Fritz Kiehn

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Fritz Kiehn with family in 1925

Fritz Kiehn (born October 15, 1885 in Burgsteinfurt , † September 1, 1980 in Schwenningen ) was a medium-sized cigarette paper manufacturer and from 1932 to 1945 a member of the Reichstag of the NSDAP .

Life

The son of a Prussian policeman moved to Trossingen in Wuerttemberg in 1908 as a traveling salesman . In 1911 he married Bertha Neipp, daughter of an old-established wealthy Trossingen family. Thanks to her dowry, he was able to take over a stationery shop in 1912, where he mainly sold paper, books and writing products such as B. also acted typewriters for local companies, including the harmonica - and accordion -Fabrikanten Hohner . After the end of the First World War , he switched to the manufacture of cigarette paper for making cigarettes himself. This developed into good business in the crisis years of the Weimar Republic , as hand-rolled cigarettes were in great demand because of their lower price. This is how he founded the Efka works , which are named after his initials. On site he tried to develop into competition with the old dignitaries. In particular, the Hohner harmonica dynasty, which had dominated Trossingen for a long time, did not take the young, aspiring entrepreneur seriously. Hohner employed an estimated 4,000 people in 1933, Kiehn only 70 in 1932. When the National Socialists seized power, Kiehn seized the opportunity to set up his own company empire and he rose to become the "leader of the southern German economy". His declared goal was to become a large industrialist with a workforce of 1,000. After the end of the Second World War he lost the companies and factories he had acquired, but after his denazification process in 1949 he regained control of the Efka works.

Career in National Socialism

Fritz Kiehn (before 1938), photo from the manual of the "Greater German Reichstag"

When the National Socialists gained strength at the end of the 1920s, Kiehn saw the opportunity to position himself in local politics against the politically influential but democracy-affirming Hohners. In 1930 Kiehn joined the NSDAP (membership number 233.075) and founded the Trossinger local group. In 1931 he was elected to the Trossingen municipal council with the highest number of votes . In the numerous election campaigns of 1932, Fritz Kiehn was one of the most important Nazi agitators in southern Württemberg and one of the largest donors of the Württemberg NSDAP. The swastika flag was already waving on his work before 1933 . In July 1932 he was elected to the Reichstag and held his mandate until 1945.

After Adolf Hitler's " seizure of power " on January 30, 1933, Kiehn advanced from local group leader to district leader , deputy (until 1937) regional economic advisor and became a very influential citizen of the city and also in the country. The street in front of his factory got his name. On his 50th birthday on October 15, 1935, the city granted him honorary citizenship . Prominent Nazi figures came and went with him and he won office after office. Kiehn became president of the chambers of industry and commerce in Rottweil and Stuttgart , the military economy council of the Württemberg-Hohenzollern district, the Württemberg state group of the imperial estate of German industry and the Chamber of Commerce for Württemberg / Hohenzollern, which began its work in 1936. From 1936 to 1943 Kiehn was a member of the International Chamber of Commerce . In addition, Kiehn became President of the Württemberg Industry and Trade Conference and in this function General Director of the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt . Kiehn had himself dubbed “President Fritz Kiehn, MdR” in the local newspaper.

