Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach

Childhood and youth

Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was born the eldest son of his parents Gustav and Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach at the Krupp family residence, Villa Hügel, where he grew up together with his siblings. His godfather was Kaiser Wilhelm II. He attended the Realgymnasium in Essen-Bredeney, now the Goetheschule, studied engineering in Munich, Berlin and Aachen from 1928 to 1934 and graduated from the TH Aachen with a degree in engineering. He then completed a traineeship at Dresdner Bank in Berlin.^{[citation needed]}

Entry into the company

Alfried began working at Fried. Krupp AG in 1935, first working in the company's Essen headquarters. On 1 October 1936, he became an acting director of the company with the rank of procurator. In the same year, he became assistant to the manager of Krupp's armament and artillery divisions. In 1938, he became managing director of Krupp's raw materials and armament divisions. On 22 March 1941, he joined the board of directors.

In March 1943, Alfried 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 Führererlass Lex Krupp.^[2] On 15 December 1943, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach became the sole owner of the Krupp company. ^[3] The purpose of the Lex Krupp was also to save the company the payment of inheritance 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 17 June 1944.^{[citation needed]}

Relations with National Socialism

Alfried had been a supporting member of the SS since 1931. He was a member of the National Socialist Flyers Corps, in which he ultimately held the rank of Standartenführer. In 1937, like his father, he was appointed military economy leader. He was also his father's deputy as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Adolf Hitler Fund of German Trade and Industry.^{[citation needed]}

Alfried was admitted to the Nazi Party on 1 December 1938 (membership number 6,989,627). The application for membership was submitted on 11 November 1938.^[4] 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 the Wehrmacht and their reconstruction in Germany. Alfried was awarded the War Merit Cross II and I Class.^{[citation needed]}

In 2022 the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation commissioned historian Eckart Conze, Professor of Modern and Recent History at Philipps-Universität Marburg, to conduct a scientific research project of Alfried Krupp's role during the Nazi era.^[5] 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.^[6]

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 the Society 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.^[7][8]

Use of forced labourers during the Second World War

During the World War II, Fried. Krupp, like all other large German companies, employed forced labourers. Due to the constant fluctuation, a total number cannot be determined, but the highest number of prisoners of war and foreign civilian and forced labourers on a given date was around 25,000 on 1 January 1943. It is now assumed that there were at least 100,000 forced labourers.^[9]

From mid-1942, the company planned the production sites "Berthawerk" in Markstädt (Lower Silesia) and Auschwitz in particular, without government pressure, because forced labourers from concentration 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, Alfried testified that the initiative for the Auschwitz site had come from the Upper 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.^[4]

Relationships in trade associations

Alfried was a co-founder in 1941 and subsequently a member of the executive committee of the Reichsvereinigung Kohle and from 1942 deputy chairman of the Reichsvereinigung Eisen. He was also a member of the Advisory Board of the Ausfuhrgemeinschaft für Kriegsgerät and a member of the board of directors of Berg- und Hüttenwerksgesellschaft Ost mbH (BHO).^{[citation needed]}

Imprisonment and the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial

On 11 April 1945, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was placed under arrest by American troops in the Villa Hügel, later transferred to the Staumühle internment camp and interrogated there until the trial began.^[10] After the Allies had initially intended to indict his father Gustav in the first Nuremberg trial against the main war 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.^{[citation needed]}

In 1948, he was sentenced to twelve years in prison and the confiscation of all his assets for slave labour (use of forced labourers) and the plundering of economic assets in occupied foreign countries. In the indictment, he was also accused of planning a war of aggression and the associated conspiracy. 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 UK Daily 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."^[11]

Amnesty and the Mehlem Treaty

On the basis of a report by independent American experts, Alfried was pardoned by decision of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany John Jay McCloy on 31 January 1951 and released early from the Landsberg Prison which was used by the Allied powers for holding Nazi War Criminals.^{[citation needed]}

In 1953, the so-called Mehlem Agreement was concluded between Alfried Krupp and the governments of the US, Great Britain and France. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Renewed entrepreneurial activity

In March 1953, Alfried took over the management of the company again. At the end of the same year, he brought Berthold 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 leading steel producer. Although the mining and smelting operations were subsequently separated - as provided for in the Mehlem Agreement - they were not ultimately sold. Instead, they were combined in 1960 and merged with Bochumer Verein für Gussstahlfabrikation AG.^{[citation needed]}

Establishment of the Foundation and death

Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach died of heart failure at the age of 59.^[12] In a Spiegel report from 1967, journalist Gerhard Mauz describes the funeral service. The report is one-sided and praises Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach uncritically,^{[citation needed]} without mentioning his historical background: "»The firm we love to hate« was once a British definition of the Krupp company. It captured the ambivalent feelings abroad toward the gentlemen of the Ruhr, one of whose most distinguished members has now passed away." The report claims that 18,000 people filed past his coffin, but it is unclear how this was done.^{[clarification needed]} The funeral service was attended by the then Federal President Heinrich Lübke, Bundestag President Eugen Gerstenmaier and Minister President Heinz Kühn.^[13]

In 1967, he ordered the establishment of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and spoke about the “social obligation of property in the history of my family.”^[12]

Newman portrait

Newsweek commissioned portrait photographer Arnold Newman to take Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach's portrait in 1963. Newman initially refused due to his Jewish heritage, but relented and shot the portrait. The portrait portrays Alfried, leaning forward at the camera with his hands clasped under his chin, as "sinister" and "Mephistopheles incarnate". Alfried detested the photograph, threatening to make Newman a "persona non grata in Germany". The portrait was nonetheless published and became one of Newman's most famous works; Newman later admitted that he chose to portray Alfried in an unflattering manner as a form of revenge for his wartime crimes and friendship with Hitler.^[17][18]

Record collection

After his death, Alfried's record collection went to the Folkwang University in Essen. Even before his death (1966), he had donated part of the Villa Hügel library to the Ruhr University Bochum.^{[citation needed]}

Sailing

Alfried was an enthusiastic sailor. At the sailing competitions of the 1936 Summer Olympics off Kiel, he won the bronze medal for Germany with the crew of his 8mR racing yacht Germania III.^[19] He later had the yachts Germania V (1956), which he donated to the Deutscher Hochseesportverband HANSA, and Germania VI (1963) built, with which he also actively sailed.^[20]