<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> Within just a few decades, the aluminum industry became one of the most important raw materials industries. Manfred Knauer describes the most important phases in the development of the aluminum industry in Germany, beginning in 1886 with the invention of fused-salt electrolysis, the critical requisite for manufacturing aluminum on an industrial scale.