Speculation in shares of the truck manufacturer Magirus

Kiehn was also able to take up management positions in industrial companies as NSDAP representative and holder of public offices at large industrial companies - for example at NSU in Neckarsulm and in spring 1934 at the truck manufacturer CD Magirus AG in Ulm. Magirus got into great trouble during the Great Depression and its prices were still very low in 1934. However, the order situation had improved considerably after the seizure of power . Magirus, the market leader as a field kitchen manufacturer, received a major order for over 100 special field kitchen vehicles from the NSDAP at the turn of the year 1933/1934. In addition, Kiehn was aware of Hitler's efforts to rearmament, which promised Magirus a successful future in the form of future contracts to be expected. When Kiehn became aware of the good economic prospects of Magirus through the monthly internal success figures presented to the Supervisory Board, he used his internal knowledge to do business with Magirus shares. A few days after taking up his post at Magirus, he signed a purchase order for a three-quarters majority of Magirus shares, prepared by his intermediary, the Tuttlingen factory owner Otto Stäbler , and financed by credit. This purchase order was a binding order for Kiehn. With the majority at Magirus, Kiehn wanted to become one of the most important industrialists in Württemberg. The purchase orders were carried out by the Stuttgart bank “Pick & Cie”, which was wrested from its owner Eduard Pick in 1933 , and which Stäbler was also a major limited partner. Kiehn had himself elected chairman of the supervisory board at the end of 1934, before all the shares were acquired, because at the time he already had a majority on the supervisory board, albeit for a limited time, through the temporarily transferred voting rights of some shareholders. He appeared publicly as chairman of the supervisory board and announced that he wanted to keep Magirus "autonomy and independence" and that he wanted to turn Magirus into a "National Socialist model company". Since the process of acquiring the shares was quite difficult and time-consuming, the shares rose due to the improved economic situation before Kiehn had fully succeeded in the purchase. In total, Kiehn had to spend four times the planned amount. He therefore had to ask for money from his bank and other donors. Nevertheless, Kiehn used his new position of power to dismiss Karl Trefs, the director of Magirus, in July 1935. This was supported by the NSDAP district leader Eugen Maier from Ulm . Maier contradicted the dismissal of his protégé, who had become president of the Ulm Chamber of Commerce. Maier and other NSDAP functionaries accused Kiehn of speculative business, which Kiehn denied. The case was presented to the Gauleiter Murr. Murr was Kiehn at this time because of his successes in the fight and supported him. At the end of 1935, Kiehn had achieved his goal and was the owner of Magirus. He got into major financial difficulties due to the share price increases. He was happy to be able to sell the work to Klöckner-Deutz AG in Cologne at the beginning of 1936 . The new owner renamed the company Magirus-Deutz . The chairman of the board and all important decisions were determined from Cologne. Kiehn made a large profit despite his temporary financial predicament. With these economic activities, Kiehn came into criticism in circles of the Württemberg NSDAP. Gauleiter Wilhelm Murr in Stuttgart also took the side of Kiehn's opponents and tried to exclude him from the NSDAP - but in vain. Kiehn was also involved in disputes with other Nazi giants. One of Kiehn's intimate enemies was the Gau economic adviser and thus the Nazi functionary Walter Rheile , who was responsible for Aryanization in Württemberg . The "Gauamtsleiter für Technik" Rudolf Rohrbach was also an opponent of Kiehn. An important reason that Kiehn was able to assert himself was his relationship with Himmler and the SS . Kiehn also had good relations with the Reich Chancellery under Rudolf Hess . In 1938 Kiehn was promoted to the " Friends of the Reichsführer SS ". An important friend of Kiehn was the high SS functionary Gottlob Berger . The SS leader Hans-Adolf Prützmann and the Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick were also friends of Kiehn. Kiehn knew very well how to make friends in the higher levels of the Nazi state. One means of doing this was through invitations to take part in hunting trips.

Aryanization gains

In 1938, Kiehn first acquired the cigarette case factory in Berlin from Hugo Büttner, who was persecuted as a Jew by the Nazis . The Berlin Gauwirtschaftsberater had actually planned another buyer for this, but a notarial deal had not yet been reached. Kiehn outbid the competitor and paid 300,000 Reichsmarks. As in many Aryanization cases, Büttner received none of this. He did not succeed in emigrating and was later allegedly deported to Warsaw .

Even after the Magirus fall, Kiehn's power in Württemberg was so great that in one important case he even succeeded in acquiring Jewish company property, although the Württemberg regional economic adviser Rheile tried to prevent this. From 1938 onwards, Kiehn tried to oust the Jewish owners of the Fleischer tissue paper factory in Eislingen / Fils from their company and to wrest it from them. In 1940 he took over the factory for a fifth of the originally negotiated price - well below its real value. In this case, the Gau economic consultant had already negotiated a purchase contract with Gustav Schickedanz , which was canceled in Kiehn's favor.

On April 20, 1942, Kiehn was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer .

