Rud. Prey During the World Wars
Among the many crises of the past hundred-plus years, two events stand out in particular: the world wars! As a shipbuilding and mechanical engineering company based in Kiel—a city known as the “Reichskriegsmarinestadt” (Imperial Naval City) and located directly on the Kiel Fjord—the company was shaped by three key factors during wartime: contracts from the arms industry, destruction, and forced labor.
On the one hand, preparations for war and wartime activities led to increased demand from the defense industry, particularly from the nearby shipyards with their production of warships. During the war, Rud. Prey manufactured not only products for the private sector but also goods for the war economy, such as artillery transport vehicles and torpedo launch ramps.
On the other hand, World War II ultimately resulted in devastating destruction for the city of Kiel, which also claimed the production facilities and residence of the Rudolf Prey family of entrepreneurs, located in the immediate vicinity of the shipyards along the waterfront.
The military buildup leading up to the wars initially fueled workforce growth as well, though with the inevitable consequences. While the company employed over 260 workers immediately before World War I, that number at times dropped to fewer than ten as the war drew to a close.
The war also competed with companies for personnel. Many employees were drafted into military service and replaced by foreign specialists.
Forced Labor
There are various ways to examine the issue of forced labor and the employment of foreign workers in Kiel during World War II: through a statistical analysis of archival material and through surviving eyewitness accounts.
One challenge in statistical analysis is the lack of data, as many archives—both corporate and public—have been severely depleted by air raids or even deliberately destroyed.
Although eyewitness accounts provide a very detailed picture of the working and living conditions of forced laborers and foreign workers in Kiel, only a few workers have spoken publicly about their experiences in this regard or have been interviewed by historians.
In the case of Rud. Prey, there is an employee directory in which the names, places of residence, nationalities, dates of birth, dates of hire, and dates of termination—as well as, in some cases, comments by or about the employees, foreign workers, and forced laborers—are recorded. To a limited extent, these entries also allow conclusions to be drawn about the living and working conditions of the foreign workers.
Forced labor in Kiel became increasingly widespread during the war, reaching its peak around the turn of 1943–44 with approximately 35,000 foreign workers. At times, approximately 22% of the workforce in Kiel consisted of foreigners.
It can be stated that the system for recruiting foreign workers became increasingly restrictive and brutal as the war progressed. While many workers from Western countries came to Germany voluntarily at the start of the war, the invasion of the former Soviet Union gradually transformed this voluntary participation into forced recruitment or even deportation.
This trend can also be traced in the Rud. Prey archives. According to the employee directory, the company employed a total of 65 forced laborers and other foreign workers of the following nationalities during the war: 48 Russians and Ukrainians (often listed twice in the same entry), eight Belgians, six Czechs, one Dane, one Dutchman, and one Frenchman.
Two months after the war began, four Czech skilled workers were hired, and by January 1941, another Czech worker, as well as a Danish and a Dutch skilled worker, had joined them. The skilled workers who were recruited in Western Europe at the start of the war were able to move about freely, lived in private accommodations in Kiel, Neumünster, and Rendsburg, and were largely treated on an equal footing with German workers.
They had nothing to fear in terms of repression as long as they adhered to their contractual obligations. These employment relationships were based on intergovernmental agreements that governed the framework conditions for foreign workers. Agreements were in place with, among others, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and France.
In June 1942, another 17 Russian and Ukrainian workers were added, followed by eight more in November. Between 1943 and 1945, an additional 22 Russians, eight Belgians, and one Frenchman were hired.
Workers from Eastern Europe who were caught up in the German forced-labor system often remained trapped in it until the end of the war. Repatriation was only provided for in cases of pregnancy or serious illness, though there was also turnover among the various workplaces. Rud. Prey’s employee directory confirms this trend: In May 1945, 28 forced and foreign laborers were still employed there.
It has been documented that over 200 companies, government agencies, hospitals, skilled-trade businesses, and private households in Kiel employed forced laborers. These workers were housed in communal accommodations and camps. There were well over 100 camps throughout the city of Kiel, one of which was located in the immediate vicinity of the company’s current site in Hassee—the so-called “Nordmark Labor Education Camp,” where 578 inmates lost their lives.
Conclusion:
No business owner in Kiel was forced to hire forced laborers or to join National Socialist organizations, such as the Reich Labor Front, or even to become active in them. Businesses requested workers from the employment office, which then assigned them. If a business owner chose not to hire foreign workers, he risked economic losses, as he could, for example, be excluded from public contracts awarded by the War Damage Office or the arms industry.
In addition to its private-sector production, the Rud. Prey company was active during the Nazi era both at the shipyards and in repairing war damage—for example, at the neighboring train station.
