Bernhard Berghaus

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Bernhard Berghaus , complete Bernhard Ignazius Josef Maria Berghaus (born July 31, 1896 in Amsterdam , † December 30, 1966 in Zurich ) was a German arms contractor. The ionitriding process for hardening ( ion plating ) of metals was developed in his laboratory .

Life

Bernhard Berghaus was the son of a wealthy German textile entrepreneur. He grew up in Münster and attended grammar school here until he graduated from high school in 1915.

In the First World War he served from 1915 in the Imperial Navy as a lieutenant at sea , including on SMS Silesia and the I. Sea Flight Department in Kiel-Wik . He was decommissioned on June 3, 1920. What he did between the end of the war and 1923 is in the dark.

In 1923 he opened a repair shop for machines in Berlin-Lankwitz . This later developed into the company Experimental Station and Laboratory Bernhard Berghaus , which employed up to 150 researchers. In 1932 he received an epoch-making patent for a process developed in his laboratory for tempering metal objects . Based on research by Arthur Wehnelt , he or the engineers who worked for him had for the first time developed a stable method of nitriding Io by means of a glow discharge , with which metals could be coated and thus hardened. In particular, light metal such as aluminum was able to gain properties comparable to steel , which made the process important for armaments products. This started the technical application of the glow discharge, which led to numerous other patents.

Beginning with the acquisition of the majority in the Leipzig light metal works Rackwitz in 1932, Berghaus determinedly built up a group in the armaments industry. According to the assessment of the Allied investigation, he made “a significant contribution to German rearmament and the war economy”.

On May 1, 1933, Labor Day , Berghaus joined the NSDAP (membership number 2,878,103). However , according to witness statements, he refused an appointment as military economic leader and other honors such as the War Merit Cross.

His operations worked closely with the Army High Command . They developed numerous methods of medium and high frequency technology as well as atomic physics . Berghaus registered 1,100 patents, 800 of which were used for production in the armaments industry. Up to 11,000 people worked in his factories, including many forced laborers during World War II . Bernhard Berhaus was considered the fourth largest industrialist in the German Empire .

After the end of the Abyssinian War , with the permission of the German ( Wilhelm Keppler , Reich Office for Soil Research ) and Italian authorities, he sent an expedition to the Italian- occupied Ethiopia with the aim of exploring minerals such as tungsten . Berghaus secured the financing with its own funds; According to his temporary lawyer Friedrich-Carl Sarre , however, he aroused the suspicion of the foreign exchange office in the Reich Ministry of Economics that he wanted to use the expedition to bring foreign currency abroad.

Berghaus had extensive contacts in neutral Switzerland and was in Davos for a long time in 1940/41. Peter Anton Feldscher , the protective power representative of the Swiss embassy, ​​lived for a long time on the estate of the Gontards , Berghaus's in-laws, in Großwudicke . Feldscher therefore took Berghaus to Switzerland on April 12, 1945. Berghaus moved to Switzerland in order, according to Walter Schellenberg , to protect his assets and settled in Zurich .

When he tried to obtain a visa to enter the United States in 1946 , it led to extensive investigations. The final report advocated the inclusion of Berghaus in the Central Registry of War Crimes and Security Suspects because of his bad treatment of forced laborers and because of the illegal employment of prisoners of war. It should also be checked whether Berghaus would not be a possible defendant in the Nuremberg trials . British and French military authorities in Germany demanded his extradition because of the employment of forced laborers and their mistreatment in his factories, as well as because of the financing of well-known Nazi figures. However, there were never any formal proceedings. Both Switzerland and the Americans wanted to benefit from his patents.

At the same time, his denazification procedure , operated by the lawyer Walther Böttcher , was in progress in Lübeck before the ruling chamber . In it Berghaus claimed to have had contacts with people in the resistance against Hitler such as Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff and Arthur Nebe since 1942 and to have been persecuted himself for "insulting statements against Hitler, defeatism and participation in the resistance". Several witnesses, including two Dutch forced laborers who Berghaus employed as chauffeurs, an employee whom he said he had saved from the Gestapo, and the works councils of the two Lübeck companies testified in his favor. On October 1, 1948, the denazification committee in Lübeck classified him as Pg. [Since 19] 33 without office in category 5: exonerated. At the end of 1948, the British occupation authorities took the case to themselves, as there was reason to believe that Berghaus should be classified as a war criminal in Category 1 or 2 and the case therefore falls under the jurisdiction of the military government. The Lübeck decision is out of order . The procedure was to be annulled and all discharge certificates had to be withdrawn. The military government saw a parallel with the fall of Claude Dornier . As with this one, the control over the assets located in Schleswig-Holstein should be maintained. However, there were no further proceedings at Berghaus. Until 1950 the file was still with the Public Safety Branch of the occupation authorities; it then came back to the Lübeck authorities without any further consequences.

