The state had shown itself capable of achieving dramatic expansion in the aluminium industry and the Luftwaffe sector. Now the same methods would be applied to steel. All private holdings of German iron ore deposits would be merged into a single state company. Three giant steelworks would be built on the ore fields. Salzgitter was to be the largest steel plant in the world. The shocked industrialists were then each handed a map showing the ore fields of their firms that were to be expropriated in the name of the new Reichswerke. Goering then read out a decree personally approved by Hitler,
...more
