Fritz Reuther

This article deals with the industrialist Fritz Reuther. For other people see Fritz Reuter (disambiguation) .

Fritz Reuther (born August 1, 1882 in Mannheim ; † April 27, 1967 Gut Kothof in Hausham ) was a German industrialist and Nazi economic leader.

Life

After completing commercial and banking training, Fritz Reuther and his brother Carl Hermann Reuther joined his father's company in 1904, the Bopp & Reuther armatures and measuring device factory in Mannheim , founded in 1872 . In 1911 he became a partner. After his brother was murdered on February 25, 1919 while occupying a factory during the labor unrest by Friedrich Georgi, who had several criminal records, he took over management of the company, which then had 4,000 employees.

In addition to Eduard Max Hofweber from Heinrich Lanz AG , Wilhelm Keppler and Emil Tscheulin , Fritz Reuther was one of the few industrialists in Baden who publicly professed Nazism before 1933. In 1931 he joined the NSDAP and became President of the Mannheim Chamber of Commerce and Industry after the National Socialists came to power in 1933 . Reuther made his approval of the appointment as President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce dependent on the fact that he could lead his office primarily from an economic point of view, not from a party-political point of view. Since this was not possible, he resigned the office of IHK President in 1938 after, among other things, the Mannheim district leadership of the NSDAP together with the Baden Gau economic advisor Clemens Kentrup had tried in 1936 to dismiss the three managing directors of the IHK in order to replace them with party members.

The Reuther family grave in the main cemetery in Mannheim

In 1938 Reuther was appointed military manager. Because of his involvement in National Socialism , Reuther was interned by the US Army from August 21, 1945 to May 10, 1946 in main camp VII A in Moosburg on the Isar . Reuther was initially classified by the denazification tribunal as a minor , after being appointed as a follower . After his release from the Moosburg camp, he worked as a farmer at Gut Kothof.

The family's grave consists of a richly decorated wall tomb with Ionic column arrangement made of yellow sandstone with a central risalit. Flame urns are set on the side, above the cornice a top with a shell-crowned niche, inside a dummy urn. In the risalit is a black grave inscription plate.

Honors

• 1918 Dr.-Ing. E. h. Technical University of Karlsruhe

literature

• Friedrich Burrer: The Mannheim Chamber of Commerce on the way to the Third Reich . IHK - Wirtschaftsmagazin Rhein-Neckar 10: 8-10. Mannheim 2004.
• Erich Stockhorst: 5000 people. Who was what in the 3rd Reich . Arndt, Kiel 2000, ISBN 3-88741-116-1 (unchanged reprint of the first edition from 1967).

Individual evidence

1. ^ City Archives Karlsruhe and City Archives Mannheim: History in Posters 1914-1933 . Info Verlag 2004, p. 38
2. ↑ F. Burrer 2004
3. ↑ F. Burrer (12/2005)
4. ↑ F. Burrer (6/2006)
5. ^ W. Münkel: Die Friedhöfe in Mannheim (SVA, 1992), p. 178

Web links

• Friedrich Burrer: Common good comes before self-interest / Part I: The IHK Mannheim in the Third Reich (PDF; 2.7 MB), in: IHK • Rhein-Neckar business magazine, edition 11/2005
• Friedrich Burrer: Between Party and Business Interests / Part II; The IHK Mannheim in the Third Reich (PDF; 221 kB), in: IHK • Business magazine Rhein-Neckar 12/2005
• Friedrich Burrer: re-establishment after the war and denazification; The IHK Mannheim during the occupation 1945 - 1949 (PDF; 1.8 MB), in: IHK • Wirtschaftsmagazin Rhein-Neckar 6/2006
• Albert Gieseler: Bopp & Reuther GmbH, fittings and measuring device factory - company history