Since the end of the 1920s, the Wintershall AG developed from a potash-mining company to a congolmerate expanding into business segments such as the production and processing of crude oil and the production of magnesium. The corporate group tried to safeguard this strategic realignment by establishing contacts to the NSDAP even well before 1933. Subsequently, the company was able to rapidly and successfully establish itself in the context of the autarky-policy and armaments effort of the Third Reich. During the war, Wintershall participated in the race for resources in the occupied territories and profited from Aryanization, as well as foreign and forced labor. These three issues form the main thematic focus of this publication.

Manfred Grieger, born 1960, is honorary professor at the Institute for Economic and Social history at Georg-August-University Göttingen. His most recent publications include: Gifhorner Juden im Nationalsozialismus. Diskriminierung, Ausgrenzung, Deportation und Überleben (Gifhorn 2018); Sartorius im Nationalsozialismus. Generationswechsel im Familienunternehmen zwischen Welt-wirtschaftskrise und Entnazifizierung (Göttingen 2019). Dr. phil. Ingo Köhler, born 1971, private lecturer at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and coordinatiors assistant of the DFG priority programme 1859 Experience and Expectation. Historical Foundations of Economic Behaviour at Humboldt-University of Berlin; His main publication topics include: Business History, Economic History focussing on the National-Socialist time period as well as the history of marketing and market research after 1945. Dr. Rainer Karlsch (Institute of Contemporary History München-Berlin), born 1957, studied economic history at Humboldt-University of Berlin. In 1996, he won the first prize of the Stinnes Stiftung for his book "Allein bezahlt? Die Reparationsleistungen der SBZ/DDR 1945-53". His past publications include: Faktor Öl. Die Mineralölwirtschaft in Deutschland 1859-1974, München 2003 (along with Raymond Stokes); Wirtschaftsgeschichte Sachsens im Industriezeitalten (along with Michael Schäfer), Leipzig 2006; Uran für Moskau, Die Wismut eine populäre Geschichte, Berlin 2007; Leuna - 100 Jahre Chemie, Löbejün 2016.