DEVELOPMENT OF THE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY IN SOVIET ZONE GERMANY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600330567-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 567
• Publication Date: August 8, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
MATION FROM
INFOR
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD P:O. 6118.1
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
SUBJECT Economic ,- Metallurgy
HOW
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Hamburg
DATE
PUBLISHED 15 Feb 1950
LANGUAGE German
OF Tilt UNITID ITATta WITHIN JON N.+~?^? -? .-..-..?_- .-
U. I. C.. 11 AND it, ON TN
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{NON1. ITf TN.Nf Y1ff10N ON TNt TO A N ISF ITS ITNDO ITT LAW. I NIMODU TION OF THIS POOH O1:11'NON IIITND. It IMO'
DATE DIST. g Aug 1950
NO. OF PAGES 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
Wirtschaftsdienst.
DEVEIAPMENP OF THE IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY
IN SOVIET ZONE GERMANY
Compared with the vast iron-producing industry in the Ruhr, the iron and
steel production in the area now known as Soviet Zone Germany has always been
negligible.. In 1936, only 1.2 million tons or 6.6 percent of the entire Ger-?
man raw steel production (18,14 million tons) were supplied by that area. In
1938, Germany consumed. approximately 14.2 million tons of rolling mill roducts.
Of these approximately 3.3 million tons were used by Central Germany now Soviet
Zone?, which produced only 1.3 million tons and drew on the Ruhr, Upper Silesia,
and the present French and American Zones of Germany for the remaining 2 million
tons of rolled steel.
Prior to 1945, the plants of the former Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke A. G.
(Central German Steel Works, Inc), a Flick concern, produced the bulk of the
iron and steel output in Central Germany. This corporation controlled the fol-
lowing foundries, steel and rolling mills.
The Unterwellenborn branch of the Maximilianhuette Iron Works Corporation,
consisting of blast furnaces and rolling mills; the Riesa Steel Plant, a Siemens-
Martin steel and rolling mill; the Groeditz Steel and Mills near
with a steel casting foundry and foundries for casting gray iron,
iron tubes, and rolled iron; the Doehlen Cast Steel Foundries in Freital and.
Pirna, Sachsen,, the Hennigsdorf Steel and Rolling Mills, with steel casting
foundries and steel and plate rolling mills; the Weber Steel h and Plate Kraft Blast
in Brandenburg/Havel, equipped with an iron foundry;
nace Works in Kratzwiek, near Stettin, which produced raw castiron; and the
ferroalloy plants in Spremberg, Lippendorf, and Eula.. The Central German Steel
Works, Inc also controlled. the Thale Iron Foundries, which were amalgamated
with the Bochum Iron and Foundry Works Corporation in 1940, and the Hoffmann
and Motz Foundries in Eberswalde, a small plant which produced hot-rolled iron
bare..
All these plants had been converted for the German defense industry
were completely intact at the end of the war. The Brandenburg, Hennigsdorf,
Riesa, Groeditz, and Doehlen plants were dismantled by the Russians, and the
steel and rolling mill equipment shipped to the Soviet Union. The Maximilian-
huette Foundries in Unterwellenborn and the Thale Iron Foundries were confis-
cated by the occupation power and operated as Soviet Corporations (SAG). The
remaining plants and installations were destroyed in 1945 by order of the USSR.
jNAW NSRB
AIR FBI_.
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COHFIDENTIAI+~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
DISTRIBUTION
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In 1945, East Germany produced only 611 tons of pig iron and was there-
fore almost. completely dependent on West Germany for her supply of pig iron,
and steel and rolling mill. products,. With the intensification of political
tension between the Western. Powers and the Soviet Union in 1947 and the re-
sultant slump in steel shipments to East Germany, the Soviet occupation au-
thorities were forced to rebuild the iron and steel industry in its zone.
Tv,is prqject gained impetus from the final economic separation of the two
parts of Germany, following the currency reform.
As early as October 19h5 the Soviet occupation authorities ordered the
German administration to reactivate the Thale and Unterw.ellenborn installa-
tions as quickly as possible. The Thale Foundries were the first to be re-
turned to operation because the necessary raw materials for this purpose were
and are available in East Germany. The blast furnaces of the Maxhuette in
Unterwellenbcrn. near Saalfeld, however, had to be fired with coke from West-
phalia which was obtained from the Ruhr, following negotiations between the
Soviet and British occupation authorities.. The first blast furnace of the
Maxhuette was fired on 4 February 1946. In February 1947, reconstruction
of the ;roeditz Iron Works was ordered, and operation of the plant began 2
months later, Reconstruction of the Hennigsdorf and Riess mills was ordered
in October 1947, and by August of the some year the fourth Siemens-Martin
furnace was placed in operation. at the Hennigsdorf works. The Riesa Mill
put its second Siemens _Martin furnace in operation in the fall of 1948.
