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Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
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Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (August 13, 1907 – July 30, 1967), often referred to as Alfried Krupp, was a member of the 400-year Krupp dynasty of industrialists in Germany, and head of the Krupp company, which is now part of ThyssenKrupp, during World War II. He was an early member of the Nazi party, and later the main defendant in the Krupp Trial, convicted, and pardoned. Alfried Krupp also competed in the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin in 8 Meter Class sailing and won a bronze medal.
p was a German war criminal and industrialist, the head, at the time of his death in 1967 of a large Ruhr River Valley steel concern Fried.
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Encyclopedia
Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (August 13, 1907 – July 30, 1967), often referred to as Alfried Krupp, was a member of the 400-year Krupp dynasty of industrialists in Germany, and head of the Krupp company, which is now part of ThyssenKrupp, during World War II. He was an early member of the Nazi party, and later the main defendant in the Krupp Trial, convicted, and pardoned. Alfried Krupp also competed in the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin in 8 Meter Class sailing and won a bronze medal.
Biography
Krupp was a German war criminal and industrialist, the head, at the time of his death in 1967 of a large Ruhr River Valley steel concern Fried. Krupp A.G., Essen that, despite its appearance under the then-prevailing German Company Law as a joint-stock company, was historically an undertaking owned and operated throughout most of the company's 350 years, by one person, a sole proprietor. This was done through a loophole created by Krupp's father, Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, the former German Ambassador to China under the Qing Dynasty's Empress Dowager. Gustav, at the age of 37, married Bertha Krupp, daughter of Friedrich Krupp (Fritz), who died without any male heir.
The dynasty ended upon Alfried's death and took the German financial community by surprise. It also shocked the German press establishment, which followed Krupp and much of his family after the end of the Second World War. It was, however, during World War II, when Krupp replaced his father as head of the firm, that much attention was received to an agreement that would later be upheld in the courts of the Allied Military Government. It was known as the Lex Krupp of 12 November 1943, which later continued to be recognized in Germany's first post-war successor government, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, after the fall of the Third Reich.
The Lex Krupp was approved and made into law, by Adolf Hitler, was one of the few major laws Hitler himself made which survived both him and his government. Being a law made solely for the benefit of the family concern, it established a continuity of the wealth and leadership of the firm, as a gesture of gratitude by Hitler, for whom Krupp designed ordinance and tanks that were first secretly, and later openly and in large numbers produced by his firm and subsequently deployed in every theatre of war.
Krupp contributed heavily to the campaigns of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Under his leadership the firm was an enthusiastic participant in the Holocaust, and made a point of using Jewish slave labour. Krupp insisted on using Jewish slaves for the manufacture of automatic weapons, even when the German army believed that this precision work would be better performed by German workers.
Krupp cooperated closely with German death camps. In a letter dated September 7, 1943, he wrote:
"As regards the cooperation of our technical office in Breslau, I can only say that between that office and Auschwitz the closest understanding exists and is guaranteed for the future."
According to his own files, Krupp assigned Jewish prisoners from concentration camps to work in many of his factories.
Krupp was a willing participant in the German genocide, and According to one of his own employees, ironically called by his defense, even when it was clear that the war was lost,
"Krupp considered it a duty to make 520 Jewish girls, some of them little more than children, work under the most brutal conditions in the heart of the concern, in Essen."
After the war, Krupp was convicted of crimes against humanity. Later, New York banker John J. McCloy arranged for Krupp to be pardoned, and the previous mandated forfeiture of all property was reversed.
Prior to Krupp's death, through the workings of his assistant, Berthold Beitz, the Krupp concern was transformed into a foundation or Stiftung, which was monitored by three members of Superviory Board. Most notably was Hans Josef Abs, of the former Deutsch-Asiatische Bank A.G. and Deutsche Bank AG. In this agreement, Krupp's son and heir, Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach , relinquished any claim over his father's concern, and was to be paid a modest cash amount, in yearly installments, until his own death.
Krupp enjoyed classical music, flying, annual class reunions with former classmates at the Aachner Technisches Hochschule, and racing his automobiles through the streets of Essen, but he was a serious engineer, who during the war, worked closely with Albert Speer, the Minister of Armaments, and Ferdinand Porsche and developed a large array of tanks.
His first marriage to Anneliese Lampert ended in divorce not long after the birth of Arndt, before the war, and his second marriage in 1950 to Vera Knauer, née Hossenfeld (1909 - 1967), consummated just after his release from his imprisonment at Landsberg, resulted in a scandal and an expensive settlement in 1957 which took a heavy toll on Krupp's emotional composure, as well as the firm's financial health.
During the Berlin Olympiad of 1936, Krupp participated in 8 Meter Class sailing and won a bronze medal.
See also
The Krupp Diamond (now owned by Elizabeth Taylor)
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