List of German companies by employees in 1938

This is a list of the largest companies of Nazi Germany by employees in 1938.

Contents

Companies by employees

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 Employees of Successor 2011
1. Deutsche Reichsbahn 703,546 Railway 226,000
2. Deutsche Reichspost 397,890 Postal administration 421,270
3. I.G. Farbenindustrie 218,000 Chemicals >227,640 (BASF, Bayer, Celanese, etc.)
4. Vereinigte Stahlwerke 197,000 Mining and steel 177,000
5. Siemens (Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckert) 165,975 Electrical engineering 430,000
6. Friedrich Krupp 123,408 Mining and steel 177,000
7. Gutehoffnungshütte 75,781 Mining and steel
8. Vereinigte Elektrizitäts- und Bergwerks Aktiengesellschaft 72,345 Mining and utilities 85,000 (E.On)
9. Friedrich Flick KG 71,408 Steel
10. Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft 65,000 Electrical engineering Defunct
11. Reichswerke Hermann Göring 63,000 Mining and steel 25,650 (Salzgitter AG)
12. Saargruben AG 48,448 Mining
13. Daimler-Benz 47,095 Vehicles 260,100
14. Junkers Flugzeug-und Motorenwerke 44,015 Aircraft 121,000 (EADS)
15. Klöckner-Werke 43,409 Steel and mechanical engineering 28,000
16. Mannesmannröhrenwerke 43,000 Steel 48,600
17. Metallgesellschaft 41,000 Metals 20,400 (GEA)
18. Otto Wolff-Konzern 33,000 Steel 177,000
19. Arbed 32,000 Steel 263,000
20. Salzdetfurth AG 31,131 Mining 15,250
21. Hoesch 30,993 Steel 177,000
22. Adam Opel 27,000 Vehicles 40,500
23. Schering 26,665 Pharmaceuticals 25,000
24. Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG 25,000 Metals, mining and utilities
25. Robert Bosch GmbH 23,233 Electrical engineering 290,000
26. Auto Union 22,673 Vehicles 59,400
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 70,600
31. Rudolph Karstadt 20,000 Retail 86,000
32. Deutsche Erdöl AG 20,000 Oil 1,300
33. Deutsche Werke Kiel 20,000 Shipbuilding 8,140 (TKMS)
34. Hugo Schneider AG 19,200 Arms and ammunition
35. Deutsche Reichsbank 18,931 Banking 14,800
36. Christian Dierig 18,834 Textiles
37. Zellstofffabrik Waldhof 18,402 Paper 10,000
38. Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke 18,297 Aircraft 121,000 (EADS)
39. Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk 17,754 Utilities 70,700
40. Deutsche Bank 17,462 Banking 101,700
41. Deutsche Continental-Gas-Gesellschaft 17,400 Utilities
42. Bayerische Motoren-Werke 16,968 Vehicles 95,400
43. Continental Gummi-Werke 16,606 Rubber 148,000

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Fiedler, Martin (1999). "Die 100 größten Unternehmen in Deutschland - nach der Zahl ihrer Beschäftigten - 1907, 1938, 1973 und 1995" (in German). Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte (Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck) 1: 32–66. 

References

External links