Record Group - 09. economy

The economic tradition in the Saxon State Archives focuses on the second half of the 20th century. The background is the responsibility of the state archives for the transmission of the people's own economy, which began after 1945. The majority of the holdings of private commercial enterprises were transferred to the State Archives through the transfer of documents from the state-owned enterprises. The privatisation and reorganisation of the people's assets that began in 1990 usually also marked the end of economic tradition.<br/><br/>Up to the middle of the 19th century, Saxony was the first German state to complete the transition from agrarian to industrial-agricultural state. Saxony played a pioneering role in the industrial revolution that began around 1800, as it was the leader in the cotton industry in Germany. In addition to the textile industry, mechanical engineering gained in importance. The proximity to the coal deposits of the Zwickauer, Lugau-Oelsnitzer and Freital districts was an essential prerequisite for the rise of Saxon industry. From the 1830s onwards, the coal mining industry in Saxony experienced a rapid rise and provided the necessary energy for a period of almost one hundred years. With the introduction of freedom of trade in 1861, all remaining obstacles to the unrestricted development of the economy fell. Medium-sized companies from almost all branches of industry became established: food and luxury goods industry, paper and pulp industry, clock manufacturing, artificial flower production, precision mechanics and optics industry, electronic industry, hygienic and cosmetic products, cellulose and artificial silk production, vehicle and wagon factories. <br/><br/>From 1869 the Saxon state financed the railway construction and in 1876 took over almost all Saxon railway lines into state ownership, which led to a rapid expansion of the railway network. Already in 1871 Saxony possessed the densest railway network in the German Empire. Elbe shipping also experienced a great upswing. <br/><br/>In the second half of the 19th century, the city of Dresden had developed into the centre of the industrial area in the upper Elbe valley. The food and luxury food industry, the metalworking industry, the precision mechanics and optics industry and, from 1950 onwards, the electrotechnical and electronic industry were the main industries that determined the economic structure of the region. <br/><br/>The economic characteristics that particularly influenced the Leipzig region included industry, trade fairs and commerce, banking, the manufacturing and distribution book trade and the book trade. The lignite mining industry was also significant. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, mechanical lignite mining began in both the Borna district and Lusatia; briquette factories and power stations were built. Until the end of the GDR, lignite remained the most important energy supplier in Central Germany. <br/><br/>Chemnitz developed into one of the great industrial metropolises of the Empire and became a centre of mechanical engineering. The automotive, machine and textile industries, top production for Plauen/V. and the construction of musical instruments for the Vogtland region were the key factors here. In the Erzgebirge the silver mining was important since the Middle Ages, besides the wood and toy production is to be emphasized. At the beginning of the 1920s, the Saxon energy industry experienced an unprecedented concentration process in which the previously independent, private-sector, municipal and regional energy suppliers were combined and merged into the state-owned ASW (Aktiengesellschaft Sächsische Werke) group. The associated standardization of the previously very different norms and standards led to a considerable increase in effectiveness. <br/><br/>The industrial structure established in Saxony at the beginning of the 20th century remained largely intact until the GDR period. After 1942, Saxony became a center of arms production.<br/><br/>After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Allies took over the administration of Germany. Except for a few exceptions from May to July 1945, when the Americans occupied the areas around Leipzig and Rochlitz, Saxony belonged to the Soviet occupation zone. In the summer of 1945, dismantling began on the basis of resolutions passed by the Potsdam Conference. In October 1945 the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) withdrew the power of disposal over the enterprises from many entrepreneurs and supervisory boards by order 124. On 30 June 1946, the electorate of Saxony was called to a referendum on the "Act on the Transfer of Enterprises of Nazi and War Criminals into the Property of the People", 77.6 of which were in favour of expropriation. On this basis, 1,861 enterprises became the property of the people. 