Berghaus then traveled back to Germany, where he temporarily lived in Munich . He died in Switzerland in 1966.

Berghaus was married to Lilly Claire (also Lillyclaire , born June 20, 1910 in Berlin, † August 1, 1986 in New York ) since June 20, 1934 . von Gontard, former Schleber, a daughter of Paul von Gontard and his wife Clara, geb. Busch (1876–1954), a daughter of the brewery owner Adolphus Busch (1839–1913) ( Anheuser-Busch ). Therefore, she was an American citizen. Gert von Gontard was her brother. For her it was her second marriage, her first marriage in 1930 to the industrialist ( Georg Schleber AG ) Werner Schleber (* 1895). However, this marriage was soon divorced. Bernhard and Lillyclaire Berghaus had two children: Bernhard Victor Berghaus (* 1937) and Lillyclaire Edmee (* 1939; † January 1, 2020 in Zurich ), later married Saran. From 1941 at the latest, his wife and children lived permanently in Switzerland.

Berghaus collected silver objects. His silver collection was auctioned at the Stuker Gallery in Bern in 1968 .

Companies

According to Allied research from 1947, Berghaus owned the following companies in Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain:

Leipzig light metal works Rackwitz

The factory in Rackwitz , founded in 1925, formed the industrial basis and financial backbone of Bernhard Berghaus's corporate empire. It processed magnesium and aluminum into parts for aircraft production . In 1932 Berghaus took over the majority of the company including all rights from IG Farben . In 1935 the company was converted to the Leipziger Leichtmetallwerke Rackwitz Bernhard Berghaus & Co. KG.

After 1945 the company was expropriated and transferred to the VEB Leichtmetallwerk Rackwitz . Rackwitz has been part of Norsk Hydro since 1997 .

Berlin-Lübeck machine factory

The Berlin-Lübeck machine factory Bernhard Berghaus was founded in 1934 with the help of a hidden loan from the Army Weapons Office and support from the city of Lübeck. The company premises were on the lower Trave on Glashüttenweg (1936 to 1945 Curt-Helm-Straße ) 29/35. The BLM mainly manufactured infantry rifles ( Gewehr 41 , Gewehr 43 ) and fine mechanical military equipment such as telescopic sights. In 1939 the company employed around 2,000 people. During the Second World War , the number rose to over 5000 at times. Among them were about 1,300 forced laborers . From May 2, 1945, the British occupying forces placed it under forced administration.

Hannemann & Co.

The steel construction company Hannemann & Co. was founded in Berlin in 1897 and relocated to Lübeck in 1934, where it was part of the BLM complex. She was involved in the construction of the Type XXI submarines . Section 1 (rear with rear compartment, control system and workshop) was manufactured in Lübeck.

Light metal works Berghaus

The light metal works in Engerau or Berg (Lower Austria) was built in 1942. Components for the aircraft industry and rocket production as well as cartridge cases were to be manufactured here. In 1944, the plant employed 1,600–2,000 people in trial operation, including a large number of forced laborers . Plastic production was also planned. 6000 people should have worked here in full operation, but that never happened. On April 4, 1945, the Red Army occupied the site and the plant was placed under the administration of USIA . The plant's machines and equipment were brought to Yugoslavia as reparation for the war damage .

Sintered metal works Bernhard Berghaus

In order to use the processes developed in the Berlin laboratory, Berghaus founded the Bernhard Berghaus sintered metal works in Mitterberghütten on January 4, 1943 . For this purpose, the Reichsgau Salzburg made the area of ​​the copper smelter, which was closed in 1931, available. Technical director was Gerhard Zapf, who later headed the sintered metal works Krebsoege in Krebsöge . In 1945 the plant was in the American zone . It was under the control of the military government until 1947 and came under Austrian public administration on June 1, 1947.

