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“ready to start.” Farben had to give a guarantee of this
readiness to start operating at any time, in case of war, or in case of
mobilization, to WIFO, as well as to the Reich Ministry of Economics and the
OKW, and to furnish proof of this by so-called mobilization plans or
mobilization calendars for each plant. I presume that other firms which took
over stand-by plants for WIFO had to accept the same obligations.
6.
Such a mobilization plan for Doeberitz* already existed in 1936, when I came to
Vermittlungsstelle W, Berlin. I believe Dr. Ritter and Dr. Eckell worked it out
mainly, guided by their own principles and ideas. The plan showed, for example,
that a trained staff was held ready in Oppau for the Doeberitz shadow factory;
that the proposed plant manager, Dr. Christoph Beck, was informed of all
technical details of the plant; that he inspected the plant from time to time;
that he held in readiness and supervised engineers, section chiefs, foremen,
and other skilled workers who were listed by name, etc. It further showed that
certain quantities of raw materials, coal, and basic products had been stocked,
that the requisite tank cars were in readiness somewhere, and so on. Speaking
in a military sense, one had only to press a button, so to speak, in order to
start the operation of the shadow factory. To my recollection, this
mobilization plan for Doeberitz was in the form of a 10-20 page booklet when I
came to Vermittlungsstelle W, and apparently it was satisfactory proof for
WIFO, the Reich Ministry of Economics, and the OKW, of the readiness of the
plant.
7. In the case of the WIFO shadow factory at Embsen, a
mobilization plan was not satisfactory proof of operational readiness for the
authorities. This factory also was to produce concentrated nitric acid for the
explosives industry. It was quite isolated in the woods near Lueneberg, and the
OKW would not believe that the plant could start operations without any trouble
in case of war, the more so since BAMAG [Berlin-Anhaltische Maschinenbau A.G.],
and not Farben, had planned and constructed this factory, and Farben had only
been entrusted with the operational management.
Therefore, the
authorities demanded that Farben should take over, already in peacetime, the
operation of the Embsen shadow factory, which was done. Current production in
Embsen had to be kept at one-fifth of its capacity at least, although other
Farben plants producing nitric acid had to be shut down. As to the rest, the
growing requirements of the Wehrmacht was the reason why Reich-owned shadow
factories were put into operation already before the outbreak of war, since
existing facilities of private |
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* Doeberitz produced
aniline and diphenylamine both intermediate products for the stabilizer plant
at Farben's Wolfen plant.
1236 |
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