List of German companies by employees in 1938
Encyclopedia
This is a list of the largest companies of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 by employees in 1938.

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
Telefunken
Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...

, which is included in the list as it was a joint venture of Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

 and Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau....

 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
Mannesmann
Mannesmann AG was a German corporation with headquarters in Düsseldorf. The company was founded in 1890 originally to produce seamless steel tubes. It was traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company had 130,860 employees worldwide and revenues of €23.27 billion.Over time, 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
Arbed
ARBED was a major Luxembourg-based steel and iron producing company. Created in 1911 after the merger of three steel producing companies, ARBED was a major actor in the economic history of the Grand-Duchy until it merged in 2002 with two other European steel companies to create Arcelor.- Origins ...

 (Felten & Guilleaume, Eschweiler Bergwerksverein and Burbacher Hütte), American General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 (Adam Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

), American International Telephone & Telegraph
ITT Corporation
ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...

 (Deutsche I.T.& T.-Gruppe), American Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation
Singer Corporation is a manufacturer of sewing machines, first established as I.M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer with New York lawyer Edward Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then The Singer Company in 1963. It is...

 (Singer Nähmaschinen), French de Wendel group (de Wendelsche Berg-und Hüttenwerke), Belgian Solvay
Solvay
Solvay may refer to* Solvay , an international chemicals and plastics company* the Solvay process* Ernest Solvay, its inventor* Solvay Conference* the Solvay Business School* Solvay, New York* Solvay Hut, on the Matterhorn...

 (Deutsche Solvay) and Dutch-British Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 (Rhenania Ossag Mineralölwerke).
Rank Company Employees Industry Employees of Successor 2011
1. Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Reichsbahn – was the name of the German national railway created from the railways of the individual states of the German Empire following the end of World War I....

703,546 Railway 226,000
2. Deutsche Reichspost 397,890 Postal administration 421,270
3. I.G. Farbenindustrie
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...

218,000 Chemicals >227,640 (BASF, Bayer, Celanese, etc.)
4. Vereinigte Stahlwerke 197,000 Mining and steel 177,000
5. Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

 (Siemens & Halske
Siemens & Halske
Siemens & Halske AG was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens AG.It was founded on 12 October 1847 as Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske by Ernst Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske...

 and Siemens-Schuckert
Siemens-Schuckert
Siemens-Schuckert was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966....

)
165,975 Electrical engineering 430,000
6. Friedrich Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

123,408 Mining and steel 177,000
7. Gutehoffnungshütte 75,781 Mining and steel
8. Vereinigte Elektrizitäts- und Bergwerks Aktiengesellschaft
VEBA
VEBA AG was a German energy company. VEBA was founded in 1929 as a holding company owned by the state of Prussia, and was privatized in 1965. VEBA became a part of E.ON in 2000....

72,345 Mining and utilities 85,000 (E.On)
9. Friedrich Flick KG 71,408 Steel
10. Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau....

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
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...

47,095 Vehicles 260,100
14. Junkers Flugzeug-und Motorenwerke
Junkers
Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG , more commonly Junkers, was a major German aircraft manufacturer. It produced some of the world's most innovative and best-known airplanes over the course of its fifty-plus year history in Dessau, Germany. It was founded there in 1895 by Hugo Junkers,...

44,015 Aircraft 121,000 (EADS)
15. Klöckner-Werke 43,409 Steel and mechanical engineering 28,000
16. Mannesmann
Mannesmann
Mannesmann AG was a German corporation with headquarters in Düsseldorf. The company was founded in 1890 originally to produce seamless steel tubes. It was traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company had 130,860 employees worldwide and revenues of €23.27 billion.Over time, Mannesmann...

röhrenwerke
43,000 Steel 48,600
17. Metallgesellschaft
Metallgesellschaft
Metallgesellschaft AG was formerly one of Germany's largest industrial conglomerates based in Frankfurt. It had over 20,000 employees and revenues in excess of 10 billion US dollars...

41,000 Metals 20,400 (GEA)
18. Otto Wolff-Konzern
Otto Wolff AG
Otto Wolff AG was a German steelmaker founded in Cologne by the industrialists Otto Wolff and Ottmar E. Strauß in 1904. One of the largest business in pre-war Germany, it exists today as an independent subsidiary of the ThyssenKrupp group.- History :...

33,000 Steel 177,000
19. Arbed
Arbed
ARBED was a major Luxembourg-based steel and iron producing company. Created in 1911 after the merger of three steel producing companies, ARBED was a major actor in the economic history of the Grand-Duchy until it merged in 2002 with two other European steel companies to create Arcelor.- Origins ...

