Since the end of the 1920s, the Wintershall AG developed from a potash-mining company to a congolmerate expanding into business segments such as the production and processing of crude oil and the production of magnesium. The corporate group tried to safeguard this strategic realignment by establishing contacts to the NSDAP even well before 1933. Subsequently, the company was able to rapidly and successfully establish itself in the context of the autarky-policy and armaments effort of the "Third Reich". During the war, Wintershall participated in the race for resources in the occupied territories and profited from "Aryanization", as well as foreign and forced labor. These three issues form the main thematic focus of this publication.

Manfred Grieger, born 1960, is honorary professor at the Institute for Economic and Social history at Georg-August-University Göttingen. His most recent publications include: Gifhorner Juden im Nationalsozialismus. Diskriminierung, Ausgrenzung, Deportation und Überleben (Gifhorn 2018); Sartorius im Nationalsozialismus. Generationswechsel im Familienunternehmen zwischen Welt-wirtschaftskrise und Entnazifizierung (Göttingen 2019).