Aschau

A branch office of the Sintermetallwerke was located in Aschau am Chiemsee , as was a trading and transit GmbH

Research station and laboratory Bernhard Berghaus

This was the nucleus and the brain of the company empire. Research and development was carried out centrally in the Bernhard Berghaus test station and laboratory in Berlin-Lankwitz at Charlottenstrasse 31. The Bernhard Berghaus (Berlin) central office was also located here . The building was destroyed by air raids on 23/24. Destroyed August 1943.

After 1945 Berghaus continued to run the research and development department as the Electrophysical Institute Bernhard Berghaus and obtained numerous other patents. From 1952 its seat was in Vaduz , Liechtenstein; it was not liquidated until 1983.

Forjas De Alcala SA

1939 acquired Berghaus on in liquidation located Aktiengesellschaft For wagon and with the approval of the Berlin foreign exchange office a block of shares (nearly 80%) of the Spanish rail car company Forjas De Alcala in Alcala de Henares ; this also included a partial package (22%) that was previously sold to the Frankfurt company J. Adler jun. belonged to the Rothschild family. In the course of the Allied investigation from 1945 onwards, Berghaus stated that he had acquired this block of shares to secure the assets of his mother-in-law Clara von Gontard. In early 1943 he sold the shares in Switzerland through Wilhelm Abegg in order to provide liquidity for his family who lived there.

SA Mineraria and SA Bernhard Berghaus

Both companies were in Milan . The SA Mineraria was probably related to the Ethiopia expedition. The foreign exchange had been organized by Maria Röver .

More real estate

Berghaus owned an office building at Stülerstrasse 6 in the Berlin district of Tiergarten in the Mitte district . He had acquired the building from Eugen Garbáty (1880–1966), the son of Josef Garbáty , under pressure before his emigration .

His residence in Berlin was the Villa Am Sandwerder 37 ( Villa Mendel , built by Albert Brandt in 1892) in Wannsee . After their confiscation, he mostly stayed at the Hotel Esplanade (Berlin) .

He also owned the von Gontardsche Gut Großwudicke north-west of Berlin. From 1943 until the end of the war, it served the Swiss Embassy in Berlin as an alternative location.

In 1941 he arranged for the forced donation of the Villa Gontard in Bendlerstrasse (today Stauffenbergstrasse) to the German Reich. This enabled him to avert harm to his mother-in-law and family, who had fled to Switzerland.

Glow Discharge Research / Ionon

In 1957 at the initiative of Secretary Leo Brandt with funds of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia , the Research Institute of the Society for the Promotion of Glimmentladungsforschung e. V. Cologne was founded to further research Berghaus' patents. Berghaus founded the Cologne-based company IONON , which was responsible for industrial recycling. After Berghaus died in 1967 it was acquired by Klöckner & Co and continued as Klockner Ionon .

memory

  • Bernhard Berghaus Memorial Race , annual horse race in Baden-Baden

literature

  • Christiane Uhlig, Petra Barthelmess, Mario König, Peter Pfaffenroth, Bettina Witness: camouflage, transfer, transit. Switzerland as a hub for covert German operations (1938–1952). (= Publications of the UEK, Volume 9) Zurich: Chronos 2001, ISBN 3-0340-0609-8 , pp. 203-215 ( case study: the industrialist Bernhard Berghaus )