32,000 Steel 263,000
20. Salzdetfurth AG
K+S
K+S AG is a German-based agricultural chemical and salt company, headquartered in Kassel. The company is Europe's largest supplier of potash for use in fertilizer and, after the acquisition of Morton Salt, the world's largest salt producer...

31,131 Mining 15,250
21. Hoesch 30,993 Steel 177,000
22. Adam Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...

27,000 Vehicles 40,500
23. Schering
Schering
Schering AG was a research-centered German pharmaceutical company. It was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering and merged with Bayer's pharma sector in December 2006. The company's headquarters was in Berlin-Wedding, Germany...

26,665 Pharmaceuticals 25,000
24. Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG 25,000 Metals, mining and utilities
25. Robert Bosch GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...

23,233 Electrical engineering 290,000
26. Auto Union
Auto Union
Auto Union was an amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers, founded in 1932 and established in 1936 in Chemnitz, Saxony, during the Great Depression. The company has evolved into present day Audi, as a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group....

22,673 Vehicles 59,400
27. Deutsche I.T.& T.-Gruppe 21,000 Electrical engineering
28. Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG
Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG
Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft was a cooperation of eight German shipyards in the period 1926 to 1945...

21,000 Shipbuilding and aircraft
29. Philipp Holzmann
Philipp Holzmann
Philipp Holzmann AG was a German construction company based in Frankfurt am Main.The company was founded in 1849 by Johann Philipp Holzmann at Sprendlingen in present-day Dreieich near Frankfurt am Main as Philipp Holzmann & Cie...

20,800 Construction
30. Hochtief
Hochtief
Hochtief Aktiengesellschaft is Germany's largest construction company. It is based in Essen but operates globally, ranking as the top general builder in the United States through its Turner Corporation subsidiary, and in Australia through the Leighton Group. In 2010 it employed more than 70,000...

20,425 Construction 70,600
31. Rudolph Karstadt
Arcandor
Arcandor AG is a holding company located in Essen, Germany that oversees companies operating in the businesses of mail order and internet shopping, department stores and tourism services. It was created in 1999 through the merger of Karstadt Warenhaus AG, which was founded in 1920, and Quelle...

20,000 Retail 86,000
32. Deutsche Erdöl AG 20,000 Oil 1,300
33. Deutsche Werke Kiel
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defence industry to shrink...

20,000 Shipbuilding 8,140 (TKMS)
34. Hugo Schneider AG
Deutsche Werke
Deutsche Werke was a German shipbuilding company founded in 1925 when Kaiserliche Werft Kiel and other shipyards were merged. It came as a result of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I that forced the German defence industry to shrink...

19,200 Arms and ammunition
35. Deutsche Reichsbank
Reichsbank
The Reichsbank was the central bank of Germany from 1876 until 1945. It was founded on 1 January 1876 . The Reichsbank was a privately owned central bank of Prussia, under close control by the Reich government. Its first president was Hermann von Dechend...

18,931 Banking 14,800
36. Christian Dierig 18,834 Textiles
37. Zellstofffabrik Waldhof 18,402 Paper 10,000
38. Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke
Heinkel
Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight.-History:...

18,297 Aircraft 121,000 (EADS)
39. Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk
RWE
RWE AG , is a German electric power and natural gas public utility company based in Essen. Through its various subsidiaries, the energy company contributes electricity and gas to more than 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers, principally in Europe...

17,754 Utilities 70,700
40. Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...

17,462 Banking 101,700
41. Deutsche Continental-Gas-Gesellschaft 17,400 Utilities
42. Bayerische Motoren-Werke
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

16,968 Vehicles 95,400
43. Continental Gummi-Werke
Continental AG
Continental AG, internally often called Conti for short, is a worldwide leading German manufacturer of tires, brake systems, vehicle stability control systems, engine injection systems, tachographs and other parts for the automotive and transport industries. The company is based in Hanover, Germany...

16,606 Rubber 148,000

See also

  • Economic history of Germany
    Economic history of Germany
    Germany before 1800 was heavily rural, with some urban trade centers. In the 19th century it began a stage of rapid economic growth and modernization, led by heavy industry. By 1900 it had the largest economy in Europe, a factor that played a major role in its entry into World War I and World War II...

  • Economy of Nazi Germany
    Economy of Nazi Germany
    World War I and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles with its severe reparations imposed on Germany led to a decade of economic woes, including hyperinflation in the mid 1920s...

  • List of companies by employees
  • List of German companies by employees in 1907

External links

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