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.

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.

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).

In 1937, Alfried married the daughter of a Hamburg merchant, Annelise Lampert née Bahr (1909–1998). He had a son with her, Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach (1938–1986). The marriage ended in divorce in 1941. Arndt, who was gay, was found to be unsuitable to manage the Krupp company by his father and others, was disinherited, and died without an heir.

In 1952, Alfried married Vera Knauer née Hossenfeldt (divorced from Langen, Wisbar and Knauer, 1909–1967). The marriage ended in divorce in 1957.

Alfried Krupp was the last person to bear the Krupp surname. According to Wilhelm II's decree and Adolf Hitler's Lex Krupp, the suffix "Krupp" before the surname was only to be used by persons who were also owners of the Krupp company. With the transfer of the company to a foundation, this legal provision became obsolete.

Establishment of the Foundation and death

Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach died of heart failure at the age of 59. 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, 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. The funeral service was attended by the then Federal President Heinrich Lübke, Bundestag President Eugen Gerstenmaier and Minister President Heinz Kühn.

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."

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. 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.

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."