Joachim Lund

Building Hitler's Europe: Forced Labor in the Danish Construction Business during World War II

This article examines how Danish cement factories and building contractors, in particular F. L. Smidth & Co. A/S and its business partner Hojgaard & Schultz A/S, used forced and slave labor in Estonia, the Polish General Government, and Serbia as they worked for the German authorities during the Second World War. The article presents new evidence on the use of forced and slave labor inside the European “New Order” and emphasizes the willingness of the companies to expand and engage in morally questionable behavior. The findings illuminate the close connection between political and economic collaboration and contribute to the discussion about the relationship between business and politics during dictatorship, war, and occupation.

Denmark and the ‘European New Order’, 1940–1942

This article explores the meaning and impact of the Nazi concept of a ‘New Order’ for Europe on German-occupied Denmark. The first German civil authority in power in Denmark was the Foreign Ministry, which struggled to conclude an economic union with Denmark in summer 1940. Then Goerings Four-Year Plan and the Reich Economics Ministry took command and economic union was abandoned by Berlin, since a pragmatic, day-to-day approach now prevailed. Other initiatives were taken in order to facilitate Denmarks incorporation in the European New Order, such as the setting up of a ministerial Eastern Committee with the purpose of re-establishing Danish industry in the occupied USSR. The article shows how, in Denmark, German short-term politics actually coincided with long-term plans. Germanys ideas of becoming the economic centre of a self-sufficient continental Europe were closely connected to the idea of securing foodstuffs from its neighbours, and this idea, too, was implemented in spring and early summer 1940, when, after the swift occupation of Denmark and the subsequent severance of its trade with Britain, agricultural exports were diverted to the German market.

The Wages of Collaboration: the German food crisis 1939–1945 and the supplies from Denmark

The problem of limited food supplies left its mark on Germany and the Nazi regime during World War II. The Germans faced diminishing food rations and to a great extent had to rely on supplies from occupied Europe. To a small state like Denmark, with its precarious geo-political position, this turned out to be crucial. Thanks to its advanced agricultural production and fisheries and a generous German price policy, Germany was able to extract a maximum of food from Denmark without damaging the structure of Danish agricultural production. Deliveries culminated in 1943–1945, as Denmark supplied German big cities with 14% of their consumption of meat and pork and more than 20% of the Wehrmacht’s consumption, while Danish butter constituted nearly 9% of consumption in big cities and as much as one third of the Wehrmacht’s consumption during the same period. On this account, Denmark obtained a certain political freedom of action. In internal reports, German authorities in Copenhagen and in the Foreign Ministry repeatedly pointed to the fact that any attempt at changing the occupation regime in Denmark would rid Denmark of its democratically based government and jeopardize the abundant food supplies to Germany. The article argues that Danish food supplies to Germany provided the main reason why democratic Denmark was allowed to maintain its political system despite the German occupation.

Collaboration in Print: the ‘Aktion Ritterbusch’ and the failure of German intellectual propaganda in occupied Denmark, 1940–1942

During the Second World War, Germanys National Socialist regime mobilized German universities in order to support the war efforts through academic collaboration and a number of publications that were meant to legitimize Germanys territorial ambitions. The rector of the University of Kiel, Dr Paul Ritterbusch, was put in charge of the operation, which became known as the Aktion Ritterbusch. While earlier accounts have focussed on the Aktion Ritterbuschs endeavours in Germany itself and its ambitions in Western and Eastern Europe, this article shows how Ritterbusch also extended his efforts to Denmark.

A Faustian Bargain: Denmark’s Precarious Deal with the German War Economy

There were no German plans for the economic exploitation of Denmark when the Wehrmacht attacked its defenseless neighbour on April 9 1940. Denmark was occupied for purely military reasons, and the Danish government accepted the German offer to stay in power if it could guarantee the safety of the Wehrmacht. Although the Wehrmacht’s economic department had pointed to a few Danish industrial plants that might be of military interest, Berlin’s expectations of Denmark’s industrial capacity were limited. The situation changed as the Wehrwirtschaftsstab Danemark (the Danish office of the Economic branch of the Wehrmacht) began to disclose the potentials, and in summer 1941, German authorities and the Danish government reached an agreement on the “Extraordinary Industrial Deliveries,” according to which Danish industrial enterprises were to supply Germany with a wide range of manufactured products. Yet in the plans of the Auswartiges Amt (Foreign Ministry) and the Four-Year Plan which followed the Blitzkrieg victories of 1940, Denmark was primarily to be regarded as a producer and exporter of agricultural goods.