Berthold von Bohlen and Halbach
Berthold Ernst August von Bohlen und Halbach (born December 12, 1913 in Essen , Villa Hügel ; died April 21, 1987 ) was a German industrialist and younger brother of the last sole owner of the Krupp company , Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach .
Life
Berthold was one of the eight children of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach and his wife Bertha . He spent his youth at the Villa Hügel in Essen- Bredeney , built by his great-grandfather, the steel industrialist Alfred Krupp .
After starting his studies at the University of Munich , his anglophil-minded parents let him and his brother Claus study at Oxford with their cousin Kurt von Wilmowsky, a son of Barbara Krupp and Tilo von Wilmowsky .
On November 15, 1943, he, his four siblings, and Sita von Medinger (the widow of his brother Claus, who died in 1940), were signed by Hitler's “Decree of the Führer on the Fried Family Business. Krupp ” excluded from inheritance so that the oldest brother Alfried could take over the Krupp company without paying inheritance tax.
During the Second World War , Berthold von Bohlen und Halbach was employed as a staff officer in Russia, mostly far from the front, or he was active in penicillin research at home.
He and his parents lived to see the end of the war at the family seat of Schloss Blühnbach near Salzburg . His brothers Eckbert and Claus had died in the war, Alfried was in Allied custody and Harald in Soviet captivity. Since his father was bedridden after numerous strokes, Berthold von Bohlen und Halbach temporarily took over the management of the family, with a general power of attorney from his mother.
Berthold von Bohlen und Halbach took care of the defense of his father, who was later declared incapable of negotiating, and his brother Alfried by winning Otto Kranzbühler, a lawyer and criminal defense attorney from the Nuremberg trial, as a representative. Kranzbühler represented the interests of Alfried, but also those of the family in the dispute with the Allies to regain their family property. For Kranzbühler, von Bohlen und Halbach was often on the road during the trial against Alfried to get exonerating material and exonerating witnesses. He also managed to keep the family afloat financially in the post-war chaos by "tapping" foreign accounts.
Berthold von Bohlen und Halbach lived in Essen-Bredeney for a few years in a house with the Essen sculptor and painter Jean Sprenger . Alfried contacted Berthold Beitz in his villa . At the time, Beitz was in a leading position for Signal Iduna in Hamburg, and Sprenger had received the order from him for a representative sculpture, which Beitz wanted to see for himself in Essen.
Berthold von Bohlen and Halbach married Edith von Maltzan (1919–2009), the daughter of the German diplomat of the Weimar Republic, Ago von Maltzan . From this marriage the son Eckbert (born March 24, 1956) emerged.
At the beginning of the 1950s, his brother Alfried, who was convicted in the Krupp trial and after his early release from the Landsberg war crimes prison in the Mehlem contract , was each given a severance payment of three other siblings and Arnold, the son of his brother Claus , who died in 1940 to pay ten million DM as compensation for the renunciation of inheritance. The Mehlemer contracts were intended to unbundle the Krupp group after the war.
Berthold von Bohlen und Halbach has put most of his share in various industrial companies; among others in Wasag AG in Essen and Jurid-Werke GmbH in Glinde near Hamburg. He later took in his brother Harald, who had returned from Russia with the last released prisoners in 1955, as an equal partner. Today Bohlen Industrie GmbH is managed by the son Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach.
In 1953, Berthold von Bohlen and Halbach and his uncle Tilo von Wilmowsky organized the first major exhibition at Villa Hügel together with the Folkwang Museum , the success of which (400,000 visitors) marked the beginning of the new use of the representative building.
Like most family members then and now, Berthold von Bohlen and Halbach took a critical stance on Berthold Beitz, whose influence on Alfried had always displeased him. In the 1990s, his son Eckbert and other members of the next generation tried in vain to obtain a permanent seat for the family on the board of trustees of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation .
The grave of Berthold von Bohlen und Halbach is located at the family seat in Obergrombach Castle , in a district of Bruchsal .
Honors
Bertholdstrasse in Essen is named after him.
In Magdeburg, where the Krupp subsidiary Friedrich Krupp AG Grusonwerk was located, the Berthold-Privatweg was dedicated to him in 1938 (since 1945 Ahornweg).
literature
- Tilo von Wilmowsky, looking back I would like to say ... on the threshold of the 150th anniversary of Krupp. Landwirtschafts-Verlag, Münster-Hiltrup 1990. First reprint of the 1961 edition. ISBN 3-7843-1331-0
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wilmowsky, retrospect, p. 236.
- ↑ The legs chopped off . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 1953, pp. 5 ( online ).
- ^ Same name with his uncle Eckbert von Bohlen und Halbach († 1945)
- ↑ Official homepage of Bohlen Industrie GmbH .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bohlen and Halbach, Berthold von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bohlen and Halbach, Berthold Ernst August von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German industrialist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 12, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Essen , Villa Hügel |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 21, 1987 |