Between Coercion and Cooperation: The Flick Concern in Nazi Germany Before the War

Abstract

This study examines two pivotal events in the Flick Concern’s relations with the Nazi state: the manner in which it was coerced into supporting the establishment of the state-dominated Reichswerke Hermann Goring and the manner in which it cooperated with the state to fulfill its racial goal of“aryanizing” Jewish property. These two events, usually examined in isolation, share in common the Nazi principle of usufructary (Nutzniesser) which gave the state the right to use private property as it saw fit and defined relations between industry and state.