The outbreak of World War II further expanded his economic empire. Branches in Strasbourg and Poznan were established and Kiehn acquired shares in a factory in Łódź, Poland .

Federal Republic

Fritz Kiehn in the post-war period

After the collapse of the National Socialist German Reich , Kiehn fled to Innsbruck , where he was arrested by US soldiers and imprisoned for four years. From 1949, the now 64-year-old managed to rise again. In the course of the denazification he was classified as "less burdened" by the court in 1949, in 1950 the government of the Württemberg Prime Minister Gebhard Müller granted him a three million D-Mark loan to reorganize a former arms company in Tuttlingen. The parliamentary committee of inquiry that was then set up had no consequences for Kiehn. The workforce and the union stood by Kiehn.

In 1953 he was re-elected to the Trossingen municipal council with what was regarded as a sensational number of votes, which was tantamount to rehabilitation by the population. In 1955 he tacitly received his honorary citizenship, which had been revoked in 1945; in 2000, however, the municipal council finally confirmed the revocation of the honorary citizenship of 1945. After the directors of the harmonica factory Matthias Hohner , Kiehn was the city's most generous donor. The municipal sports facility he donated, a street and Fritz-Kiehn-Platz (which he had helped design with his wife Berta) were named after him. Incidentally, he was considered by the population and above all by his workforce as an extremely social and employee-friendly entrepreneur.

In 1954, Friedrich Grimm defended the former NSDAP parliamentary group colleague in a trial for alleged perjury. Grimm tried - contrary to the facts - to stylize Kiehn as a victim of political justice. Kiehn was ultimately convicted of negligent false testimony. Nevertheless, Kiehn saw it as a great success. He had his defense speech printed and mailed it to many friends.

After his efforts to receive the Federal Cross of Merit failed, the University of Innsbruck made him an honorary citizen and in 1966 even an honorary senator thanks to his good contacts and considerable financial donations.

In 1972, now 87 years old, he lost the decision-making authority in his ailing company in the course of restructuring measures. At this point in time, he had largely inherited his shares in Efka-Werke, and he had to transfer the remaining shares. A few weeks before his 95th birthday, Fritz Kiehn died in 1980 as a highly respected citizen of Trossingen. In 2010 Fritz-Kiehn-Platz was renamed “Theresienplatz” on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Theresienkirche.

Collections

Fritz Kiehn owned the Momella hunting farm in Tanzania in the 1960s . There the film Hatari with John Wayne and Hardy Krüger was shot. Its zoological and ethnographic collection includes over 600 objects. In addition to hunting trophies and specimens from domestic game, the collection also shows bears and almost all African antelope and cat species, ivory and rhinoceros. They are part of the collections in the Museum Auberlehaus and some are on display.

In November 2007, Kiehn's extensive collection by the National Socialist sculptor Fritz Behn , which he had made available as a private museum in Bad Dürrheim , was liquidated and auctioned in Munich.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Stuttgart Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , p. 43.
  2. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Stuttgart Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , p. 119.
  3. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Stuttgart Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , p. 39.
  4. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , p. 92.
  5. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , p. 94.
  6. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , pp. 90-101.
  7. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , p. 121.
  8. ↑ Presentation of the press department of the Eberhard Carls-Universität Tübingen on February 22nd on the occasion of the presentation of the biography of Kiehn, written by the historians Hartmut Berghoff and Cornelia Kühn-Rauh (see literature) https://web.archive.org/web/20010217004943/ http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/uni/qvo/pm/pm310.html .
  9. ↑ Heinz Schmidt-Bachem: From paper - a cultural and economic history of the paper processing industry . De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2011, ISBN 3110236079 , [1] p. 868.
  10. ↑ Seniority list of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel, 1943, No. 661.
  11. ↑ Berghoff, Hartmut and Rauh-Kühne, Cornelia: Fritz K., A German Life in the 20th Century . DVA, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-421-05339-1 , pp. 277-281.
  12. ^ Archives / collections in the Auberlehaus
  13. ↑ Details on the auction catalog in the SWB online catalog

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kiehn, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneurs and politicians (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgsteinfurt
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1980
Place of death Schwenningen