Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe


Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe, abbreviated DWB, was a project launched by Nazi Germany in World War II. Organised and managed by the Allgemeine SS, its aim was to profit from the use of slave labour extracted from the Nazi concentration camp inmates.

Holding company for SS industries

In July 1940, Oswald Pohl set up DWB as a holding company for the majority of SS-owned enterprises in order to offset the profits of other SS companies with the losses of German Earth and Stone Works's unsuccessful brickworks at Oranienburg I, reducing the taxes due.
DWB was a holding company for more than 25 SS industries. Oswald Pohl, the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office was also the chief officer of DWB. Georg Lörner, another high WVHA official, was another incorporator. Through stock ownership DWB controlled a wide variety of enterprises, such as stone quarries, brick manufacturing plants, cement mills, pharmaceutical factories, real estate, housing, building materials, book printing and binding, porcelain and ceramics, mineral water and fruit juices, furniture, foodstuffs, and textiles and leather. Some of these businesses and properties had previously been seized or otherwise expropriated from their rightful owners.
The following companies were part of the holding :
Group Construction materials, Ceramics und Porzellan
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Group Food and Beverages
  • Deutsche Lebensmittel GmbH
  • Selchwaren- und Konservenfabrik AG
  • Salami- und Nahrungsmittelfabrik AG
  • Freudentaler Getränke GmbH
  • F. Kunerle oHG
  • Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Ernährung und Verpflegung GmbH
  • Societä Anonima Prodotti Agricoli Vitaminici Apuania
  • Lesnoplod Orava Sojka a Spol
  • Mattoni (Mineralwasser)
  • Apollinaris (Mineralwasser)
  • Sudetenquell GmbH
Group Paper, Printing and Publishing
  • Papierfabrik Neudeck AG
  • SS-Druckschriftenversand GmbH
  • Forschungsanstalt für das Deutsche Buchwesen GmbH
  • Lumbeck-Gesellschaft für das deutsche Buchwesen mbH
  • SS-Vordruck-Verlag GmbH
  • Völkischer Kunstverlag GmbH
  • Großdeutscher Bilderdienst GmbH
  • Friedrich Franz Bauer GmbH
  • Deutsche Briefkasten-Reklame GmbH
  • Nordland-Verlag
Group Settlement and Infrastructure
  • Gesellschaft für technisch-wirtschaftliche Entwicklung mbH
  • Siedler Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft Zamosc GmbH
  • Allod Eigenheim- und Kleinsiedlungs GmbH
  • Erste Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft für Kleinwohnungen GmbH
  • Haus- und Grundbesitz GmbH
  • Gemeinnützige Wohnungs- und Heimstättengesellschaft mbH
Group Textil and Glas
  • Gesellschaft für Textil- und Lederverwertung mbH (Texled)
  • Rheinahr-Glasfabrik GmbH
Group Furniture and Interior
  • Deutsches Sperrholz- und Fournierwerk GmbH
  • Verkaufsstelle Berliner Möbelwerkstätten eGmbH
  • Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke GmbH (DAW)
  • Deutsche Meisterwerkstätten GmbH
  • Deutsche Heimgestaltung GmbH
  • Deutsche Edelmöbel GmbH
Groupe other Enterprises
  • Gesellschaft für Seuchenbekämpfung mbH
  • Asid GmbH
  • Deutsche Heilmittel GmbH
  • Anton Loibl GmbH
  • Deutsche Schieferöl GmbH

Role in war crimes

After World War II, the surviving chief officers of WVHA were on trial for crimes against humanity in what became known as Pohl trial. Most of them were found guilty. Both Pohl and Georg Lörner were sentenced to death by hanging, although Lörner managed to get his sentence commuted to a prison term. The war crimes tribunal placed particular emphasis on the role the defendants had played in four DWB subsidiaries:
DEST in particular became notorious for exploitation under brutal conditions of the labor of concentration camp inmates at Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.

Works cited

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