page_title: Hermann Röchling
section_title: World War II (1939–45)
hierarchical_section_title: Hermann Röchling / World War II (1939–45)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Völklinger Hütte
context_page_description: Hermann Röchling was a German steel manufacturer in the Saar and Lorraine in the 20th century.
  He was a paternalistic and well-liked employer, concerned about his workers' health and welfare.
  After World War I he was accused of the war crime of destroying French factories.
  Although he was acquitted, his French property was not returned, and he became deeply hostile to France.
  He was a Pan-German nationalist and strongly antisemitic.
  After the accession of Adolf Hitler he became an influential member of the Nazi Party.
  During World War II he was made responsible for coordination of the iron and steel industry in occupied Lorraine, and later in the whole of Germany and the occupied territories.
  He used prisoners of war for forced labor in the steel works.
  After the war he was tried and convicted for human rights violations, although as an old man he was released before serving his full term.
context_section_description: After the defeat of France Röchling was made appointed General Manager of Iron and Steel for the Lorraine and Meurthe-de-Moselle regions, excluding Longwy, on 1 July 1940, and held  this post until 1942.
  In a letter to Hitler of 15 July 1940 Röchling advocated annexation of Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle to Germany.
  French elements would be expelled and Germans introduced, mainly from the Saar.
  Göring decreed that the Moselle factories were to be divided into three groups: those restored to their former owners, those handed to the Reichswerke Hermann Göring, and those handed over to Friedrich Flick A.G.. Rochling protested strongly but was overruled.
  For example, the Wendel steelworks in Lorraine had been occupied by German troops on 16 June 1940.
  François and Humbert de Wendel were given permits to travel to Hayange, where they were shown an authorization by Göring on 12 July 1940 for Röchling to take control of the works. The Wendels were forced to leave Lorraine on 48 hours notice.
  Röchling pledged to destroy the Wendel family interests.
  He wanted to separate the Wendel factories at Hayange, Moyeuvre-Grande and Jœuf, and annex the Hayange plant to his Carlshütte in Thionville. 
  However, in December 1940 Paul Raabe warned him that in the end Göring would assign the spoils of the Wendel family to his own firm.
  After Göring's allocation of the industrial plants, in January 1941 Hermann Röchling was relieved of control in Moselle, retaining only Meurthe-et-Moselle.
  In 1941 he became president of the Metz Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
  By the spring of 1942 Röchling saw the struggle in Russia as a trial between Capitalism and Communism, and was concerned at the success of the Soviets in supplying aircraft and tanks to their forces.
  He supported the antisemitic and imperialist policies of the Nazis, but shared with Speer a deep concern over the Nazi's confused attacks on "plutocrats".
  He disagreed with the state-controlled approach of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring and wanted to prove that private enterprise, left to organize itself without interference and allowed to make profits, was the best way to supply the armed forces with what they needed.
  In March 1942 Röchling wrote to Hitler, "The steel industry of Lorraine and Luxembourg is not being exploited at even 30 percent of capacity, that of Meurthe-et-Moselle and Longwy at not even 20 percent, and that of Belgium-North France at only 30 percent.
  In 1942 Speer proposed to form a Reich Iron Association (RVE) to cut through the confusion of competing interests in the iron and steel industry, controlling everything from raw material to sales, and proposed Albert Vögler of United Steel as head.
  However, Hitler preferred Röchling, and on 29 May 1942 Speer appointed him chairman of the RVE.
  Röchling had the power to do everything necessary to double production of steel.
  He ordered the western European steel manufacturers to accept his orders without question, even if this led them to ruin.
  They could not comply except in the short term because of the shortage of coal.
  On 18 June 1942 Röchling was also given charge of the iron and steel industry in the occupied territories at the recommendation of Goering.
  Röchling, Alfried Krupp and Walter Rohland now had almost absolute power over heavy industry.
  The Reich Iron Association held its first presidium meeting in August 1942, attended by Röchling, Krupp, Rohland, Friedrich Flick, Wilhelm Zangen, Paul Pleiger and Alfred Pott as well as representatives from the German Labour Front and from Saxony and Austria.
  On his 70th birthday on 12 November 1942, Röchling received the Adlerschild des Deutschen Reiches (Eagle Shield of the German Reich), a reward for the civil personalities of the Third Reich.
  Röchling's crash program drained industrial reserves of coal, and in 1943 the problem worsened as coal miners went on strike, shortages developed in mining material such as pit props, and Allied bombing raids increased in preparation for the landings in Normandy.
  Speer was unable to revive industrial production.
  The concept of the V-3 ca
caption: Völklingen Ironworks, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS CORPORATION", "Image Model": "E-M10MarkII", "Image XResolution": "609", "Image YResolution": "609", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.6.1 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2016:09:30 23:19:41", "Image Artist": "Marion Marker-Schrotz", "Image Copyright": "Marion Marker-Schrotz", "Image ExifOffset": "338", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[49, 149393/10000, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[6, 506497/10000, 0]", "GPS GPSAltitude": "950859/5000", "Image GPSInfo": "986", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1214", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "22124", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "24/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:08:13 14:59:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:08:13 14:59:15", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4526069/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "17/10", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "925/256", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "27", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "87196351/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "87196351/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "54", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "BHLA39972", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[14, 42, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "OLYMPUS M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "AC3B04666"}