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There was also a central committee within the working committee,
which survived the abolition of the latter. The Vorstand met, on the average,
every 6 weeks and was presided over by a chairman, who, in some respects, was
regarded as its executive head and in others merely as primus inter
pares.
In addition to their joint responsibilities, the members of
the Vorstand were assigned to positions of leadership in specific fields of
activity, roughly grouped under technical and commercial categories. We shall
very briefly call attention to these agencies.
The Technical
Committee (TEA) was composed of the technical members of the Vorstand and
the leading scientists and engineers of Farben. It dealt with questions of
research, development of processes, expansion and consolidation of plant
facilities, and credit requests for such purposes. Beneath it were 36
subcommittees in chemistry and 5 in engineering. The technical committee had a
central administrative office in Berlin, called the TEA-Buero, and the 5
engineering subcommittees were grouped together as a Technical Commission
(TEKO).
The Commercial Committee (KA), as distinguished from the
technical committee, concerned itself primarily with financial, accounting,
sales, purchasing, and economic political problems. The full committee
consisted of about 20 members, including, in addition to Vorstand members, the
heads of the Sales Combines and other administrative agencies.
Mixed
Committees. Coordination between the technical and commercial committees
was achieved through special groups that drew their personnel from both fields.
The more important of these were the Chemicals Committee, the Dyestuffs
Committee, and the Pharmaceuticals Main Conference.
The numerous Farben
plants were operated on the so-called leadership principle. A major unit was
usually under the personal supervision of an individual Vorstand member, though
in some instances one member was responsible for more than one unit, while in
others a division of responsibility prevailed within a plant, according to
production. Unity in policies of management was achieved by grouping the plants
geographically and also in accordance with the character of production.
The Works Combines constituted the basis for geographical
coordination of the Farben plants. The four original combines were the Upper
Rhine, the Main Valley, the Lower Rhine, and Central Germany. In 1929 a fifth,
called Works Combine Berlin, was added. The works combines coordinated such
matters as over-all administration, transportation, storage, et cetera, in
their respective areas.
The Sparten constituted a means of
coordinating Farben production activities on the basis of related products.
Thus, Sparte. I |
1087 |
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