The Arms of Krupp 1587 - 1968
by Manchester, William -- 1922-2004
pub by Bantam Books, NY -     1970 - - - later edition, Back Bay Books, Boston isbn - 0316529400 - - original edition, Little Brown, NY 1968    - LCCN 68-024450    - Order of Battle (contents) -- i-ii -- Glossary p. iii-iv -- text p. 1-972 -- Acknowlwdgements -p. 973 -- Krupp Genealogy p. 974-975 -- Die Firma p.976-977 -- Chronologhy p. 978-979 -- Chapter Notes p. 981-41009 -- Bibliograhy p. 1011-1029 -- Index p. 1031-1068 -- About the author p. 1069 -- total length 1069 p.
      Manchester wrote the biography of a family and a business. He describes from the arrival of the first Krupp (Arndt) in Essen in the Rhur valley in 1580's to the playboy son, Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach (24 January 1938 – 8 May 1986), who refused to take up the leadership of Fried.Krupp (Die Firme) in the late 1960's and the financial collapse of the sole ownership of the company.
The first Arndt Krupp of the Rhur valley family came from further north and was originally a merchant in 1587.
He was followed by 10 generations of Krupps heading the family business through the last active one, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, 13 August 1907 – 30 July 1967
Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826) founded Gusstahlfabric - Cast Steel Works - Sept. 20, 1811 and developed methods of making steel from iron ore using the coal mined in the valley. Eventually iron ore of various types and qualities was imported from a wide variety of places.
Alfred Krupp (1812-1887) developed methods to make and cast large objects in steel. They made a large quantity of railroad wheels and a considerable amount of the rails on which they ran. Their quality was very high and even a large amount of the rails and wheels of railroads in USA were Krupp made. The family trademark was of 3 interlocking rings for the shapes of their fameous railroad tires. The Krupp firm is most fameous for its steel cannon, which were developed in the 1860s and after convincing the Prussian army to buy them and found them vastly superior during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 became the cannon of choice. Alfred sold steel cannon to countries all over the world, as did his successor Friedrich Alfred Krupp (1854-1902).

The Krupp works supplied cannon and other war material including tanks and submarines during World War 1. After the was the treaty of Versailes prohibited the manufactur of war material for a number of years, but the Krupps managed to hide and skirt such production and the development and planning of weapons. Even before the time period was over weapons were being produced and the plans which their engineers had drawn up allowed rapid production including warships.
Bertha Krupp (1866-1957) in 1906 married Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1870-1950) Kaiser Wilhelm, who attended the wedding, officially named Gustgav (who was a von Bohlen und Halbach) to have a Krupp surname so that the family business would be continued to be run under the very important Krupp name and that name would be passed down to his and Berthas son.
Note that after Fredrich died Bertha Krupp offically owned the firm until 1943, though her husband Gustav actually ran the firm.
Berthas son Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1907 – 1967) did take over the business from Gustav (who was in poor health) in 1943 becoming the sole proprietor of the company after Lex Krupp (Krupp Law) was decreed by Adolf Hitler to keep the business under a single person. Note that although Gustav ran the company up until Alfried took possession it had been officially the property of Bertha.
During World War II Krupp operated many factories and stole machinery, sometimes whole factories from places conquered. His firm also put foreigners to work for the Krupp works, at first paying them, and later as slave laborers. He had connections within the concentration camps to have able-bodied workers, both men and women shipped to his factories and worked, in apalling conditions, often enough to death.
During the Nurenberg trials after WWII there was confusion among the Allies as to who was in charge. Gustav was mostly blamed, but his health was too poor to prosecute, and indeed he died of natural causes soon after the war. Alfried was not recognized as the person who was mostly in charge and to blame. Both Gustav and Alfried were enthusiastic Nazies, but as the transfer was acomplished during the war, those prosecuting at the trials knew the Gustav name more than Alfried, which is why Alfried was imprisoned rather than being hung.

Things began to change rapidly in 1950 and Alfried was released from prison and allowed to run some of his works, though not making arms. He largely used the brain trust of skilled engineers and workers to build factories all over the less developed world. The over expansion of these efforts beyond the capital he had available to him eventually caused the fall of the enterprise in 1978 - 1968.
Although the first half of the book is very interesting, the last half is involved with WWII and the various and often horrific events which occured during the war, and how things turned out after the war when the Krupp business re-built and finally failed, being eventually absorbed.
Read this book - to get a feel for a mighty industrial company - to understand how a company can get so big and allied with a government that it gets very special favors. To understand what EVIL can come and spread, even off the battlefield during war.
~ 2018-07-19 ~

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