Fritz-Aurel Goergen

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Fritz-Aurel Goergen (born June 11, 1909 in Gelsenkirchen ; died November 4, 1986 in Cologny , Switzerland ) was a German industrial manager . He became known in the 1950s and early 1960s as a successful renovator of the Hüttenwerke Phoenix AG in Duisburg and the Henschel-Werke in Kassel .

His career ended abruptly with a spectacular arrest in April 1964 when he was accused of fraudulent arms deals . Goergen, one of the “mythical manager figures” of the economic boom in West Germany , then retired from work and moved to Switzerland. The charges against “Prince Aurel” - Goergen's nickname from his time at Phoenix-AG - could not be legally confirmed even after years of investigations by the public prosecutor's office; the criminal proceedings against Goergen were discontinued in 1973.

Life and education

Goergen was born in 1909 as the son of a retailer who ran a shop in Gelsenkirchen selling chocolate and other confectionery. After graduating from high school, he first studied law and political science in Marburg, then in Berlin , but had to break off this course after five semesters when his father's business went bankrupt and he could no longer support him. Goergen then independently financed a degree as an accountant and company auditor with a job as a factory porter .

Goergen was married twice, his first wife died in 1954. He lived with his second wife and their daughter until 1964 in Hösel , near Ratingen ; After the arrest warrant was lifted in September 1964, he moved to Switzerland with his family. Until the end of his life he lived in Cologny , near Geneva . He died there in 1986 at the age of 77.

Career path (until 1945)

After completing his training, Goergen worked as a speaker at the Reich Association of the German Aviation Industry, which was founded in 1927 . In this capacity he was responsible for purchasing metals for aircraft construction in the Netherlands. Goergen later worked as a buyer for the aviation industry in Moscow until 1941. During these years as an employee of the association, he established contacts with companies in the German steel and iron industry and the armaments industry, which he could fall back on in his post-war career.

At the Second World War Goergen participated as a soldier and was severely wounded.

Promotion to General Director of Phoenix AG (until 1957)

After the end of the Second World War, Goergen was immediately to be found in leading positions in the West German steel industry. In his own opinion, he benefited from the fact that “by chance” he had not been a member of the NSDAP during the Nazi dictatorship in Germany . First he became the head of the legal department at the Bochum steelworks . In 1947 he got from the trust management , which in 1946 by the British occupying power as the authority of the North German Iron and Steel Control had been used, the offering, to the board in need of redevelopment companies mining industry to enter, either at the Georgsmarienhütte in Osnabrück or in the steel works Ruhrort- Meiderich (HRM) in Duisburg .

Goergen decided on the job offer at HRM; the company was spun off as the "Betriebsführungsgesellschaft" in 1947 when the United Steelworks AG (Vestag) was broken up. In the following decade Goergen succeeded in building the company to a new size; When the smelter celebrated its 100th birthday in 1952, the plant had risen to become one of the most powerful companies in the West German steel industry. As early as 1951, the "Betriebsführungsgesellschaft" under Goergen's management (now as Chairman of the Board of Management) had been renamed the Hüttenwerke Phoenix AG corporation ; After merging with Rheinische Röhrenwerke AG in Mülheim an der Ruhr , it became Phoenix-Rheinrohr AG in 1955 , and Goergen became its general director. This merger had a significance far beyond the company itself, it was the first group formation in the post-war period and set a “precedent” for the Allied control authorities to at least partially reverse the break-up of the large companies in the German coal and steel industry.

In the following years Goergen expanded the group further, he acquired a 50% stake in the Blohm and Voss shipyard in Hamburg in order to be able to build ships for the transport of coal and ore, had a pipe works built in Canada and acquired shares in a trading company. A visible expression of his ambition was the 94 m high Dreischeibenhaus in Düsseldorf , which he had planned as the new company headquarters.

For Goergen himself, however, this success story of the Phoenix AG did not end happily; The majority shareholder of the new company was Amélie Thyssen , who - like himself - was pursuing the plan to restore Stahlwerke AG to its original size , although not necessarily under Goergen's leadership. When it came to getting into position for the position of general director of a coal and steel supergroup in the merger of Phoenix-Rheinrohr AG with August Thyssen-Hütte AG (the majority shareholder there was the daughter of Amélie Thyssen, Anita Countess Zichy-Thyssen ), Goergen was defeated in the power struggle to the more conciliatory and better networked in the Thyssen family Hans-Günther Sohl . On June 25, 1957, the Phoenix supervisory board chairman, Robert Ellscheid, surprisingly announced the resignation of the success manager at a press conference.

