Anton Paul Brüning

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Anton Paul Brüning (born August 12, 1881 in Burgsteinfurt , † December 21, 1944 in Bonn ) was a German bank director .

Life

Bruening graduated in law and a doctorate in 1906 for Dr. phil. In 1907 he began a career as a bank clerk at Bergisch-Märkische Bank in Elberfeld . In 1910 Brüning became director of the Deutsche Bank branch in Trier , from 1921 he was director of the branch in Frankfurt am Main and from 1924 director of the branch in Cologne . In 1924/25 he had the Villa Lindenallee 70 built in Cologne's Marienburg district according to plans by the Swiss architect Emil Felix .

Brüning was a member of the supervisory board of several companies. Due to a personal acquaintance with the Neuerburg family, owners of Haus Neuerburg , initially in Trier and later in Cologne, he became the company's financial advisor, trustee of the widow of the company owner Hubert Neuerburg (1881-1923) and chairman of the supervisory board of NV Neuerburg'sche Tabak Factorij in Amsterdam . From 1930 he was 2nd chairman of the supervisory board of "Görreshaus AG" (until 1930 GmbH), the purpose of which was the publication of newspapers, magazines and publishing houses as well as the operation of a large printing company. Personal acquaintances connected him with the then mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer , whose private fortune amounting to one million Reichsmarks (status: 1927) he managed in his function as bank director, as well as with the theologian and temporary center chairman Ludwig Kaas . He also had family relations with the center politician Heinrich Brüning , Reich Chancellor from 1930 to 1932, although there was no confirmation of an actual relationship.

Görreshaus trial

The Görreshaus GmbH emerged in 1926 from the publishing house of the Kölnische Volkszeitung . Its partners, Consul General Heinrich Maus, Consul Julius Stocky and Hugo Mönnig , made considerable investments in order to develop it into the most important Catholic publishing house in Germany. From 1929 the company got into financial difficulties in the wake of the global economic crisis , in September 1930 it was converted into a stock corporation to compensate for considerable financial losses. On May 1, 1933, after the previous financial sources of the Reich, the Center Party and private donors had dried up at the latest as a result of the National Socialist seizure of power , it filed for bankruptcy .

At the end of April 1933, Brüning as a member of the supervisory board and Stocky, Mönning and Maus as the owners of Görreshaus AG were arrested because they described the company's financial situation and business development too favorably to the subscribers of the company's shares and allegedly withheld any losses that had already occurred. Further allegations against them were that they had given false information when the company was entered in the commercial register , as well as of infidelity towards Görreshaus AG. Brüning in particular was accused of infidelity towards his employer, Deutsche Bank. The then Mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, is said to have been aware of the company's financial difficulties since August 1929. The so-called "Görreshaus Trial" with Brüning as the main defendant began on August 2, 1933 before the Third Large Criminal Chamber of the Cologne Regional Court . Brüning was sentenced to a prison term of two years, six months and a fine of 600 Reichsmarks for continued joint fraud and for offenses against Section 313 of the German Commercial Code . Because of the general amnesty for political offenses at that time, the applicability of which was determined by the Reichsgericht to be applicable to this case, the sentence was not executed . Due to further proceedings against him, however, Brüning remained in custody. The Görreshaus trial is considered to be one of the politically motivated trials against leading Catholic and conservative politicians that was initiated after the Nazis came to power.

Second Brüning trial

On November 9, 1934, another trial against Brüning began, again before the Third Large Criminal Chamber of the Cologne Regional Court. He was charged with embezzling several million marks between 1926 and 1930. At this point in time bankruptcy proceedings had been opened against his assets, which included claims totaling 15 million Reichsmarks. The witnesses heard in court also included Robert Pferdmenges , at the time co-owner of the A. Levy & Co. banking house , in whom Brüning should have become a partner in the event of an acquittal in the Görreshaus trial, and Konrad Adenauer. On December 4, 1934, Brüning was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment and three years of loss of honor for breach of trust, fraud and bankruptcy . The judgment put Brüning unsuccessful revision one.

