ABSTRACT
This chapter defines that basic industries as the Ruhr coal industry, the steel and the electrical power industries were of particular importance during the reconstruction process. Although there was little damage to the pits themselves in 1945, of all the economic sectors described here Ruhr coal mining was the one most affected by Nazi rule and the impact of war. The Kreditanstalt fÜr Wiederaufbau (KfW) claimed that France had invested four times as much money as Germany in coal mining between 1948 and 1952 but they did not mention the fact that the French started from a much lower level of Gross Capital Investment. The Ministry for Ecomomic Co-operation gave the KfW a commitment for DM 300 million from the European Recovery Program Special Assets for a long-term investment programme of which DM 110 million were scheduled for the Saar's iron and steel industry.
