1945-1999 - Thyssen during the Cold War
Fritz Thyssen's widow, Amelie proved resourceful: she found loopholes in the Allied decartelization decrees and gradually welded together much of the old steel dynasty. On allied orders, the company is liquidated after the war, and in 1953 a new August Thyssen-Hütte AG is established in Duisburg with the sole purpose of putting the largely dismantled Thyssen iron and steelworks back into operation. The other Duisburg-based iron and steel mills of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG initially go it alone as legally independent companies before returning to the Thyssen group in the 1950s and 1960s. Only the Thyssen mining company transferred to Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG in 1926 does not return to the old group.
In the 1950s and 1960s August Thyssen-Hütte AG expands to a steel group. In 1954/55 August Thyssen-Hütte AG initially concentrates on acquisitions in the vertically upstream mining and rock products industries to restore its raw materials base. Subsequent horizontal diversification is effected by acquiring majority interests in Niederrheinische Hütte AG (1956), Deutsche Edelstahlwerke AG (1957), Phoenix-Rheinrohr AG Vereinigte Hütten- und Röhrenwerke (1964) and Hüttenwerk Oberhausen AG (1968).
In 1963 the Common Market approved in principle a major reconcentration of the Ruhr's legendary but war-splintered Thyssen steel empire. The six-nation High Authority said that a "favorable decision" can be expected within a month on the petition of the August Thyssen Corp. to buy out the nearby Phoenix-Rheinrohr Corp., which was a part of the Thyssen empire before the Allied occupiers broke it up. The result: a 7,000,000-ton, $1 billion-a-year combine that would vie with Italy's Finsider as Europe's largest steelmaker.
The group's range takes in sectional and flat products in all grades through to high-alloy stainless steel; rationalization gains are made by mutually coordinating production operations. In parallel, the iron and steel mills, which had been regarded as optimally sized, were rapidly enlarged. By the mid 1960s, August Thyssen-Hütte AG is Europe's biggest producer of crude steel and ranks number five worldwide. In addition to horizontal diversification, from 1960 a trading organization, Handelsunion AG, is added which in 1969 is renamed Thyssen Handelsunion AG. In the decades that follow, Thyssen Handelsunion AG evolves from an exclusive steel trader into a versatile service provider, concentrating by the mid 1990s on its core businesses materials, industrial and facility services, and project management.
The final phase of horizontal diversification at August Thyssen-Hütte AG leads to specialization through cooperation. In 1969 Mannesmann AG and August Thyssen-Hütte AG agree to a division of responsibilities, summed up in the phrase "tubes for Mannesmann, rolled steel for Thyssen".
By the end of the 1960s August Thyssen-Hütte AG is a monostructured steel group. It starts to change direction in 1973 with the acquisition of Rheinstahl AG, whose operations focus on manufacturing. This takeover reduces August Thyssen-Hütte AG's dominance in the steel sector and it becomes a conglomerate. The broad-based activities of Rheinstahl AG are combined with the corresponding Thyssen businesses in the four newly formed divisions Capital Goods and Manufactured Products, Trading and Services, Stainless Steel and Steel. Consequently August Thyssen-Hütte AG changes its name in 1977 to Thyssen Aktiengesellschaft vorm. August Thyssen-Hütte. To document the fact that Rheinstahl AG now represents the manufacturing division of the Thyssen Group, it is renamed Thyssen Industrie AG in 1976.
In September 1995 Fritz Thyssen's grandsons, Counts Claudio and Federico Zichy-Thyssen, announce their withdrawal from the company Thyssen AG form. August Thyssen-Hütte and sell their shares (15.38%) to Commerzbank. Since the two counts left the supervisory board of Thyssen AG on March 22, 1997, no descendants of the company founder have been involved with the company.
As early as the 1980s negotiations are conducted on a merger of Thyssen Stahl AG and Krupp Stahl AG. Although the proposed alliance cannot be realized in 1983, the two companies cooperate closely in selected business areas. In 1997 the two groups' flat steel activities are combined to form Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG. In August 1997 Thyssen and Krupp held talks on expanding their cooperation. They identify immense potential for strategic development and operating synergies in a full merger. This then took place on March 17, 1999, when Thyssen Krupp AG is entered in the Commercial Register.
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