Frozen Fillets from the Far North: German Demand for Norwegian Fish

Soon after the outbreak of World War II, the German deep-sea fishery came to an abrupt halt as trawlers could no longer reach their main catching grounds off Iceland, in the Barents Sea and the North Sea. Naval and aerial warfare, including minefields laid by both sides, as well as the requisitioning of trawlers and the drafting of fishermen, brought the off-shore fisheries of most European nations almost to a standstill. Once Germany and Great Britain were at war, this development certainly came as a surprise to no one; in fact it merely represented a repetition of what had already happened in 1914. Nevertheless, when it comes to fisheries and fish consumption in Germany, the situation in 1939–45 differed in two regards from the First World War: First, the National Socialist regime had previously tried to increase fish consumption in various ways as part of their autarky policy in the 1930s, and second, the German war economy could still count on considerable fish supplies from the occupied countries, especially from Norway, following 1940.