Facing Disincentives? Norwegian Aluminium Companies Working for the German Aircraft Industry

On 22 October 1940, Heinrich Koppenberg, whom Reichskommissar Terboven the previous month had appointed as German Trustee of enemy property in Norway’s aluminium industry, met the leading representatives of the companies. The ten people making up the Norwegian group consisted of managers and board members, of which the latter were lawyers representing foreign owners. The purpose was to reach an agreement on how the Trustee would exercise his authorities. Should he appoint German trustees and staff for each individual company? A formal agreement was not necessary. The parties soon reached an understanding to avoid institutional changes. The companies would operate as before and without direct German interference, but would be subjugated to a common commercial arrangement set up by the Trustee. Koppenberg’s agency, Norsk Aluminium-Kontor, would sell raw materials to the companies, whereas the companies would sell their aluminium produce to the agency. The agency would set sales prices but profits would remain with the companies. As the companies’ operations were already regulated by individual contracts with the two German companies Junkers Flugzeug und Motorenwerke (JFM), an aircraft producer, and Dürener Metallwerke (DM), a light metal manufacturer famous for its duralumin patent, the new overall agreement would be implemented as the existing contracts expired on 31 December 1940.