This is a list of the largest companies of Nazi Germany by employees in 1938.
This is a list of the largest companies of Nazi Germany by employees in 1938.
The list is based on Fiedler (1999a, 1999b), who compiled data from a variety of sources. Given the shortage of historical employment data some employment numbers are only estimates and some companies might be missing from this list. Employment numbers are including all subsidiaries as long as the parent company is the majority shareholder, that is, holds more than 50 percent of the stock. An exception is Telefunken, which is included in the list as it was a joint venture of Siemens and Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft which each company holding 50 percent of the shares of Telefunken. Employee numbers are not including those employed in foreign subsidiaries. The only three companies in 1938 with large foreign subsidiaries were Siemens with 11.2 percent of the workforce employed abroad, Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft with less than 20 percent and Mannesmann with 10 percent. In 1938 seven of the 100 largest German companies were subsidiaries of foreign companies, all of them included in the list. The seven foreign-controlled companies were the subsidiaries of Luxembourgish Arbed (Felten & Guilleaume, Eschweiler Bergwerksverein and Burbacher Hütte), American General Motors (Adam Opel), American International Telephone & Telegraph (Deutsche I.T.& T.-Gruppe), American Singer Corporation (Singer Nähmaschinen), French de Wendel group (de Wendelsche Berg-und Hüttenwerke), Belgian Solvay (Deutsche Solvay) and Dutch-British Royal Dutch Shell (Rhenania Ossag Mineralölwerke). [1]
| Rank | Company | Employees | Industry |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Deutsche Reichsbahn | 703,546 | Railway |
| 2. | Deutsche Reichspost | 397,890 | Postal administration |
| 3. | I.G. Farbenindustrie | 218,000 | Chemicals |
| 4. | Vereinigte Stahlwerke | 197,000 | Mining and steel |
| 5. | Siemens (Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckert) | 165,975 | Electrical engineering |
| 6. | Friedrich Krupp | 123,408 | Mining and steel |
| 7. | Gutehoffnungshütte | 75,781 | Mining and steel |
| 8. | Vereinigte Elektrizitäts- und Bergwerks Aktiengesellschaft | 72,345 | Mining and utilities |
| 9. | Friedrich Flick KG | 71,408 | Steel |
| 10. | Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft | 65,000 | Electrical engineering |
| 11. | Reichswerke Hermann Göring | 63,000 | Mining and steel |
| 12. | Saargruben AG | 48,448 | Mining |
| 13. | Daimler-Benz | 47,095 | Vehicles |
| 14. | Junkers Flugzeug-und Motorenwerke | 44,015 | Aircraft |
| 15. | Klöckner-Werke | 43,409 | Steel and mechanical engineering |
| 16. | Mannesmannröhrenwerke | 43,000 | Steel |
| 17. | Metallgesellschaft | 41,000 | Metals |
| 18. | Otto Wolff-Konzern | 33,000 | Steel |
| 19. | Arbed | 32,000 | Steel |
| 20. | Salzdetfurth AG | 31,131 | Mining |
| 21. | Hoesch | 30,993 | Steel |
| 22. | Adam Opel | 27,000 | Vehicles |
| 23. | Schering | 26,665 | Pharmaceuticals |
| 24. | Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG | 25,000 | Metals, mining and utilities |
| 25. | Robert Bosch GmbH | 23,233 | Electrical engineering |
| 26. | Auto Union | 22,673 | Vehicles |
| 27. | Deutsche I.T.& T.-Gruppe | 21,000 | Electrical engineering |
| 28. | Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG | 21,000 | Shipbuilding and aircraft |
| 29. | Philipp Holzmann | 20,800 | Construction |
| 30. | Hochtief | 20,425 | Construction |
| 31. | Rudolph Karstadt | 20,000 | Retail |
| 32. | Deutsche Erdöl AG | 20,000 | Oil |
| 33. | Deutsche Werke Kiel | 20,000 | Shipbuilding |
| 34. | Hugo Schneider AG | 19,200 | Arms and ammunition |
| 35. | Deutsche Reichsbank | 18,931 | Banking |
| 36. | Christian Dierig | 18,834 | Textiles |
| 37. | Zellstofffabrik Waldhof | 18,402 | Paper |
| 38. | Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke | 18,297 | Aircraft |
| 39. | Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk | 17,754 | Utilities |
| 40. | Deutsche Bank | 17,462 | Banking |
| 41. | Deutsche Continental-Gas-Gesellschaft | 17,400 | Utilities |
| 42. | Bayerische Motoren-Werke | 16,968 | Vehicles |
| 43. | Continental Gummi-Werke | 16,606 | Rubber |
I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. It was formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies: Agfa, BASF, Bayer, Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron, Hoechst, and Weiler-ter-Meer. It was seized by the Allies after World War II and split into its constituent companies; parts in East Germany were nationalized.
DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG was an international oil and gas company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. It was a subsidiary of L1 Energy. In 2018, DEA owned stakes in oil and gas licenses in various countries and operated natural gas underground storage facilities in Germany. DEA is a derivation from Deutsche Erdöl-Aktiengesellschaft, the original name of the company. On 1 May 2019, DEA merged with Wintershall to form Wintershall Dea.
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Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität in Berlin.
Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) . Prior to World War I, the company set up the first world-wide network of communications and was the first in the world to sell electronic televisions with cathode-ray tubes, in Germany in 1934.
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The Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG was a German industrial conglomerate producing coal, iron, and steel in the interbellum and during World War II.
LTS Lufttransport Süd AG, usually shortended to LTS and later branded as LTU Süd, was a German leisure airline headquartered and based in Munich, operating scheduled and charter flights to European and long-haul leisure destinations. It operated from May 1984 until it merged with its parent company, the larger LTU, in 1998.
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