Eduard Houdremont

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In the dock on December 22, 1947: Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach, Ewald Loeser, Eduard Houdremont , Erich Müller, Friedrich Janssen, Karl Pfirsch, Karl Eberhardt and Heinrich Korschan (from left)

Eduard Houdremont or Edouard Houdremont (born May 19, 1896 in Luxembourg ; † June 10, 1958 in Essen ) was a Luxembourg-German metallurgist and industrialist. In the time of National Socialism he belonged to the circle of military economic leaders .

Live and act

Houdremont was born in 1896 as the son of the Luxembourg high school director Alfred Houdremont (1864–1925) and his wife Maria, nee. Schaack (1860–1928), born. In his childhood he attended high school in his Luxembourg homeland. After graduating from high school, Houdremont did an internship at the Adolf-Emil-Hütte. He then studied engineering from 1916 to 1919 at the Technical University of Berlin (graduate engineer). In the following two years he worked as a research assistant at the same university where he received his doctorate in July 1921. Ing. PhD. Later the TH Berlin awarded Houdremont the titles of honorary professor and honorary citizen (honorary doctorate). In 1922 he married Maria Schmitz. The marriage had three children.

From 1922 to 1926, Houdremont worked as an assistant director at Krefeld Edelstahlwerke. At the same time, he taught metallurgy in Aachen . In October 1926 he finally got a job at Friedrich Krupp AG in Essen , where he initially took on the duties of an assistant to the board of directors for the “Steel” division. In January 1930, he was promoted to general manager . In July 1932, Houdremont was entrusted with the management of the metallurgy division and appointed deputy head of the steel works.

In 1936, Houdremont became head of the steel research division. In October 1938 he was appointed deputy director of Friedrich Krupp AG. At that time, Houdremont also became an advisor to the four-year plan commissioner, Hermann Göring .

During the Second World War , Houdremont was involved in a leading role in organizing German steel production for the war. On July 1, 1940, Houdremont joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) ( membership number 8.301.922). According to his later statements, this step was taken in order to have a better starting point for his efforts to get his brother-in-law (the husband of his wife's sister), the center politician Bruno Kurowski , arrested by the Gestapo , free from prison. For this purpose, Houdremont presented to Göring, among others. In 1942 Houdremont was appointed special commissioner for metal conversion by Albert Speer .

Houdremont had been a deputy member of the board of the Kruppwerke since March 1941. In March 1943 he was promoted to full board member responsible for the areas of metallurgy and steel mills. In November 1943 he was able to expand his responsibilities to include machine works. After Krupp AG was renamed Friedrich Krupp Werke in December 1943, Houdremont became a member of the company's board of directors and then, until 1944, General Representative of Friedrich Krupp Werke.

Immediately after the end of the war, in May 1945, Houdremont was already confident about the future of the Krupp Group. At that time he confidently told the American journalist Henry Taylor: "We will probably need American bonds, but the world will be amazed at how quickly Krupp can get back on his feet."

In November 1947, Houdremont was indicted before the Military Tribunal IIIa as part of the Krupp Trial , one of the Nuremberg trials . His defense was taken over by the lawyer Walter Siemers, who was assisted by Houdremont's sister-in-law (his wife's sister) Aenne Kurowski-Schmitz . In July 1948, Houdremont was found guilty of two of eight counts and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, among other things, of using slave labor in the Krupp works. On January 31, 1951, his sentence was reduced by the US High Commissioner John Jay McCloy to the time served at that time. He was finally released on February 4, 1951.

In the last years of his life after his release from prison, Houdremont distinguished himself primarily through a series of specialist publications on metallurgical issues. He also sat on the board of the German Society for Metallurgy .

Fonts

  • Introduction to special steel , Berlin 1935.
  • Considerations on the transformation of iron and its alloys , 1950.
  • Consideration of the subcooling of transformation processes as the basis for the martensite transformation , 1953.
  • Contribution to the knowledge of the processes involved in the long-term stressing of materials , 1953.
  • with Hubert Bennek , Richard Mailänder: The behavior of steels with different notched impact strengths when deformed under multi-axial loading . Verlag Stahleisen, Düsseldorf 1953.
  • Metallurgical considerations on the question of the separation fracture , 1954.
  • Increasing the initial permeability of low-alloy iron-silicon and iron-aluminum alloys through oxidizing annealing at low temperatures , 1954.
  • Generation of preferred magnetic directions through inhomogeneous stresses in magnetostriction materials , 1955.
  • Basics on the question of brittle fracture , 1956.
  • Observations on graphite formation in hypoeutectic cast iron , 1956.
  • Handbook of special steel , 3rd improved edition (last hand), Springer-Verlag and Verlag Stahleisen , 1956

Memberships and honors

literature

  • Uwe Kessler: On the history of management at Krupp. From the beginning of the company to the dissolution of Fried. Krupp AG (1811-1943) . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06486-9
  • Hermann Schenck:  Houdremont, Edouard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 660 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Andreas Zilt: Edouard Houdremont (1896–1958) In: Wolfhard Weber (ed.) Engineers in the Ruhr Area , Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsbiographien Volume 17 , Aschendorff Verlagbuchhandlung , Münster 1999, ISBN 3-402-06753-6 , pp. 474–503.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Hermann Schenck:  Houdremont, Edouard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 660 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ^ Johann Christian Poggendorff: JC Poggendorffs Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch für Mathematik , 1962, p. 13.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 271.
  4. ^ Scientific Society for Aviation and Space Travel: Yearbook , 1958, p. 282.
  5. ↑ Who is who? The German WHO's WHO , 1955, p. 503.
  6. ^ William Manchester: The Arms of Krupp, 1587-1968 , 1968, p. 337.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Malanowski: The grace of artificial birth , in: Der Spiegel 18/1989, p. 136ff.
  8. ↑ Questionnaire of the military government of September 10, 1946, in HStA Düsseldorf, NW 1079, HA Sk Ac, 9794, oBl.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Kuczynski: The history of the situation of the workers under capitalism , 1960, p. 65.
personal data
SURNAME Houdremont, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Luxembourg-German metallurgist and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Luxembourg
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1958
Place of death eat