The cause was certainly the dispute about the future direction of the large corporation, but probably also that Goergen did not take into account established social conventions in corporate management or in manners. The triggering event was banal, but significant: the first ship of the planned Phoenix fleet had been christened by Amélie Thyssen, the second she wanted to have christened in the name of her husband Fritz Thyssen, who died in 1951 . Goergen took no notice of this, he had promised his young second wife that she could christen the ship, and he enforced this. In response to Ellscheid's reservations that the majority shareholder did not agree and should make a final decision, Goergen replied: "Then ask her the same question: Ellscheid or Goergen?" Amélie Thyssen decided against Goergen.

With the successful establishment of the Phoenix Group, Goergen had of course also benefited from the fact that the plant in Ruhrort, unlike other steelworks in the Ruhr area, had not been dismantled after 1945 because it was considered too old. In addition, the circumstances of the time played into his hands - the international post-war boom, especially in the steel business, as well as the interest of the former Western Allied war opponents in allowing Germany to gain economic strength in the beginning Cold War . But the ironworks's economic success was v. a. regarded as the result of his entrepreneurial drive. At the surprising end of his career at Phoenix in 1957, he was considered "one of the most successful Ruhr industrialists and most prominent managers in the country".

With his release, Goergen was initially faced with a heap of broken pieces professionally, but he was able to achieve an advantage for himself personally, which was to become very important in the aftermath: with a total of 2.64 million DM he had the highest ever in Germany at the time Be able to negotiate severance pay after the war.

Refurbishment of the Henschel works (until 1964)

After the defeat in the power struggle at Phoenix AG, Goergen initially took on a position as a general representative at the Oetker Group , which, however, did not offer him anywhere near comparable scope. Goergen therefore took action immediately when he was offered the position of chairman of the supervisory board in November 1957 by the house banks of the Henschel works, which was facing economic ruin .

Before the Second World War, the traditional family company Henschel & Sohn in Kassel was a Europe-wide company for locomotives and trucks; it was with the armament of the armed forces and v. a. after the beginning of the Second World War one of the most important armaments companies of the Nazi state . After the end of the war, it was difficult to get back to pre-war production. Although Henschel also benefited from the economic boom of the reconstruction of the 1950s, a few bad economic decisions meant that the company had to consent to a settlement procedure in September 1957 due to a lack of liquidity . The founding family around the then main shareholder Oscar R. Henschel had to withdraw from the company and the auditor Johannes Semler , appointed as general manager for the restructuring , changed the company name to Henschel-Werke GmbH and initiated the first adjustment measures . The core of his restructuring plan was to turn Henschel into a pure arms company and to sell off most of the other parts of the company.

In contrast to Semler, Goergen was convinced that the company's future success would not consist in concentrating on the armaments sector, but in growth in all of the company's traditional business areas. The economic success proved him right, the company's turnover rose continuously from 193 million DM (1958) to 489 million (1961) and finally to almost 500 million DM (1962). The original loss, which had led to the settlement procedure, was redeemed, also because Goergen implemented drastic rationalizations, austerity measures at all levels and cuts in the wages of the workers against massive resistance.

Immediately after taking office in 1957, Goergen himself took over 1 ⁄ 4 of the capital shares in Henschel GmbH from his assets resulting from the Phoenix severance payment ; By skillfully displacing other shareholders and after successfully searching for stakes from American investors, he finally succeeded in 1961 in becoming the majority shareholder of the Henschel works and thus an essential "owner of a flourishing global company and a multiple millionaire". When the company was converted into a stock corporation in 1962, Goergen held the majority of the shares in his own hands.

Arrest and trial

After the end of the Second World War , Goergen had risen to become one of the most successful managers of the booming West German heavy industry until, at the height of his success at the helm of the Henschel company, in April 1964 he became the involuntary protagonist of an economic scandal with far-reaching consequences, both for himself and for himself also for his company.

Due to allegations of fraudulent armaments deals, a massive police presence on April 23, 1964 raided Goergen's business and private rooms and other employees at the management level of the Henschel works; On April 26, 1964, Goergen was arrested in a spectacular way in Hanover shortly before the start of the fair - at a banquet with the then Federal Chancellor Ludwig Erhard . Shortly after the arrest, the weekly newspaper Die Zeit questioned whether it was an armaments scandal or one of the judiciary. Because the circumstances and the process of Goergen's arrest resembled "the beginning of detective novels, full of tension and sensation". The proceedings against Goergen and executives of his company had "opened with a nuclear strike", as the news magazine Der Spiegel assessed on the occasion of the opening of the criminal case more than seven years later. However, this “nuclear strike” was not followed by a quick investigation, but rather a long-lasting investigation which ultimately failed to confirm the effort involved in the procedure.

Goergen was initially held in custody in the prison in Kassel, then in the Hohenasperg fortress . After six weeks he became critically ill and was transferred to the Koblenz hospital in Kemperhof . In September 1964 the arrest warrant on bail was lifted and Goergen moved to Switzerland.

