61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

down because their profitability was severely reduced due to restrictions
imposed by the state, price controls, and tax levies. However, entrepreneurs
were not free to cease manufacturing if the regime considered their products
useful to the war effort. This was something that the manufacturer of optical
instruments Wild in Heerbrugg (an offshoot of Zeiss in Jena) learned the hard
way when, shortly after the «Anschluss» (annexation of Austria), it decided to
close its plant in Lustenau, in Vorarlberg region. The Nazi authorities
threatened the firm with drastic sanctions and formally forbade all cessation or
reduction of activities. Some time later, Wild was able to sell its Lustenau plant.
It therefore appears that not all businesses were in the same boat; all, however,
including both German firms and subsidiaries of foreign companies, were forced
to adhere to the strict terms of the demands of the regime and its vast bureaucracy.
If they did not, they risked closure or confiscation. In practice, however,
there was certain room for manoeuvring for those who were perceptive and
clever enough to exploit it. In October 1936, the the Four-Year Plan office,
under the authority of Hermann Goering (who was already Supreme
Commander (Oberbefehlshaber) of the air force), was set up in addition to the
regular ministries and government services. This organ, made up of Party
bureaucrats and military and industrial figures, was in principle responsible for
production and distribution of resources, for allocating labour, for managing
foreign exchange, and for price controls. Although its powers were vast, internal
rivalries and ill-defined procedural practices caused conflict with the already
existing civilian and military administrative bureaucracies. It was a labyrinth
in which it was possible, though not easy, to finagle one’s way and obtain advantages:
procuring orders, obtaining certificates of public utility, recruiting
resources and labour. The directors of some Swiss subsidiaries (in the chemical
sector and Nestlé) managed to exploit this situation to the advantage of their
companies without running too great a risk. Others, such as Maggi, were not
so successful, despite the efforts they made and their open devotion to the
authorities.
Special manoeuvring leeway, narrow but profitable, was available to subsidiaries
in the Baden area. Walter Köhler, the governor of this German State, was also
in charge of economic and financial affairs. Although naturally a member of the
Party, he was not a fanatical Nazi, unlike the regional Gauleiter Robert Wagner.
An excellent manager, Köhler had been noticed by the ministries in Berlin; he
was even considered as a successor to Hjalmar Schacht in 1937. In Karlsruhe,
he followed a policy which was oriented less towards Goering’s objectives than
to developing his relatively poor State, which suffered from being far from
Berlin and close to France. Köhler made every effort to benefit the many Swiss
companies that had set up subsidiaries in the region along the Rhine and the
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