Imprisonment and death

After the expiry of his regular detention Brüning was in August 1944 as part of the response to the attack on 20 July 1944 initiated action grid arrested and to Bonn in the branch office Kreuzbergweg 5 Gestapo spent (Gestapo). There he met Konrad Adenauer, who was also arrested at the time. Together with this and 200 other prisoners, he was transferred on August 26th to the Gestapo barrack camp , which functions as a satellite camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp , on the Cologne exhibition grounds on the Deutz bank of the Rhine north of the Hohenzollern Bridge , where the prisoners were assigned to SS Construction Brigade III and where the debris and duds were assigned should eliminate after bombing. Brüning is said to have died in Bonn.

Honorary title

Fonts

  • The development of the foreign, especially the overseas German banking system . Borna 1907.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Gotthard Klein: The People's Association for Catholic Germany 1890–1933 (= publications of the Commission for Contemporary History , Volume 75). Ferdinand Schöningh, 1996, ISBN 978-3-506-79980-7 , p. 250.
  2. ↑ a b c d e The Brüning process . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  571 , November 10, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( p. 1 , p. 2 , p. 3 ).
  3. ↑ 52. Annual Report of the Management Board of Deutsche Bank for the year 1921. (PDF) p. 21.
  4. ↑ a b Brüning, Anton Paul . In: files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic, Federal Archives
  5. ↑ a b Dieter E. Kilian : Adenauer's forgotten savior. Major Fritz Schliebusch . Hartmann, Miles-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-937885-44-5 , p. 24/25.
  6. ↑ DNB 138144044
  7. ↑ From account to account . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  575 , November 13, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( p. 1 , p. 2 ).
  8. ^ Hans-Peter Schwarz: Adenauer. Part 1: The Ascent: 1876–1952 . 2nd Edition. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1986, ISBN 3-421-06323-0 , p. 317.
  9. ↑ a b Adenauer as a witness . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  595 , November 24, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( p. 1 , p. 2 , p. 3 ).
  10. ^ A b Brüning's New Confessions . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  582 , November 16, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( hwwa.de ).
  11. ↑ Gross abuse of trust . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  572 , November 11, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( p. 1 , p. 2 ).
  12. ↑ a b Fine is sufficient . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1954 ( online ).
  13. ^ Herbert Hömig : Brüning: politicians without orders; between Weimar and Bonn republic . F. Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-72938-1 , p. 110.
  14. ^ A b Hans Peter Mensing : Adenauer in the Third Reich . Siedler, 1991, ISBN 3-88680-415-1 , p. 530.
  15. ↑ a b Hugo Stehkämper (Ed.): Konrad Adenauer, Lord Mayor of Cologne: The city of Cologne commemorates the 100th birthday of its honorary citizen on January 5, 1976 . Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, Cologne 1976, ISBN 3-7927-0248-7 , p. 229.
  16. ^ A b Thomas Brechenmacher (ed.): Reports of the Apostolic Nuncio Cesare Orsenigo from Germany 1930 to 1939. - Part I: The year 1933 . Edition project of the German Historical Institute in Rome in cooperation with the Commission for Contemporary History Bonn and the Archivio Segreto Vaticano
  17. ↑ Deutsche Presse , Volume 23, 1933, p. 208.
  18. ↑ a b c The second Brüning trial . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  566 , November 8, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( hwwa.de ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).
  19. ↑ The indictment speech against Dr. Brüning . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  604 , November 29, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( p. 1 , p. 2 ).
  20. ↑ 15 million Mark claims . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  589 , November 21, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( p. 1 , p. 2 , p. 3 ).
  21. ↑ For a fantastic salary . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  587 , November 19, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( online ).
  22. ^ Hugo Stehkämper (ed.): Konrad Adenauer, Lord Mayor of Cologne: The city of Cologne commemorates the 100th birthday of its honorary citizen on January 5, 1976 . Historical archive of the city of Cologne, Cologne 1976, ISBN 3-7927-0248-7 , p. 488.
  23. ↑ Rudolf Morsey : The Downfall of Political Catholicism: The Center Party between Christian Self-Image and “National Revolt” 1932/33 . Belser, Stuttgart / Zurich 1977, ISBN 3-7630-1182-X , p. 272.
  24. ↑ Brüning appeals to the public . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  626 , December 11, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( hwwa.de ).
  25. ^ Anton Brüning condemned . In: Kölnische Zeitung . No.  614 , December 4, 1934, ZDB -ID 1309640-0 ( hwwa.de ).
personal data
SURNAME Brüning, Anton Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bank director
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgsteinfurt
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1944
Place of death Bonn