In this situation, Goergen sold his shares in the Henschel works in August 1964; For him it was an enormous gain - his original personal commitment to acquiring the majority of the shares was the compensation from Phoenix in the amount of around DM 2.6 million (see above), now Rheinstahl AG has taken over his shares for around DM 60 million. Rheinstahl also took over the shares of the American shareholders, the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, a forerunner of JPMorgan Chase . For the Henschel works, this trade meant the end of an independent company.

The subsequent investigations and lawsuits dragged on for many years: A civil case for a federal claim for damages was decided in 1967 at the Bonn Regional Court in the first instance in favor of Goergens and Henschel-Werke. It finally ended with a settlement in January 1971.

After almost a decade, criminal proceedings were also discontinued in 1973 at the request of the investigating public prosecutor in Koblenz; In December 1974, the last judicial orders in this connection were issued, stating that the costs of the proceedings had to be borne by the state treasury. In May 1975, Goergen finally waived compensation for the pre-trial detention; the "affair" was finally over.

Honors

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Fritz-Aurel Goergen , obituary in: Der Spiegel 47/1986, p. 288; accessed February 8, 2019.
  2. ^ Entry Goergen, Fritz-Aurel in Munzinger archive ; accessed February 8, 2019.
  3. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, pp. 34–48 ( cover story, PDF ); Retrieved February 8, 2019. Biographical information in this article up to 1961 is based on this detailed presentation, unless otherwise stated.
  4. ↑ Johannes Bähr : Thyssen in the Adenauer time . Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-78194-9 , p. 96. ( Digital copyhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3Dikh4DwAAQBAJ~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA96~ double-sided%3D~LT%3DDigitalisat~PUR%3D , Google Books ; accessed February 15, 2019.)
  5. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 36; accessed February 8, 2019.
  6. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 36; accessed February 17, 2019.
  7. ↑ Goergen, Morgan air smelled , Der Spiegel 17/1965, p 40; accessed February 12, 2019.
  8. ↑ Hartwig Meyer: In the golden cage , in: Die Zeit 23/1969, June 6, 1969; accessed February 7, 2019.
  9. ^ Fritz-Aurel Goergen , obituary in: Der Spiegel 47/1986, p. 288; accessed February 8, 2019.
  10. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 36; accessed February 8, 2019.
  11. ↑ Kurt Simon: “Prince Aurel” under armored wheels , in: Die Zeit 19/1964, May 8, 1964; accessed February 17, 2019.
  12. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 19/1964, May 6, 1964, p. 28 f ( PDF of the original edition ); accessed February 8, 2019.
  13. ↑ Work for others , in: Der Spiegel 25/1965, June 16, 1965, p. 57; Retrieved February 13, 2019. Apparently, after the end of the Nazi dictatorship, Goergen was classified as unencumbered by the occupying powers; in any case, there is no indication to the contrary in the contemporary sources evaluated for this article. A scientific account of Goergen that could fill this and other biographical gaps “is still a desideratum ” of research (Johannes Bähr (2015): Thyssen in der Adenauerzeit , p. 98, FN 190).
  14. ^ Steel industry under control , in: Die Zeit 37/1946, October 31, 1946; accessed February 15, 2019.
  15. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 36; accessed February 8, 2019.
  16. ↑ Johannes Bähr: Thyssen in the Adenauer time . Paderborn 2015, p. 39, FN 125.
  17. ↑ Klara von Eyll (ed.), Renate Schwärzel (arrangement): German economic archives . Third, completely revised edition, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-515-06211-4 , Volume 1, p. 186. ( GB digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D6nHy7xZLKT0C~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA186~ double-sided%3D~LT%3DGB-Digitalisat~PUR%3D , Google Books ; accessed February 10, 2019)
  18. ^ Jubilee in Ruhrort , in: Die Zeit 45/1952, November 6, 1952; accessed February 11, 2019.
  19. ↑ Johannes Bähr: Thyssen in the Adenauer time . Paderborn 2015, p. 40.
  20. ↑ Eyll, Schwärzel: Deutsche Wirtschaftsarchive , Stuttgart 1994, p. 186.
  21. ↑ cf. for the circumstances of the merger against the original ban on concentration by the Allies: Prince Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 39ff .; accessed February 11, 2019. The plan had already been discussed in 1951, see p. Sechs Montan-Krüppel , in: Der Spiegel 14/1951, April 4, 1951, p. 36; accessed February 13, 2019.
  22. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 36; accessed February 11, 2019.
