The Inportance of the Marshall Plan for the Electrical Power industry in North Rhine Westphalia

The thesis "The Importance of the Marshall Plan for the Power Electric Industry in North Rhine Westphalia" deals with the influence of the Marshall Plan on the power supply in this state. It describes the role of the American help in the reconstruction of the most important electric power public utilities. The thesis concentrates on the period 1948-1952 during which the counterpart funds were provided. There were more reasons to choose the state North Rhine Westphalia as a research basis. Most of the German industry was concentrated on this area. Therefore there was the highest consumption of electricity in Germany. On the same time, because of the concentration of many important electrical companies North Rhine Westphalia was the biggest producer of electricity in Germany. Therefore this state was also to provide electricity supplies to other German states. The thesis depicts if the Marshall Plan contributed to the reconstruction of the two chosen companies RWE and VEW. It examines which kinds of project were mostly supported. It also concentrates on the cooperation between the management of the companies, the German institutions and the American administrators of the Marshall Plan. Finally the thesis concludes that because of its size and importance RWE profited more than the smaller company VEW. Powered...