„Alles war in wirrer Bewegung auf ein vollkommenes Chaos hin“ Otto Braun, Hermann Neubacher, die „Deutsch-Griechische Warenausgleichsgesellschaft mbH“ (DEGRIGES) und die Wirtschaft Griechenlands 1942–1944 / „Everything Was in Confusion and a Movement, Heading toward Complete Chaos“ Otto Braun, Hermann Neubacher, the „Deutsch-Griechische Warenausgleichsgesellschaft mbH“ (DEGRIGES, „German-Greek Organization for the Balancing of Trade), and the Economy of Greece 1942–1944

Abstract

In 1942, one year after the occupation of Greece by the German “Wehrmacht”, the “Reichswirtschaftsministerium” set up the DEGRIGES (Deutsch-Griechische Warenausgleichsgesellschaft / German-Greek organization for the exchange of goods) for the control of trade between Germany and Greece.

The president was Otto Braun, owner of the Berlin-based „Transdanubia“, an Import- Export-Company. Braun organised in the 1920s in Bavaria illegal arms depots, and commanded „Feme“-murders. In Hungary he supported the fascists, and achieves the „aryanization“ of Jewish companies.

The focus of the investigation is on the activities of the DEGRIGES in the network of competing organizations like the greek branch of NSDAP, the Sudosteuropa-Gesellschaft, the SACIG (the Italian counterpart of DEGRIGES), and the Mitteleuropaischer Wirtschaftstag (MWT) − and on the competition with Hermann Neubacher, „Sonderbeauftrager“ of the Foreign Office for Greece, and Max Merten, one of the organizers of the deportation of the greek Jews to Auschwitz.

In summary, it can be stated that the DEGRIGES was from 1942 until 1944 (when it was liquidated during the withdrawal of the “Wehrmacht”) an „agency for the wellarranged exploitation of Greece“.