The Burg Rolling Mills near Magdeburg, a former German concern, were
reactivated the latter part of 19L8, by order
(DWK). About a year later, the first hot-rolling mill for light
plate was put in operation. A second hot-rolling mill and a cold-rolling
milt are under construction. In February 1949, the USSR returned to East
Germany five dismantled rolling mills, three of which went to Riess, Hennigs-
dorf, and Groeditz? One light section steel and one heavy plate rolling mill
were installed in the new Kirchmoeser Plant near. Genthin, which began operat-
ing in November 19h9, The Doehlen Cast Iron Foundries, with two Siemens-Mar
tin. furnaces, was also activated in 1949,
The Maximilianhuette, commonly known as "Max," is the only blast furnace
installation in East Germany which has its own source of ore. It utilizes
Thuringian chamosite and. ore mined at Schmalkalden, Chamosite ore deposits
of up to 44 percent iron content. (after roasting) are found on the Schwarz-
burg Pass, between Blankenbrug and Schmiedefeld. Notwithstanding large pro-
duction increases scheduled for the Maxhuette under the Two-Year Plan, these
veins of ore will not be depleted for several decades to come. The foundries,
which are located 40 kilometers from the mining installations, have a total
of five blast furnaces (four in Unterwellenborn and one in Sulzbach-Rosenberg),
with a combined monthly capacity of approximately 23,000 tons of pig iron. Ac-
cording to the Two-Year Plan, the Maxhuette is to reach an annual output of
300,000 tons of Thomas pig iron and 700,000 tons of foundry pig iron. The
rolling mills have been extended and their capacity increased. The cogging
mill is to produce a yearly total of 300,000 tons; two other rolling mills,
200,000 and. 90,000 tons, respectively.
The Hennigsdorf Steel and Rolling Mills are equipped with four Siemens-
Martin furnaces, each of which has a capacity of 80 tons and can produce 2,500
tons of raw steel per month. The total yearly output is therefore approximately
120,000 tons. The plant reportedly produces mainly steel rods and wire. 'It has
a cogging mill with a yearly capacity of 200,000 tons, and also has two light
section mills with a 120,000-tons yearly capacity each, and one wire mill with
a 30,000-ton capacity.
The Riess Steel and Rolling Mill has four Siemens-Martin furnaces of 100
tons capacity each, which are scheduled to achieve an output of 250,000 tons
of raw steel per year. The plant is being equipped with a cogging mill with
an annual capacity 240,000 tons which will be ready for operation the early
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Cot F1DENTTAL
part of 0 ^urtaerrcore, `c' 11171)t section m111s with a, combined capacity
00 -
of c00,OC tons per yes..r, _u3 or?: bar-?ov i_ing ,niii __, e well as a tube-roll.
ing mill, the l.et.i5r returned by the Soviet Union, are to be installed.
The Groeditz Iron arid. Rolling Mills, which began its operation with the
production of steel. castings, also created its own steel supply in 1949. In
fthirast ofP35ntonsreach., wereeinstalledwas
quently.
To these plants must he added the new rolling mills
tat Burgnaand ndgKirch-
moeser, and a number of nonferrous metal works, such Copper
Works, the F, A Lange Nonferrous Metal Works in Auerhammer, and the rolled
sheet works in Olbernhau, Sach_en These plants have been adapted to steel
rolling requirements and are said to produce a yearly output of 21,000 tons
of heavy, medium., and light ?heet,
The alloys necessary for steel production are not obtainable in Soviet
Zone Germany and must be imported, chiefly from tSoviet Union.LiHowever,
they are processed in East German ferroalloy plants,
Electric Steel Plant, The refractory materials needed for the construction
of metallurgical furnaces can be produced in a number of East German plants,
tplant
teh Plaa nt,. The e output first magnesite
one of which is the Wuenschend.orf Dolomite
was erected. in AkenrL].be in 19461/1949, 2,500 ,
including approximately 1,000 tons of refractory materials. The firing of
the Siemens,-Martin furnaces presents no problem, inasmuch as black coal is
not required, and brown coal can be utilized in the form of generator gas or
coal dust..
Both the quality and the quantity of the scrap metal used as caeewharden-,
ing material for Siemens.Miartin furnaces was unsatisfactory in the beginning.
A centrally controlled scrap metal administration had to be set up in May 1947
to obviate the hottleneC-:.
All steel snd rolling inills 1n East Germany are people-owned and combined
in the VESTA Association of People-Owned Iron and Steel Enterprises, with head-
quarters in Leipzig. A number of small , related enterprises and two iron ore
mines are also part of this associate-on which comprises the following people-
owned plants.. Maxhuette, Unterwellenborn; Riesa Steel and Rolling Mills; Hen-
nigsdorf Iron Works and Rolling Mills; Kirchmoeser RollingnMills; Burg goRolling
Mills; Lippendorf Electric Steel Works; _lsenbu.rg Copper
Mills; Olbernhau Plate Rolling Mills; Auerhammer Semifinished Products; Oranien-
burg Spring Factory; Bad Salzungen Metal Ware Plant and Cold Rolling Mill; Brotte-
rode Drawing Mill.: Praema Precision Drawing and Machine Works, Lugau; Faradit Tube
and Rolling Mills.; Wuenschdorf Dolomite Plant.; Am Buechenberg Iron Ore Mines,
Elbingerode; and the Braunesumpf Iron Ore Mines, Huettenrode.
Iron research is conducted. by the Freiberg Mining Academy and by the re-
cently founded Experimental, and Research Institute for Iron and Steel in Hen
nigsdorf, Technical schools have heer. set up in the large plants.
it is reported that the steel and rolling mills in Soviet anyehave
fulfilled their 1949 target 100?5 percent. Quotas for pig iron, An
and rolling mill products were met 114, 108, and 103 percent, respectively.
extensive variety of rolling mill products can now be manufactured, including
seamless tubes, electrically and torch welded tubes, wire, iron tires, and all
grades of li.ght, medium, and heavy plate.
i
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CONFIDENTIAL CO IF ~iBTML
The output of the newly created iron and steel industry is one of the
most important elements of the Two-Year Plan. The 1950 target for pig iron
is 360,000 tons, for raw steel 875,000 tons, and for rolled steel 695,000
tons. No doubt these figures will be exceeded because the Two-Year Plan did
not take into consideration the two new plants at Burg and Kirchmoeser, the
return of the five rolling mills by the Soviet Union, the installation of ad-
ditional Siemens-Martin furnaces, and other expansion projects.
comovvffld
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