Translations:Hauptseite/53/en
The specific reason for the timing of the company establishment before the end of the year was the result of the local elections in Schleswig-Holstein on 13 October 1946, in which the SPD won 41.1 percent of the vote. It was assumed that the Social Democrats would also gain a majority in the state elections scheduled for the following year. The worry was that they would implement expropriation plans. The Social Democrats and the trade unions propagated the expropriation of key industries or companies that were involved in the armaments industry during the Second World War, including the Carlshütte. Käte Ahlmann wrote in a letter on 13 December: "We thought this measure (meaning the company registration) was still the right thing to do in the old year, since one never knows what new prohibitions will come at the end of this year."