Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach | |
|---|---|
 Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach 1946 mugshot | |
| Born | (1907-08-13)13 August 1907 |
| Died | 30 July 1967(1967-07-30) (aged 59) |
| Organization | ThyssenKrupp AG |
| Allegiance | Krupp family |
| Conviction | Crimes against humanity |
| Trial | Krupp trial (8 December 1947 – 31 July 1948) |
| Criminal penalty | 12 years imprisonment plus forfeiture of all property; reduced to time served and property forfeiture waived |
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Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (*August 13, 1907 inEssen; † July 30, 1967 ibid.) was a German engineer and the last personal sole owner of the companyFried. Krupp. The eldest of eight siblings, he came from theKrupp family on his mother's side and from thevon Bohlen und Halbach family on his father's side.
| Olympic medal record | ||
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| Men'sSailing | ||
Representing Germany | ||
 | 1936 Berlin | 8 Meter Class |
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was born the eldest son of his parentsGustav andBertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach at the Krupp family residence,Villa Hügel, where he grew up together with his siblings. His godfather wasKaiser Wilhelm II. He attended the Realgymnasium inEssen-Bredeney, now the Goetheschule, studied engineering inMunich,Berlin andAachen from 1928 to 1934 and graduated from theTH Aachen with a degree inengineering. He then completed atraineeship atDresdner Bank in Berlin.
In 1937, Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach married the daughter of a Hamburgmerchant, Annelise Lampert née Bahr (1909-1998). He had a son with her,Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach [1938-1986]. The marriage ended in divorce in 1941. Arndt was later found to be unsuitable to manage the Krupp company by his father and others.[1]
In 1952, Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was in his second marriage toVera Knauer née Hossenfeldt (divorced from Langen, Wisbar and Knauer, 1909-1967). The marriage ended in divorce in 1957.[2]
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was the last person with this surname. According to Wilhelm II's decree andAdolf Hitler'sLex Krupp, the suffix "Krupp" before the surname was only to be used by persons who were also owners of the Krupp company. With the transfer of the company to a foundation, this legal provision became obsolete.[3]
In March 1943, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach followed his father Gustav as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fried. Krupp AG. At this time, his mother Bertha held almost all the shares in Fried. Krupp AG. In 1943, Fried. Krupp AG was transformed from a stock corporation into a family business, the sole owner of which was to be a family member. Analogous to the imperial decree (name propagation letter), the name Krupp was placed before his respective family name to the owner by the so-called FührererlassLex Krupp.[4] The purpose of the Lex Krupp was also to save the company the payment ofinheritance tax. Von Bohlen und Halbach was therefore only allowed to put the name "Krupp" in front of his birth name with Adolf Hitler's authorization. His birth certificate was corrected at the Essen-Bredeney registry office on June 17, 1944.
On December 15, 1943, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach became the sole owner of the Krupp company. At this time, the company was a major industrial enterprise and one of the most important suppliers of armaments to theNational Socialist German Empire.
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach had been asupporting member of the SS since 1931. He was a member of theNational Socialist Flyers Corps, in which he ultimately held the rank ofStandartenführer. In 1937, like his father, he was appointed military economy leader. He was also his father's deputy as Chairman of theBoard of Trustees of theAdolf Hitler Fund of German Trade and Industry.
Alfried Krupp was admitted to theNSDAP on December 1, 1938 (membership number 6,989,627). The application for membership was submitted on November 11, 1938.[5] He was also a member of the Armaments Council of the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production. After the start of the war, he was responsible for the dismantling of factories in the territories occupied by theWehrmacht and their reconstruction in theGerman Empire. Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was awarded theWar Merit Cross II and I Class.
In 2022 theAlfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation commissioned historianEckart Conze, Professor of Modern and Recent History atPhilipps-Universität Marburg, to conduct a scientific research project of Alfried Krupp’s role during theNazi era.[6] As a result, a study was published in July 2023: The research project has uncovered sources that are being evaluated as part of further research in a second project phase.[7]
The second project phase began in 2024 and is dedicated to in-depth research based on the results and identified sources from the first project phase. The aim is a multi-perspective anthology, which is being compiled by eight authors and will also be published in English. The publication will be edited by theSociety for Business History. A digital application is being developed to accompany the publication with the aim of making the topic as accessible and location-independent as possible and to reach young target groups in particular.[8][9]
During theWorld War II, Fried. Krupp, like all other large German companies, employedforced labourers. Due to the constant fluctuation, a total number cannot be determined, but the highest number ofprisoners of war and foreign civilian and forced labourers on a given date was around 25,000 on January 1, 1943. It is now assumed that there were at least 100,000 forced labourers.[10]
From mid-1942, the company planned the production sites "Berthawerk" in Markstädt (Lower Silesia) andAuschwitz in particular, without government pressure, because forced labourers fromconcentration camps were available there. After the Ignition workshop in Essen was bombed out in March 1943, Auschwitz was chosen as an alternative production site at a meeting attended by Alfried Krupp. After the war, Krupp testified that the initiative for the Auschwitz site had come from theUpper Command of the Army. In fact, however, the suggestion came from representatives of the company. In September 1943, Alfried Krupp was still trying to keep the Auschwitz site for the company. At that time, 270 prisoners were working there for the company.[5]
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was a co-founder in 1941 and subsequently a member of the executive committee of theReichsvereinigung Kohle and from 1942 deputy chairman of theReichsvereinigung Eisen. He was also a member of the Advisory Board of theAusfuhrgemeinschaft für Kriegsgerät and a member of the Board of Directors ofBerg- und Hüttenwerksgesellschaft Ost mbH (BHO).