  23. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 41; accessed February 11, 2019.
  24. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 43; accessed February 11, 2019.
  25. ↑ Stefan Wichmann: With courage to the top , obituary on Sohl, in: Die Zeit , November 17, 1989; accessed February 13, 2019.
  26. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 43; accessed February 11, 2019.
  27. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 43; accessed February 11, 2019. See also Johannes Bähr: Thyssen in der Adenauerzeit . Paderborn 2015, pp. 97f.
  28. ↑ Sechs Montan-Krüppel , in: Der Spiegel 14/1951, April 4, 1951, p. 36; accessed February 13, 2019.
  29. ↑ Johannes Bähr: Thyssen in the Adenauer time . Paderborn 2015, p. 99.
  30. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 44; accessed February 11, 2019. The different information on the total amount of the severance payment at the company's general meeting in early 1958 ( the public prosecutor tried in vain , Die Zeit 6/1958, February 6, 1958; accessed February 12, 2019) is obviously based on the fact that the annual bonus of DM 200,000 was not taken into account.
  31. ↑ Prince Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 44f .; accessed February 15, 2019.
  32. ^ Georg Tegethoff: The trust business of the West German and American banks , Bankwirtschaftliche Schriftenreihe 8, Westdeutscher Verlag , Cologne, Opladen 1963 ( Springer VS , ISBN 978-3-322-96159-4 ), p. 74f ( digitized version http: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3DN__QBgAAQBAJ~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3DPA74~ double-sided%3D~LT%3DDigitalisat~PUR%3D, Google Books ; accessed 15 February 2019.).
  33. ^ Only armament can save , in: Der Spiegel 40/1957, October 2, 1957, pp. 26–28; see. on the history: Henschel has to look for a connection , in: Die Zeit 38/1957, September 19, 1957; all accessed February 14, 2019.
  34. ↑ Kurt Simon: “Prince Aurel” under armored wheels , in: Die Zeit 19/1964, May 8, 1964; accessed February 17, 2019.
  35. ^ Fritz-Aurel Goergen , in: Der Spiegel 3/1963, January 16, 1963, p. 33; see. the main article on this ( water heads must roll , interview with Goergen), ibid., pp. 32–36; accessed February 19, 2019.
  36. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 45 .; accessed February 15, 2019.
  37. ↑ Prince Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 34 .; accessed February 15, 2019.
  38. ↑ Kurt Simon: “Prince Aurel” under armored wheels , in: Die Zeit 19/1964, May 8, 1964; accessed February 7, 2019. For the course of events, see also Due to Fraud pp. , in: Der Spiegel 18/1964, April 29, 1964, pp. 33-34; accessed February 15, 2019
  39. ↑ "So please: drive away, Mr. Goergen" , Der Spiegel 20/1965, p. 40; accessed February 12, 2019.
  40. ↑ Goergen, Morgan air smelled , Der Spiegel 17/1965, p 40; accessed February 16, 2019.
  41. ↑ Goergen, Morgan air smelled , Der Spiegel 17/1965, p 40; accessed February 16, 2019.
  42. ^ Rheinstahl paid a good price , in: Die Zeit 33/1964, August 14, 1964; accessed February 16, 2019.
  43. ^ Henschel: Cheap Daughter , in: Der Spiegel 33/1964, August 12, 1964, pp. 30–34; accessed March 6, 2019.
  44. ↑ See the further history of the Henschel works: Heinz Schmidt, Henschel becomes a stock corporation . In: Annette Ulbricht (Ed.), Von der Henschelei zur Hochschule , Studia Cassellana Volume 15, Kassel University Press, Kassel 2004, ISBN 3-89958-099-0 , p. 54ff ( Online (PDF) ; accessed February 18, 2019 ).
  45. ↑ Goergen, Morgan air smelled , Der Spiegel 17/1965, p 40; accessed February 12, 2019.
  46. ^ On suspicion , Die Zeit , 51/1967, December 22, 1967; accessed February 9, 2019.
  47. ↑ Gerhard Mauz: “Meine geliebte Henschelei” , in: Der Spiegel 7/1971, February 8, 1971; accessed February 9, 2019.
  48. ^ Report from Bonn , Die Zeit 4/1971, January 22, 1971; accessed February 9, 2019.
  49. ^ Fritz-Aurel Goergen: Goergen process: the end of an affair ( counter statement ) , in: Der Spiegel 35/1975, August 25, 1975, p. 65; accessed February 12, 2019.
  50. ↑ Prinz Aurel , in: Der Spiegel 47/1961, November 15, 1961, p. 36; accessed February 13, 2019.
  51. ↑ Honorary Senators of KIT (section Deceased Honorary Senators ), website of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) ; accessed February 13, 2019.
  52. ↑ Honorary Senators of KIT (section Deceased Honorary Senators ), KIT website; accessed February 13, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Goergen, Fritz-Aurel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goergen, Fritz Aurel; Goergen, Fritz; Prince Aurel (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrial manager
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Gelsenkirchen
DATE OF DEATH 4th November 1986
Place of death Cologny , Switzerland