BUSINESS ABROAD: The House That Krupp Rebuilt

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After the German armies were driven back, the victorious Allies chopped off half of Krupp's steelmaking capacity, carried the equipment away, destroyed 2,000,000 machines and tools. But they could not destroy the spirit of Krupp's workers, who halted the dismantling process by going on strike during the French occupation. Furious, the French threw Gustav in jail for seven months. By the time Hitler came to power in 1933, the firm had built itself up again by producing a steady flow of peacetime goods. It had also violated the Versailles Treaty by secretly carrying on armaments research, producing small quantities of tanks, guns, even submarines. Gustav von Bohlen early became a backer of Adolph Hitler, soon began producing a flood of arms at Hitler's behest, joined the Nazi Party in 1939. During World War II Krupp once more became Germany's chief source of armament, employing more than 160.000 workers. To the growing list of famed Krupp guns it added the "Big Gustav." which shelled Sevastopol, and the versatile "88." the gun most respected by Allied soldiers.

Off to Jail. In 1943 Allied bombers started the rain of bombs on Krupp's Essen plant that eventually destroyed a third of it. That same year the aging, ailing Gustav got Hitler to declare legal the famed Lex Krupp, giving the Krupps the privilege henceforth to name one successor as the sole owner of the empire. He would arrange substantial allowances for the rest of the family, among whom stock had previously been split. Gustav stepped down, and Alfried, a sensitive, retiring young man. became ruler of the vast Krupp holdings. For the rest of the war, he left most of the company's operations in the hands of its directors.

When U.S. troops rolled up to Villa Hugel in 1945. Alfried Krupp came downstairs, protesting (in English) that he was merely a businessman. The Americans disagreed. He was bundled into a jeep and driven off through the rubble-strewn streets to be interrogated.

Gustav escaped trial when a medical examination proved him senile (he died in 1950), but the temper of the times demanded a Krupp in the dock. Though both the British and Russians declined to try Alfried, he and eleven directors were put on trial before a U.S. court at Nürnberg, were convicted of plundering the industries of conquered countries and exploiting slave labor. Alfried was sentenced to twelve years in prison and forced to forfeit his property, the only property seizure of the war crime trials; his directors got sentences ranging from two to twelve years. The head of the Krupp empire went off to Landsberg prison, where he washed dishes, did laundry, worked in a blacksmith shop (one product: a crucifix for the prison chapel), and ordered his days to the sound of the bugle and whistle.

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