Abfallwirtschaft und Ressourcenmanagement im Dritten Reich
The consideration of the history of the Third Reich from an approach concerning waste industry dues not only touch aspects of National Socialist economic policy, but also essential elements of social policy. Besides government agencies, representatives from economy and sciences, also the general public is concerned with waste management, and thus mainly with the transformation of formerly unused waste products into exploitable raw resources. In the following, it is attempted to deserche the areas of the waste industry (collection, handling/transport, sorting, reutilisation, treatment, accumulation) in the context of general National Socialist structures. The main focus is on a selection of material flows in the light of the extraction of secondary raw resources. Finally, it is also examined to which extent the system of National Socialist waste management resulted from a systemically conditioned necessity, whether it was due to the specific circumstances of the time, or if its peculiarity can be considered as a characteristic of totalitarian political systems.