Deutsche Werften in der Zwischenkriegszeit (1918-1939). T. 1, Von der Kriegsrüstung zur Friedenswirtschaft

Abstract

A boom in shipbuilding was expected after World War I due to the necessity of reconstructing the German trading fleet and the reparation payments, resulting in a rapid expansion of shipyard capacity after 1918 - a 50-percent increase in comparison to 1914. Determined to retain full employment in the shipbuilding industry and the supplier firms in the volatile political and economic situation after World War I, the Reich Naval Office, the Reich government, the shipowners, the heavy industry connected with the seagoing shipyards, shipbuilding entrepreneurs, workers and trade unions had no interest in a reduction in the number of German shipbuilding companies. Nor were the necessary modernization and rationalization measures called for by such bodies as the Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft implemented. The Reich Naval Office supported the preservation of the former warship-yards of Blohm & Voss, AG "Weser," Schichau, Germaniawerft and Stettiner Vulcan in order not to lose its knowhow in submarine construction and its technological edge in naval shipbuilding despite the demilitarization of the German shipyard industry called for by the Treaty of Versailles. After talks with the German naval high command, a secret construction office for submarines was founded in The Hague, Holland, by Germaniawerft, AG »Weser« and Stettiner Vulcan. German submarine construction specialists were also very active as consultants in Argentina, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Turkey, the USSR and Japan. The massive subsidies from the Reich government only strengthened the boom in shipbuilding and concealed the overcapacity and structural problems in German ship construction, which became very clear after the slowdown due to inflation at the end of 1923. The shipyard capacities had to be drastically reduced. The large number of layoffs resulted in economic and political turmoil. From 1923/24 onwards, after the reconstruction programme for the German shipping companies had expired and inflation had been brought to an end by the introduction of the 'Rentenmark' as a stable currency, there was a considerable drop in orders for ships. This necessarily led to a reduction of the shipbuilding capacity that had expanded so sharply after World War I and it plunged the German shipbuilding industry into a deep crisis that would last more than a decade. The global recession at the end of the 1920s accelerated this restructuring process and led to attempts at rationalization in the German ship industry by means of technological innovations, as well as to several mergers (Deschimag, Howaldtswerke, Deutsche Werft and Reiherstieg) and yard closures (Deutsche Werke in Rüstringen, Eiderwerft,Tecklenborg, Stettiner Vulcan, Nüscke, Klawitter, Frerichs, Henry Koch) with mass redundancies. The economic outlook for shipbuilding only improved from the mid 1930s onwards, when the efforts at rearmament and autarky by Nazi Germany - the first fleet-building programme for the navy, the expansion of fishing on the high seas, and the creation of a whaling fleet - brought the German shipyards renewed orders.