List of German companies by employees in 1938


This is a list of the largest companies of Nazi Germany by employees in 1938.

Companies by employees

The list is based on Fiedler, who compiled data from a variety of sources. Given the shortage of historical employment data some employment numbers are only estimates and some companies might be missing from this list. Employment numbers are including all subsidiaries as long as the parent company is the majority shareholder, that is, holds more than 50 percent of the stock. An exception is Telefunken, which is included in the list as it was a joint venture of Siemens and Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft which each company holding 50 percent of the shares of Telefunken. Employee numbers are not including those employed in foreign subsidiaries. The only three companies in 1938 with large foreign subsidiaries were Siemens with 11.2 percent of the workforce employed abroad, Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft with less than 20 percent and Mannesmann with 10 percent. In 1938 seven of the 100 largest German companies were subsidiaries of foreign companies, all of them included in the list. The seven foreign-controlled companies were the subsidiaries of Luxembourgish Arbed, American General Motors, American International Telephone & Telegraph, American Singer Corporation, French de Wendel group, Belgian Solvay and Dutch-British Royal Dutch Shell.
RankCompanyEmployeesIndustry
1.Deutsche Reichsbahn703,546Railway
2.Deutsche Reichspost397,890Postal administration
3.I.G. Farbenindustrie218,000Chemicals
4.Vereinigte Stahlwerke197,000Mining and steel
5.Siemens 165,975Electrical engineering
6.Friedrich Krupp123,408Mining and steel
7.Gutehoffnungshütte75,781Mining and steel
8.Vereinigte Elektrizitäts- und Bergwerks Aktiengesellschaft72,345Mining and utilities
9.Friedrich Flick KG71,408Steel
10.Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft65,000Electrical engineering
11.Reichswerke Hermann Göring63,000Mining and steel
12.Saargruben AG48,448Mining
13.Daimler-Benz47,095Vehicles
14.Junkers Flugzeug-und Motorenwerke44,015Aircraft
15.Klöckner-Werke43,409Steel and mechanical engineering
16.Mannesmannröhrenwerke43,000Steel
17.Metallgesellschaft41,000Metals
18.Otto Wolff-Konzern33,000Steel
19.Arbed32,000Steel
20.Salzdetfurth AG31,131Mining
21.Hoesch30,993Steel
22.Adam Opel27,000Vehicles
23.Schering26,665Pharmaceuticals
24.Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG25,000Metals, mining and utilities
25.Robert Bosch GmbH23,233Electrical engineering
26.Auto Union22,673Vehicles
27.Deutsche I.T.& T.-Gruppe21,000Electrical engineering
28.Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG21,000Shipbuilding and aircraft
29.Philipp Holzmann20,800Construction
30.Hochtief20,425Construction
31.Rudolph Karstadt20,000Retail
32.Deutsche Erdöl AG20,000Oil
33.Deutsche Werke Kiel20,000Shipbuilding
34.Hugo Schneider AG19,200Arms and ammunition
35.Deutsche Reichsbank18,931Banking
36.Christian Dierig18,834Textiles
37.Zellstofffabrik Waldhof18,402Paper
38.Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke18,297Aircraft
39.Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk17,754Utilities
40.Deutsche Bank17,462Banking
41.Deutsche Continental-Gas-Gesellschaft17,400Utilities
42.Bayerische Motoren-Werke16,968Vehicles
43.Continental Gummi-Werke16,606Rubber