Deutschlands »Drang nach Südosten«

In 1931, the heavy industry at Rhine and Ruhr took over the Berlin-based German section of the “Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftstag” (MWT). The president of the association, Tilo von Wilmowsky, was a protagonist of engineered and economically organized agriculture. He was also the brother-in-law of Gustav Krupp, giving him the ability to bring about a marriage between „manor and furnace“ and to discover – later with the help of IG-Farben director Max Ilgner and Ulrich von Hassell – a way out of the German crisis of export and agriculture.With distance to the racist policies of the NS-regime and partly in opposition to its foreign trade policies, 1931-1945 the MWT took part in the construction of a “Großwirtschaftsraum”, led by Germany. The MWT tried to retain the position of the “free entrepreneurship” in the context of “ordered capitalism”, and, at the same time, improved as a developing company the living conditions in the “Ergänzungsraum” South-East Europe by sustainable farming projects in order to create a suitable market for the goods of the MWT-members.