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suit our normal business.” It is therefore a fact that the
plants set up for military necessities became so-called stand-by plants, which
the Wehrmacht paid for with its own funds and which belonged to the Reich. We
gave our technical experience as far as requested, and undertook to operate the
plants if this should become necessary. In this connection, I refer to the
prosecution documents; among others, one on the conference about the so-called
Montan plan and the Farben plan, which deals specifically with these questions.
I mean Prosecution Exhibit 353,¹ Document NI-5685, book 13, page 65 in the
German and page 53 in the English.
Q. The expression “Montan
Company” was just used. Would you please explain that, and explain the
Montan plan and Farben plan?
A. The Montan Company was a
G.m.b.H.,² set up by the military authorities and belonging to the
military. It had a number of matters to handle connected with rearmament. It
also had to arrange contracts for the construction and management of stand-by
plants with private industry. The then scientific head of the Montan industry,
Mr. Zeidelhack, was a witness here.³
The method of calculating the
services of private industry in managing such stand-by plants varied.
The Farben plan provided that Farben would manage the plants on its
own, and that, since the plants belonged to the state, a sum would be paid to
the state by Farben as rent, as it were, which would be written off with the
normal amortization of the plant equipment.
The Montan plan was
somewhat different. According to this plan, a special company was formed with
an Aufsichtsrat which included representatives of the Army Ordnance Office;
here the gross profit, calculated according to specific rules, was divided
between the private firms and the military treasury. That is the subject of the
exhibit which I mentioned, in which one of our lawyers at the time, Mr. Buhl,
discussed the advantages of the one plan and the other with the men of
Dynamit-Nobel.
Q. Was the number of stand-by plants very large?
A. The number of stand-by plants constructed in conjunction with Farben
proper was not very large. They included the four factories for acids which the
prosecution has again and again |
__________
¹ Reproduced below in
subsection K 4.
² For an explanation of the nature of a
“G.m.b.H”, a company with limited liability, see “Basic
Information,” reproduced above in section IV, “Organization of the I.
G. Farben Concern.”
³ The testimony of the Prosecution Witness,
Dr. Max Zeideihack, is recorded in the mimeographed transcript, 17 October
1947, pp. 2129-2149.
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