61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Moreover, quantitative data do not provide a full picture. A minor service may
in fact have had far-reaching consequences, while the effect of an apparently
more important service may have been negligible or less profitable.
In any case, it cannot be denied that industrial production by Swiss companies
in Germany actively contributed towards the country’s economy between 1933
and 1945, and therefore towards the German war effort. It would clearly be an
exaggeration to consider this contribution as decisive, but at the same time it
was not negligible. Among the few neutral countries, Switzerland made the
greatest contribution towards the German war effort since it was Switzerland
which had the greatest presence in both Germany itself and the countries it
occupied. This can be explained by their relationship as neighbours, by the fact
that the two cultures were similar, that good business relations had existed for
a long time, and that it was normal for a small but highly developed country
such as Switzerland to expand its production beyond its own borders into neighbouring
regions (Baden-Württemberg, Alsace) or even further afield.
Not a single factory supplied arms or ready-to-use war material. These were
either produced in Switzerland or under licence by German as well as English,
American, French, and other companies. On the other hand, several Swiss
subsidiaries supplied materials (aluminium, glue, synthetic products) or
mechanical or electrical components (turbines, motors, etc.) which were
essential to the production of arms, especially for the navy and the air force.
These companies (Brown Boveri in Mannheim, AIAG, Lonza, and Georg
Fischer to a lesser extent) were immediately integrated into the war material
programmes. AIAG and its factories at Rheinfelden and Lend (Austria) achieved
a maximum annual production of nearly 35,000 tons in 1944, which represented
14% of the German total aluminium production that year (1939: 24,000
tons or 12%).
The major part of what was produced by the Swiss companies concerned goods
for civilian use, however. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) stipulated the disarmament
of Germany. There had therefore been no reason to set up arms factories
there, in fact the opposite occurred: German manufacturers set up companies in
Switzerland. 10 On the other hand, there were enormous possibilities for
electrical equipment for civilian use, textiles and textile dyes, pharmaceutical
products, and foodstuffs. The economic crisis at the beginning of the 1930s had
dire effects on these sectors. But the revival after Hitler came to power provided
a boost which was not limited uniquely to the production of goods relevant for
the war. All consumer goods were affected. It was only with the outbreak of the
war itself and in particular after 1941 that these economic branches were also
commandeered to supply the armed forces. This shift from civilian to state
consumption served to strengthen the production of a number of Swiss special-
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