Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
| Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach | |
|---|---|
 Dr. jur. Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1931) | |
| Born | 7 August 1870[1] The Hague, Netherlands[1] |
| Died | 16 January 1950 (aged 79)[1] Blühnbach Castle near Salzburg, Austria |
| Alma mater | University of Heidelberg |
| Occupation | German heavy industry conglomerate, Friedrich Krupp AG 1909–1943 |
| Spouse | ∞ 1906 Bertha Krupp |
| Children | 8 children (6 sons) |
Gustav Georg Friedrich Maria Bohlen-Halbach, since 1871 von Bohlen und Halbach, since 1906 Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (7 August 1870 – 16 January 1950), was a German officer, diplomat and industrialist. He was head of the German Friedrich Krupp AG heavy industry conglomerate from 1909 until 1941. He was indicted for prosecution at the 1945 Nuremberg Trials, but the charges were dropped because of his failing health.
Life
He was born the son of a German diplomat in the Hague Dr. jur. Gustav Georg Friedrich Bohlen-Halbach. The elder Gustav had made his family fortune in the coal and iron fields of Pennsylvania and had decided to return home once Germany became a unified nation (German Empire). Son Gustav also became a diplomat too, serving in Washington, D.C., Peking and the Vatican City.
He married Bertha Krupp in October 1906. Bertha had inherited the company in 1902 at age 16 when her father, Friedrich Krupp, had committed suicide. Kaiser Wilhelm II personally led a search for a suitable spouse for Bertha, as it was considered unthinkable for the Krupp empire to be headed by a woman. The Kaiser announced at the wedding that Gustav would be allowed to add the Krupp name to his own. Gustav became company chairman in 1909.
After 1910, Krupp became a member and major funder of the Pan German League (Alldeutscher Verband) which mobilised popular support in favour of two army bills in 1912 and 1913 to raise Germany's standing army to 738,000 men. Krupp's sole proviso in providing the finance was that the rank and file should never know who was paying the bills.
By the First World War, the company had a near monopoly in heavy arms manufacture in Germany. At the start of the war, the company lost access to most of its overseas markets, but this was more than offset by increased demand for weapons from Germany and her allies. One of the company's products was a 94-ton howitzer named Big Bertha after his wife. He also won the lucrative contract for Germany's U-boats, which were built at the family's shipyard in Kiel.
After the war, Krupp was widely criticized within Germany for the profits he had made from it. In 1902, before Krupp's marriage, the company leased a fuse patent to Vickers Limited of the United Kingdom--thus placing Krupp in the odd position of profiting from Germany's war dead.
The Versailles Treaty prevented Germany from making armaments and U-boats, forcing Krupp to significantly reduce his labour force. His company diversified to agricultural equipment, vehicles and consumer goods. However, using the profits from the Vickers patent deal and subsidies from the Weimar government, Krupp secretly began the rearming of Germany with the ink barely dry on Versailles. It secretly continued to work on artillery through subsidiaries in Sweden, and built submarine pens in the Netherlands. In the 1930s it restarted manufacture of tanks and other war material, again using foreign subsidiaries.
Krupp was a member of the Prussian State Council from 1921 to 1933. He opposed the NSDAP until 1933, when he was persuaded that they would help his company by destroying the trade unions and by increasing the size of the armed forces. He helped finance the election of 1933, which enabled Hitler to strengthen his tenuous grip on the government.
Krupp subsequently became the chairman of the Association of German Industrialists, and helped drive out all of its Jewish members. He also chaired the Adolf Hitler Spende, a political fundraising organization for the Party.
Krupp suffered failing health from 1939 onwards, and a stroke left him partially paralysed in 1941.
He became a figurehead until he formally handed over the running of the business to his son Alfried in 1943. Following the Allied victory, plans to prosecute Gustav Krupp as a war criminal at the 1945 Nuremberg Trials were dropped because by then he was bedridden.
Death
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach died in the Republic of Austria in 1950.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Trial Watch (2008). Retrieved on 2008-10-01.
