Bernhard Weiss (entrepreneur)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bernhard Weiss during the Nuremberg trial against Friedrich Flick and others

Bernhard Weiss (born March 26, 1904 in Siegen , † January 11, 1973 in Dahlbruch ) was a German entrepreneur. He was one of Friedrich Flick's closest collaborators during National Socialism , was a military economist and was convicted in Case V of the Nuremberg Succession Trials.

Weimar and National Socialism

Bernhard Weiss was Friedrich Flick's nephew .
After completing a commercial apprenticeship and training at the Cologne Commercial College , he joined his father's company as an authorized signatory in 1928 and inherited 42 percent of SIEMAG's share capital from his father in 1932 . Another 42 percent was held by his paternal uncle, Carl Weiss. The rest of the share capital was in the hands of Friedrich Flick . Flick brought his nephew to Berlin in 1937 as a general representative of the group holding Friedrich Flick KG. There he took over part of the area of ​​responsibility from Otto Steinbrinck , who had left the group after disagreements with Friedrich Flick. He was responsible for the Flick companies, which deal with the mining of hard coal and production. In 1940 he was elected to the board of SIEMAG and since 1942 he has been the sole owner of the company.

Weiss was a military economist . He received the War Merit Cross, First and Second Class.

After 1945

Weiss, who was on the list of the US Senate's Kilgore Committee of the 42 most guilty Nazi industrialists (" Kilgore List "), initially went into hiding after the end of National Socialism. He was arrested on February 1, 1946. In case V (" Flick Trial ") he was indicted at the International Military Court in Nuremberg alongside Friedrich Flick, Konrad Kaletsch , Odilo Burkart and Otto Steinbrinck. All management representatives of the Flick Group were accused of being "main perpetrators, participants, instigators, advocates" of "slave labor and deportation to slave labor on a gigantic scale". Second, Flick, Weiss, Burkart and Kaletsch were accused of "plundering public and private property, robbery and other crimes against property". The change in the general political weather situation - the emerging bloc formation - led to an "extremely, if not to say exaggerated, mild and conciliatory" judgment. They were condemned on a number of points "which even the most benevolent judge could not gloss over." Weiss received two and a half years because of slave labor - among other things because of events in his Siegerland company SIEMAG - to which the pre-trial detention was counted and which he had to serve in Landsberg, the "most comfortable custody in the old world". He cured a lung disease there and later praised the "excellent care" in the prison hospital. In December 1948, shortly after the verdict, he was released again. However, he was forbidden to enter SIEMAG for three years.

From 1953 to 1970 he was President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Siegen, and also chairman of the Association of the IHK in North Rhine-Westphalia. At first he was Vice President, then President of the Association of German Mechanical Engineering Institutions and a member of the Presidium of the Federation of German Industries . He was a member of the board of the Eastern Committee of German Business.

Weiss was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

Regional culture of remembrance

Weiss was recognized by the spokesman for regional historical culture from the 1930s to 1980s, Lothar Irle , in 1974 as "the most prominent entrepreneur in the Siegerland after Friedrich Flick". With this quote from the Siegener newspaper Irle gave the dominant point of view. In contrast, Weiss' conviction before the Nuremberg Court of Justice received hardly any media mention. From this perspective, there was no connection with his entrepreneurial activity.

The Protestant hospital in the Kredenbach district of Kreuztal has been known as the Bernhard Weiss Hospital for 30 years. On the occasion of a restructuring of the hospital, this name has not been used since January 1, 2015. A square in the city of Hilchenbach and the event hall of the IHK Siegen bear his name. Proposals to change that were always rejected.

literature

  • Norbert Frei, Ralf Ahrens, Jörg Osterloh, Tim Schanetzky: Flick. The corporation, the family, the power. Munich 2009.
  • Susanne Jung: The legal problems of the Nuremberg trials. Depicted in the trial against Friedrich Flick. Tübingen 1992.
  • Ernst Klee : The personal lexicon for the Third Reich - who was what before and after 1945. 2nd edition. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 664.
  • Kim Christian Priemel: Flick - A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 .
  • Karl-Heinz Thieleke: Case 5th indictment, selected documents, judgment of the Flick trial. introduced by Klaus Drobisch . German Science Publishers, Berlin (GDR) 1965.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Susanne Jung: The legal problems of the Nuremberg trials. Depicted in the trial against Friedrich Flick. Tübingen 1992, pp. 28-29.
  2. ↑ Details such as quotations from: Norbert Frei, Ralf Ahrens, Jörg Osterloh, Tim Schanetzky : Flick. The corporation, the family, the power. Munich 2009, p. 401ff.
  3. ↑ Regionales Personenlexikon, article Bernhard Weiss .
  4. ↑ Regionales Personenlexikon, article Bernhard Weiss .
  5. ↑ Siegerland Personalities and Gender Lexicon. Siegen 1974, p. 364.
  6. ↑ The Weiss family withdraws names . In: Siegener Zeitung, November 20, 2014, accessed on March 6, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Weiss, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economic functionary
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Wins
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1973
Place of death Dahlbruch