The presented identification card from the Reichswerke Aktiengesellschaft für Erzbergbau und Eisenhütten Hermann-Göring (Hermann Göring Reich Works Corporation for Ore Mining and Iron Mills), issued by the plant in Braunschweig on September 25, 1942, represents a significant historical document from the German armaments industry during World War II.
The Reichswerke Hermann Göring was established in 1937 by order of Hermann Göring, the Commissioner for the Four-Year Plan. Originally, the enterprise was intended to enable the exploitation of low-grade iron ore deposits in Germany to promote the economic autarky of the German Reich. What began as a relatively small project rapidly developed into the largest industrial conglomerate in Nazi Germany.
The Braunschweig plant, also known as the Watenstedt-Salzgitter Works, was one of the most important production centers of the Reichswerke. The facility was constructed from 1937 near Salzgitter and played a central role in German armaments production. By 1942, the year this identification card was issued, the plant had developed into one of the most modern steel mills in Europe.
Such works identification cards served several important purposes: they identified the bearer as an authorized employee, granted access to secured production facilities, and during the war were also important for food ration allocation and other administrative purposes. The photograph on the card was mandatory and served for unambiguous identification. The cards were regularly inspected, especially at the heavily guarded factory gates.
In 1942, when this card was issued, the Reichswerke was at the height of its expansion. The company employed several hundred thousand workers at this time, including a significant proportion of forced laborers and prisoners of war. Working conditions in the plants were often extremely harsh, particularly for forced laborers from occupied territories.
The Reichswerke Hermann Göring grew during the war through the incorporation of captured industrial facilities in occupied territories, particularly in Poland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. The conglomerate produced steel, coal, ammunition, and various other war-essential materials. The Braunschweig mill was specifically focused on steel production.
The fact that a post-war identification card accompanies this document is of particular historical interest. After the German capitulation in 1945, the Reichswerke was confiscated by the Allies. The production facilities in the British occupation zone, to which Braunschweig belonged, were initially placed under Allied control. Many former employees of the Reichswerke found employment in successor companies, which explains the existence of post-war identification cards.
Salzgitter AG, which had been founded in 1937 as the centerpiece of the Reichswerke, became after various post-war reorganizations one of the most important steel producers in the Federal Republic of Germany. Paradoxically, the industrial infrastructure built during the Nazi era formed part of the foundation for Germany's economic reconstruction.
The damaged condition of the card is typical for such documents that were used daily. Employees had to carry their identification cards at all times and present them at factory gates. The physical wear reflects the intensive use and the difficult conditions of the war years.
From a collector's and historical perspective, such documents are valuable testimonies to German industrial history and armaments production during World War II. They document not only the administrative structures of the war economy but also the individual fates of people who worked in this system – whether voluntarily or by force.
The combination of wartime and post-war identification cards also provides a rare insight into the continuities and ruptures of German industrial history across the caesura of 1945. It illustrates how industrial structures and, in part, personnel survived the political upheavals, while ownership relations and political framework conditions changed fundamentally.