On April 11, 1945, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was placed under arrest byAmerican troops in the Villa Hügel, later transferred to the Staumühle internment camp and interrogated there until the trial began.[11] Afterthe Allies had initially intended to indict his father Gustav in the firstNuremberg trial against the mainwar criminals, but he was declared unfit to stand trial due to illness and weakness, the Americans indicted Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach together with eleven senior employees of the Krupp company in a separate trial (Case X:Krupp Trial) in 1947.
In 1948, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison and the confiscation of all his assets forslave labour (use of forced labourers) andtheplundering of economic assets in occupied foreign countries. In the indictment, he was also accused of planning a war of aggression and the associatedconspiracy. However, he was acquitted of this charge, as it was his father and not he who ran the company in the period before the World War II. In an interview with the LondonDaily Mail newspaper in 1959, when asked if he had "any sense of guilt", he replied: "What guilt? For what happened under Hitler? No. But it is regrettable that the German people themselves allowed themselves to be so deceived by Hitler."[12]
On the basis of a report by independent American experts, Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was pardoned by decision of the U.S. High Commissioner for GermanyJohn Jay McCloy on January 31, 1951 and released early from theLandsberg prison which was used by the Allied powers for holding Nazi War Criminals.
In 1953, the so-calledMehlem Agreement was concluded between Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and the governments of theUSA,Great Britain andFrance. Under this agreement, all his assets were returned to him under certain conditions. One of the key conditions was the provision that the mining and metallurgical operations would be separated from the Krupp Company and sold by 1959.
In March 1953, Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach took over the management of the company again. At the end of the same year, he broughtBerthold Beitz into the Group as his personal Chief Representative. He completely converted the company to civilian production, mainly plant engineering. The Fried. Krupp Company quickly regained its position as a leadingsteel producer. Although the mining and smelting operations were subsequently separated - as provided for in theMehlem Agreement - they were not ultimately sold. Instead, they were combined in 1960 and merged with Bochumer Verein für Gussstahlfabrikation AG.
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach died shortly before his sixtieth birthday because of the consequences oflung cancer. His coffin was passed by 18,000 people; the thenFederal PresidentHeinrich Lübke,[13]President of the BundestagEugen Gerstenmaier andMinister President ofNorth Rhine-WestphaliaHeinz Kühn spoke at the funeral service. Shortly before his death, he ordered the establishment of a Foundation, which was to be "an expression of the tradition of the House of Krupp committed to the common good". On his death, his entire estate was transferred to the foundation.[14]This was made possible by his son Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach's renunciation of his inheritance.
TheAlfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation commenced operations on January 1, 1968, uses the income it receives from its shareholding exclusively and directly for charitable purposes and is today the largest singleshareholder ofthyssenkrupp AG.[15]
After his death, Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach's record collection went to theFolkwang University in Essen. Even before his death (1966), he had donated part of the Villa Hügel library to theRuhr University Bochum.
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was an enthusiastic sailor. At the sailing competitions of the 1936Summer Olympics offKiel, he won the bronze medal for Germany with the crew of his8mR racing yachtGermania III.[16] He later had the yachtsGermania V (1956), which he donated to theDeutscher Hochseesportverband HANSA, andGermania VI (1963) built, with which he also actively sailed.[17]
In 1961, Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach received the Ring of Honor from the city of Essen, after the city of Essen had distanced itself from his parents Gustav and Bertha Krupp 15 years earlier and had revoked theirhonorary citizenship. Now, on the 150th anniversary of the Krupp company, Alfried was honoured. The anniversary speech was given by formerGerman PresidentTheodor Heuss. On the perception of Krupp in the post-war period, he said: "Let me put it quite drastically: the idea as if the procuration and the design office at (the armaments companies)Schneider-Creusot, atŠkoda [...] and so on were entrusted to heavenly angels, while the corresponding buildings at Krupp were a branch of the devilish hell. Throughout the millennia of human history, the manufacture of weapons [...] is a very simple historical fact, which one may certainly regret. But that does not eliminate it from the world."[18]
TheAlfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study (in German: Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald), the Alfried Krupp Hospital in Essen, the rescue cruiserAlfried Krupp, a chair for corporate and capital market law atBucerius Law School and the Alfried Krupp College on the campus ofJacobs University Bremen are named after him.
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