61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

egime. The same was the case for the Georg Fischer factory in Singen.
Hoffmann-La Roche had a factory in Grenzach, next to the Geigy plant, which
was a joint-stock company.
These different legal structures had an impact on business which was nevertheless
less decisive than the real relations between the parent companies and
their subsidiaries based on personal relations between the directors on each side
of the border and the information, instructions, and recommendations which
passed between them. After the fact, many Swiss companies tried to justify their
passive or even accommodating attitude towards their subsidiaries’ joining in
the Nazi war effort by claiming that they had not been fully informed. It is true
to say that communication was hindered, especially during the war. Travel was
difficult and postal and telephone communications were monitored. The
German authorities made sure that what they considered secret information
about the economy, production, and technology did not cross the border.
Companies had to be discreet about details of their production activities.
Sources indicate that some parent companies were indeed inadequately
informed about the situation, for example AIAG, as already mentioned, and
Georg Fischer AG in Schaffhausen. These two examples show that the quality
of information passed on did not depend on the distance it had to travel:
Konstanz, the site of ALIG’s head office, is on the German-Swiss border, and
Singen is a stone’s throw away, which meant that the German director of the
Georg Fischer subsidiary was able to go home each evening to Schaffhausen.
On the whole, though, the information was sufficient, even comprehensive; and
it flowed without interruption. It sometimes also went beyond purely business
information: Ciba had precise details about the fate of Jews in Poland, and in
1942 Sandoz was fully informed about the «euthanasia» programme, i.e., the
murder of handicapped people. In Vevey, Nestlé under the management of the
French chief executive officer Maurice Paternot, maintained close contact with
Edouard Müller, Chairman of the Board of Directors at the international head
quarters in Stanford, USA. Nestlé attached «great importance to continuous
contact between the central administration and the senior management of the
various branches», 9 with its twin head offices (Stanford and Vevey), the
company managed to achieve this aim throughout the world. They were kept
up to date with all the details of business affairs in Germany by Hans
Riggenbach, a Swiss citizen who managed all Nestlé’s German business from
Berlin, for the duration of the war and beyond. Riggenbach regularly travelled
to Vevey, sometimes accompanied by the German chairman of the supervisory
board, to report and to receive instructions. Ambitious, rather arrogant in the
opinion of his seniors in Vevey, but tireless and gifted, Riggenbach displayed
faultless loyalty to the company he represented. In this sense, he embodied
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