
Wirtschaftliche
Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H.
Interrogation of Herr
Helmut Plote
of the Construction
Department
BIOS Final Report No. 122
Addendum
The Board of Trade
German Division (Documents Unit)
Lansdowne House
Berkley Square W.1.
July 8th - 11th, 1945
Reported by:-
Mr. H.L. West
British Ministry of Fuel & Power
BIOS Target No. C 30/1.19(c)
Organisation of WIFO
Keywords: Herr Plote appeared an
intelligent man and appeared to have a good, if somewhat limited, knowledge of
the organisation and supplied quite a wealth of information on the whole
concern; WIFO Headquarters Berlin; Herr Plote aged 37 andf traioned as a
mechanical engineer; WIFO = Wirtschaftliche Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H. was
founded in 1934 with capital of RM. 100,000, the capital being jointly
subscribed by the I.G.Farben one part and the Government four parts. The
original object was to store petroleum products and to manufacture nitric acid.
Later in 1934 the capital was increased to 100,00,00 all held by the
Governement, the object then being to store all military and economic reserves,
particularly petroleum products, both for the Wehrmacht and industry, and to
manufacture certain chemicals (apparently these were the main chemicals required
for explosives; The management of the concern was directed by a board of
directors and five main departments. The General Director was Franz Wehling,
deputy General Director Friedrich Frey with Hans Attig, Albert Henne and Prankel
to complete the board; Norbert Hartung - Stock Supervision - Gembalski Buying
and Selling - Dipl.Ing. Jogun - Technical Works Supervisor - Dr.Ing. Kiemstedt
Chemical Quality Supervisor; Air Force (GAF) Fuels & Lubricants; Quantities and
dispositions - Hartung Minsitry Ahrens; Frontline supply and recalls - Hartung
Ministry Baum; Quality control - Dr. Kiemstedt Ministry Dr. Beyer; New
Construction and Extensions of plants - Levsen Ministry Dr. Nocker - Frigate
Capt. (OKW) Griebel; Army Fuels and Lubricants: Qualities and disposition WIFO
Heynold until beginning 1944; Frontline supply and recalls WIFO Hartung Norkus
from beginning 1944; Quality control WIFO Dr. Kiemstedt Ministry Dr. Hagemann -
Dr. K.O. Müller; New Construction and Extensions of Plants WIFO Plote and
Heynold until beginning 1944 WIFO Levsen Norkus from beginning
1944; Before the war WIFO was concerned mainly with buying aviation, army and
industrial products for reserve storage. For example, in 1935 to 1936 WIFO
bought aviation products direct from U.S.A. (from Standard Oil Co. of New Jersy,
in which transactionsn the Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft were
intimately connected) and from Mexico. These products were transferred to the
WIFO depots. Later they bought direct from Roumania via Astra, Romano Americana
and Creditul Minier. Subsequently, as other countries were over-run WIFO (in
Paris 1940) purchased stocks and products from French Companies, undertyook
constructual perairs to refineries and arranged manufacture: the French WIFO
organisation was practically independent of the WIFO H.Q. Berlin, Much the same
type of organisation existed in other occupied countries. Z.B. = Zentral Büro
für Mineralöl; WIFO tended to by-pass the Z.B. and purchased direct from
refineries, producers of synthetic products and coal tar manufacturers; ...
Plote alleged that all Ethyl Flüid plants were constructed and owned by WIFO;
The oil storage and blending installations were divided into four classes,
namely Grosslager or Hauptlager - large installations dealing mainly with
products for the Luftwaffe and to a smaller extent with Army supplies -
Heereslager or Heerestanklager - being as the name suggest depots concerned
solely with Army products ... Grosstanklager code-names: Derben Camouflage name
Löwenberg .. München = Münchberg .. Stassfurt = Bela .. Heerestanklager
Amstetten = Ammenau ..Heiligenstadt = Heiligau .. Lufttanklager Annaburg =
Elbtal .. Dülmen = Westtal ..Marinelager Einswarden .. ; Disruption WIFO .. ;
WIFO France Places in which in 1940 Heereslager were set up in France .. Paris
.. Honfleur .. Cherbourg .. Rennes ..Tankholzlager .. As is well known the
Germans relied to a considerable extent on the use of producer gas generators
for operation of internal road transport. Whereas civilian transport had to make
do with coal, coke, anthracits etc. .. ; Pipe Lines .. It is probably already
known that pipes lines were used by the Germans for transportation of their
petroleum supplies ... Ploesti to Guirgui - Raudnitz (Roudnici to Vienna
(300 mm diam. 1940) .. Neusiedl to Vienna .. Stassfurt to Güssen .. Farge to
Osterholz .. Five pipe lines across the Rhine; Natural Gas Lines Bentheim to
Hülz .. Langensalza ? Rumanian gas lines .. Of the above projects probably the
most interesting is the five pipe lines across the Rhine, as it would appear
that this is the first intimation that has been obtained of their existence. It
is known that three of these were completed .. T-Stoff were all called
Sonderstoff .... ; Bomb damage to Oil Installations; Geilenberg Programme; The
WIFO organisation appears to have been one of the most important of the State
organisations connected with the prossecution of the war. .. The fact that
it would appear that only trusted Nazi party members were allowed to hold
executive office indicates that its activities may not be above suspicion
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