food and strategic raw material under the threat of a British sea blockade. From early on they emphasized the substitution of not sufficiently available strategic raw materials by domestic surrogates. Despite the experience of World War I, when coal had been a bottleneck of the war economy, the supply of coal as source material for many substitutes war not questioned. However, already before the War it became clear that a sufficient coal supply was not guaranteed. Historical research was, with the exception of the subject area of forced labour, not very much interested in the history of coal mining in the ‘Third Reich’. Almost all Ruhr pits belonged to the big heavy industry concerns, for the history of which their coal mining departments were of minor importance. On the one hand the mines were pegged in the Ruhr Coal Syndicate and on the other hand the state had from World War I on an unusually strong influence on the mining industry in Germany. Therefore, the concerns’ mining departments were to a large extent heteronomous. The major issues of the project therefore are- the importance of hard coal for warfare and autarky, - the sphere of influence for the Ruhr mines’ management in the field of force between the concern management, the Coal Syndicate and the state,- the logic behind the decisions of all actors involved,- the interaction of the private sector regulation by the cartel and the efforts of the state’s war preparation,- the means by which the state attempted to safeguard a sufficient coal supply in case of war (or the lack of such attempts).As the Ruhr Coal Syndicate was of an outstanding importance for the production and distribution of coal in Germany, the project considers its target as the history of an industrial sector which is methodically in line with a business history approach. There are four different levels under examination: Ruhr coal as part of the German armaments and autarky policy, the role of the Syndicate as a private sector regulating authority, the role of the Economics Ministry and the Four Year Plan Office as public sector regulating authorities and the heterogeneous interests of the cartel members and their parent company respectively. To consider all sides of the question and because of the amount of primary source research two research projects are applied for. The first part project focusses on the complex relationship between the Syndicate, the mining companies and the public authorities and the second part project addresses the extension of coal conversion and the setting-up of new plants for coal based substitute material.