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels 1989, p. 127
  2. ↑ Despite the many patents in his name, Berghaus himself was by no means a recognized physicist , as can be read from time to time (as in Gerald D. Feldman: Austrian Banks in the Period of National Socialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015, ISBN 9781107001657 , p. 525 ); According to a senior employee, he was mainly a businessman , not an engineer, and lacked professional skills ( statement by Hugo Wedekind, February 28, 1947 ). He always referred to himself as a manufacturer
  3. ^ Honorary ranking of the Imperial German Navy, 1914-1918 . Berlin: Naval Officer Association 1930, p. 550
  4. ^ Memorandum from Robert Murphy (diplomat) to the American Embassy in Bern dated January 30, 1946
  5. ↑ DRP 668 639 of July 20, 1932
  6. ↑ Max Fink, Alfred Friedrich Steinegger: The appearance of friction oxidation on ionitrided steel surfaces. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 1965, p. 26f
  7. ↑ Camouflage - Transfer - Transit (Lit), p. 204
  8. ^ Memorandum from 1947 (without the additional O at the end).
  9. ↑ Statement by Viktor Schulz from July 9, 1948, Archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (AHL) Denazification (“DeNa without costs”) No. 4330
  10. ↑ a b About Bernhard Berghaus . In: Municipality of Berg (ed.): Municipality newspaper Berg . Special edition, March 2013, p. 7 ( online on the nachkriegsjustiz.at website (PDF; 2.17 MB)).
  11. ^ Sarre statement of December 2, 1946
  12. ↑ [1]
  13. ^ Statement by Berghaus from September 19, 1946
  14. ↑ BAK; OMGUS Finad, 3 / 71-2 / 10 in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
  15. ↑ Beibrief the Final Report , April 17, 1947
  16. ↑ Beibrief the Final Report , 16 April 1947
  17. ↑ Questionnaire on denazification: Answers to questions 111–116, Archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (AHL) denazification (“DeNa without costs”) No. 4330.
  18. ↑ Archive of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (AHL) Denazification (“DeNa ohne Kosten”) No. 4330.
  19. ↑ Colonel TEH Helby to the Minister of the Interior of Schleswig-Holstein, December 29, 1948, Archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (AHL) Denazification (“DeNa without costs”) No. 4330.
  20. ↑ Archive of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (AHL) Denazification (“DeNa ohne Kosten”) No. 4330.
  21. ↑ Gerald D. Feldman : Austrian Banks in the Period of National Socialism . In: Publications of the German Historical Institute . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015, ISBN 978-1-107-00165-7 , pp. 525 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  22. ↑ Oliver Hilmes : Berlin 1936: Sixteen days in August . Siedler Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-641-15686-2 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  23. ↑ City of Zurich: Deaths January 2020 , accessed on April 28, 2020
  24. ↑ She appeared regularly at social events as the Budweiser heiress ; For an example, see Spring Fever in Paris , Berliner Zeitung of April 10, 2002, accessed on June 25, 2017
  25. ↑ Galerie Stuker, Bern. Big anniversary auctions 87-91 [catalogs in one volume]. Nov 13-27 and Dec 7, 1968
  26. ↑ Essentially according to BAK; OMGUS Finad, 3 / 71-2 / 10 in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
  27. ↑ official website , accessed on May 26, 2017
  28. ^ Antjekathrin Graßmann : Lübeckische Geschichte. 4th edition, Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild 2008, ISBN 978-3-7950-1280-9 , pp. 717f.
  29. ↑ For the history and financing see Gerald D. Feldman: Austrian Banks in the Period of National Socialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015, ISBN 9781107001657 , p. 526
  30. ↑ Leichtmetallwerk Bernhard Berghaus - Berg , accessed on May 25, 2017
  31. ↑ The light metal factory . In: Municipality of Berg (ed.): Municipality newspaper Berg . Special edition, March 2013, p. 6th f . ( Online on the website nachkriegsjustiz.at (PDF; 2.2 MB)).
  32. ^ Report on Sintermetallwerke Bernhard Berghaus of the Allied Commission for Austria (USACA) of November 2, 1948; see also Sintermetallwerke Bernhard Berghaus: Correspondence
  33. ↑ [2]
  34. ^ Liechtenstein administration: company index
  35. ↑ Note of September 14, 1938 ; On the fate of J. Adler jun. see Benno Nietzel: Acting and Surviving: Jewish Entrepreneurs from Frankfurt am Main 1924–1964. (= Critical Studies in History 204), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2012 ISBN 9783525370247 , p. 117 f.
  36. ↑ Memorandum Berghaus dated September 8, 1946
  37. ↑ [3]
  38. ↑ Garbáty testimony of January 22, 1947
  39. ↑ Vialla Mendel , accessed April 28, 2020
  40. ^ Sebastian children, Haik Thomas Porada: The Havelland around Rathenow and Premnitz: A regional history inventory. Cologne, Weimar: Böhlau 2017 ISBN 9783412222970 , p. 274
  41. ↑ Cf. Evelyn Wöldicke: The Villa Gontard. A house in the Tiergarten district. 2013, ISBN 978-3-422-07256-5 ; Statement by Fritz Oellers from March 1, 1947, accessed on April 29, 2020
  42. ↑ Martin Schmeißer : Plasma chemistry, a current branch of preparative chemistry. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1971 ISBN 978-3-531-08214-1 , p. 47
  43. ^ PH Morton: Surface engineering and heat treatment: past, present and future. Institute of Metals 1991 ISBN 9780901716019 , p. 258
  44. ↑ Most recently on September 1, 2019: Bernhard Berghaus Memorial Race 2019 , accessed on April 29, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Berghaus, Bernhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berghaus, Bernhard Ignazius Josef Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1966
Place of death Zurich