635 enterprises converted the occupying power into Soviet joint-stock companies (SAG enterprises). These were then handed over to the GDR as state-owned enterprises until the end of 1953. <br/><br/>With Order No. 64 of the SMAD of 17 April 1948, the sequestration procedure was terminated. Some of the enterprises were transferred to the German administration as state-owned enterprises. Another part of the companies was returned to the former owners. At that time, there were also many companies with trusteeships or "in administration" for which a state-appointed trustee had been appointed. Even after the GDR was founded, there was still a relatively large private sector. The efforts of the SED party and state leadership aimed at the gradual conversion of all enterprises into national property, including the possibility for private enterprises to take up state ownership from 1956. A decision by the Council of Ministers on 9 February 1972 formed the basis for further nationalisation measures for most private and state-owned enterprises and a number of industrial production cooperatives in the craft sector (PGH). In the course of the organisation of the state-owned industry in Saxony, industrial administrations were established in June 1946 to manage the associated companies. These were subordinate to the head office of the state-owned/ state-owned companies of the Ministry of Economics and Economic Planning and existed until the summer of 1948. <br/><br/>In July 1948, on the basis of Command No. 76 of the SMAD Vereinigungen Volkseigener Betriebe (VVB) (SMAD Associations of People's Owned Enterprises), a new company was created. These were on the one hand the centrally managed VVB (Z), which were subordinate to the main administrations of the German Economic Commission, and on the other hand the VVB at Land level (L), which were subordinate to the Ministries of Economic Affairs of the Länder, offices for state-owned enterprises. After the foundation of the GDR, the state-owned industry was reorganized. By decree of 22 December 1950, the VVB (L) were dissolved in 1951. Important companies were now directly under the control of the central administrations of the specialist ministries of the GDR. A few VVBs with enterprises of more than local importance were newly formed, the remaining enterprises were handed over to the facilities of the local industry. The transfer of economic and legal independence to the VEB in 1952 meant that the remaining VVB lost their original tasks and were dissolved. They were replaced by administrations of state-owned enterprises (VVB). They exercised guiding and controlling functions on behalf of the main administrations of a specialised ministry or State Secretariat. In contrast to the associations of state-owned enterprises, the administrations of state-owned enterprises were not legally independent. Their number declined sharply until 1958. The two-stage management system, i.e. the direct subordination of companies to a head office, became more and more established. At the same time, a number of central administrations, especially in the light industry sector, were responsible for industrial branch lines (IZL). <br/><br/>In implementation of the Act on the Perfection and Simplification of the State Apparatus of the GDR of 11 February 1958, new associations of state-owned enterprises with subordination to the State Planning Commission were created for the management and planning of the centrally managed VEB. The management of the non-centrally subordinated enterprises was assumed by the economic councils of the district councils. These were dissolved in 1963 and replaced by industrial departments. The grouping and allocation of enterprises to VVB took place in such a way that enterprises with the same production or with successive production stages or mixed production were grouped together in one VVB. The status and tasks of the VVB were determined by the ordinances of 28 March and 27 August 1973. In the course of the formation of the combine at the end of the 1970s, the line form previously practiced by the intermediate VVBs became superfluous. Therefore, VVB was dissolved on a large scale. At the beginning of the 1980s there were only a few VVB left in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food. Isolated state-owned industrial combines already existed in the GDR in the 1950s, although their number remained limited. It was not until 1978/79 that the companies in industry and construction merged to form large scale combines with economic management functions. In addition to centrally controlled combines, district controlled combines have also existed since 1981. A combine could take over the task of an industrial branch line instead of the VVB. This led to the dissolution of VVB in individual branches of industry, e.g. in basic industries. Other combines were assigned to an existing VVB, which thus retained its branch management function (e.g. metal processing industry and light industry). A combine consisted of enterprises characterised either by product commonality, by the manufacturing process or by a technological dependence of the production stages. Even existing large enterprises were able to obtain the status of a combine by being detached from their previous subordination relationship. The formation, tasks and status of the state-owned combines are laid down in ordinances of 16 October 1968, 28 March 1973 and 8 November 1979. This gave the Combines greater rights to manage the entire reproduction process. Since 1984, the previously independent combinatorial lines have been dissolved. The combines were now managed via the parent companies. As a rule, the general director of the combine was also the head of the parent plant. <br/><br/>The Ordinance on the Transformation of State-owned Combinations, Enterprises and Facilities into Corporations of 1 March 1990 and the Act on the Privatisation and Reorganisation of State-owned Property (Treuhandgesetz) of 17 June 1990 led to the privatisation and unbundling of the State-owned economic sector.

Saxon State Archives (Archivtektonik)

Es gilt die Sächsische Archivbenutzungsverordnung (SächsGVBl. Jg.2003, Bl.-Nr. 4 S. 79)

• German

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Original description: Archivportal-D

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