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Volume VI · Page 601
| steel than you do. They produce four million tons." I disappointed him very much and his mood was spoiled for the whole day. | |
| * * * * * * * * * * | |
| DR. DIX: Well, Dr. Flick, will
you please describe the foundation of the Hermann Goering Works and the
attitude the industry took toward the plans of the government.
DEFENDANT FLICK: I would like to supplement the information I have given a while ago concerning the use of coal, and the requirements of coal of the Hermann Goering Works. For a steel mill which produces pig iron, steel, and other products, one needs for the blast furnaces, as I mentioned already, about one ton of coke; for the Hermann Goering Works one uses 1.3 to 1.4 tons of coke for a ton of pig iron. In order to clarify, I want only to say that brown coal is not used for the production of pig iron, and cannot be used. Pig iron can only be produced from soft coal. It is produced by soft coal and coke, and this is used for the production of pig iron. Brown coal can at best be used in the production of briquettes, but for the blast furnaces, which are the basis — they were the basis of the Hermann Goering Works — one could not use brown coal. The foundation of the Hermann Goering Works took place in the summer of 1937, and as I said already, it was quite a surprise for us so far as we had not thought that the whole problem would be solved with such an intensity and with such a power used by the State. In an abrupt announcement we were told that the foundation of the Hermann Goering Works was intended. Thereupon, at Berlin at the office of my company, a meeting was held which was attended by a large part of the representatives of the German steel industry. We were faced with the question whether we still could take a stand on that matter and how we could take that stand. We knew that the possibility for the industrialists to influence matters in this field was very limited in the Third Reich, if it existed at all. At this meeting, I declared that it was my belief that the government could not be swayed from its plan to smelt ores which were not rich in iron content — that is, inferior ores — and to produce iron from them. We had to face that fact and it would be best, for industry, to attempt at the last minute to take the smelting of these ores into their own hands in order to take the wind out of their sails. I said quite clearly, "Gentlemen, we simply cannot let these matters be as they are. I suggest that we take them into our own hands. We should use those ores to make believe, at least, that something has happened. We should put up a show. We should also build three blast furnaces." I was convinced, or at |
