Ernest G. Liebold

Ernest Gustav Liebold (born March 16, 1884 in Detroit ; † March 4, 1956 there ) was an American bank executive. He became a close confidante and secretary of the industrialist Henry Ford and took over the administration of his private fortune. In this role, he coordinated Ford's business ventures outside the Ford Motor Company . Between 1913 and 1933, he was the person with the greatest influence on Ford.

Life

Bank board

Liebold attended Eastern Detroit High School and graduated from Gutchess College with a business degree. He started out as a messenger at the Peninsula Savings Bank in Highland Park , where he worked his way up to accountant and cashier and oversaw increasingly larger business areas. He noticed James Couzen , the manager of the Ford Motor Company, who wanted to set up his own bank for the Ford plant near Highland Park and offered Liebold a managerial position. Liebold accepted the offer, played a key role in setting up the bank and finally took over the board of directors at the new Highland Park States Bank .

Secretary and confidante of Henry Ford

In 1911 Liebold took over the rescue of the DP Lapham Bank in Dearborn on Henry Ford's personal assignment . Ford bought the bank and had Liebold reorganize it as Dearborn State Bank . Since Ford also had his private account here, Liebold's task was increasingly to settle Ford's private bills. As the duties increased, Liebold became Ford's secretary and, in 1918, the agent for Henry and Clara Ford, although he was still officially paid through the Dearborn State Bank. Liebold was soon considered to be Ford's closest confidante.

Liebold regularly took part in conferences as Ford's representative, dismissed managing directors in Ford's name, negotiated land purchases and monitored Ford's public appearance. He also organized the President shaft campaign Ford in 1923 and 1924. In his role as agent and manager of Ford's projects outside business things Liebold was instrumental in a variety of projects, including the construction of the Henry Ford Hospital , the purchase of the Dearborn Independent as well as the stakes in the Detroit, Toledo, and Ironton Railroad and the Dearborn Realty and Construction Company , but also the construction of a golf course in Dearborn, the establishment and administration of the Dearborn Country Club and the purchase of Ford's first and largest yacht , Sialia .

anti-Semitism

One of Liebold's most important functions was control of the Dearborn Independent . There is little doubt that Liebold was no less, if not more, anti-Semitic than Ford. After the First World War, he established a network of contacts with Russian and German emigrants through which anti-Semitic propaganda circulated. Liebold received a translation of the anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion through the Russian emigrant Boris Brasol . William J. Cameron made this material an anti-Semitic series of articles in the Dearborn Independent . It was Liebold who refrained from asserting copyright claims on the articles. This ensured rapid distribution and translation.

Until retirement

Liebold lost considerable trust in Ford when he was temporarily undetectable during the banking crisis of 1933/34. He convinced Ford to accept the award of the Eagle Shield of the German Empire from Nazi Germany in 1938 and received the Order of Merit of the German Eagle (1st stage) himself . In 1944 he left the Ford Motor Company. He spent his retirement in Detroit.

literature

Ford R. Bryan: Henry's lieutenants. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Mich 1993, ISBN 0814332137 , pp. 169-174.
Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's war on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech. Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 .

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's war on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech. Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , pp. 28f.
↑ Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's was on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech. Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , p. 29.
↑ Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's was on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech . Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , pp. 48f.
↑ Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's was on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech . Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , pp. 112, 318.
^ Darwyn H. Lumley: Breaking the Banks in Motor City. The Auto industry, the 1933 Detroit Banking Crisis and the Start of the New Deal. McFarland & Co., Jefferson, NC 2009, ISBN 9780786454143 , p. 114.

personal data
SURNAME	Liebold, Ernest G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Liebold, Ernest Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American bank director and Henry Ford's secretary
DATE OF BIRTH	March 16, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH	Detroit
DATE OF DEATH	March 4th 1956
Place of death	Detroit

[S1-1] A ^b Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's war on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech. Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , pp. 28f.

[2] Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's was on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech. Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , p. 29.

[3] Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's was on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech . Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , pp. 48f.

[4] Victoria Saker Woeste: Henry Ford's was on Jews and the legal battle against hate speech . Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, ISBN 978-0804772341 , pp. 112, 318.

[5] Darwyn H. Lumley: Breaking the Banks in Motor City. The Auto industry, the 1933 Detroit Banking Crisis and the Start of the New Deal. McFarland & Co., Jefferson, NC 2009, ISBN 9780786454143 , p. 114.