Large Federal Cross of Merit (factual novel)

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The factual novel Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz by Bernt Engelmann was published in the late autumn of 1974. It is a historically and politically significant novel about the German entrepreneur Fritz Ries due to the history of its creation and reception . In the summer of 1974 the novel had a permanent place on the German bestseller lists.

content

The themes are Aryanization , forced labor , enslavement and corruption , which are presented as the basis of the economic success of Fritz Ries and other entrepreneurs in the 1950s, showing the involvement of high-ranking economic giants and politicians.

The 236-page book deals with important people from business and politics, including Hanns Martin Schleyer , Friedrich Flick , Eberhard Taubert , Franz Josef Strauss , Marianne Strauss , Karl Friedrich Grau and others. In addition, the economic history of the companies Flügel & Polter , Pegulan-Werke AG (today: Tarkett ), Badische Plastic-Werke (today: Samvardhana Motherson Peguform ), and ROPLASTA-International Dyna-Plastik-Werk is presented.

The text by Bernt Engelmann consists of a fictional part and a factual part. He explains and documents the literary as well as journalistic justification of this form of representation in the later editions, which have been expanded by 50 pages in Part 2 with the title A Book, Its Origin and Effect . He describes his research at the West Berlin Document Center , the Munich Institute for Contemporary History and in writing at the Library of Congress in Washington. The Head Office of the Enlightenment of the Stasi (HVA) also made archive documents available about Fritz Ries' National Socialist past.

Copies of numerous documents are shown.

process

The trial that Ries led against Engelmann before the 17th civil chamber of the Stuttgart Regional Court is also documented. Engelmann did not have to revoke any of the statements in the novel and, in return, filed a lawsuit against Ries to determine the correctness of all the points that mattered to him. The trial received so much attention from domestic and foreign newspaper, radio and television reporters that not all of them could be seated in the courtroom. Of the factual allegations in dispute at the end of 42, the judges found forty to be fully established. Only in the case of two assertions could the proof of truth not be provided. This concerns, on the one hand, the conclusion that Fritz Ries actually carried out his intended work as an informant for the Gestapo, and on the other hand, the claim that a Reichsbahn official was bribed by Ries to organize the transport of the booty from Ries home. At the beginning of the trial, the presiding judge indicated that Ries would have to accept the accusation that he was the entrepreneur who Aryanized Jewish companies in the Nazi Reich, who had succeeded in bringing assets to the West and who had succeeded was to become a successful entrepreneur again in post-war Germany. The statement by Ries that he did not consider his behavior at the time to be morally reprehensible also attracted attention.

reception

By the end of 1986 the book had sold over 500,000 copies and received international attention. The left-wing scene repeatedly resorted to the novel because of the evidence of the truth that was brought before the court and criticized politicians sponsored by Ries such as Helmut Kohl and Kurt Biedenkopf . Questions in this connection were also asked in committees of inquiry at the end of Helmut Kohl's term of office.

expenditure

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dirk Banse, Michael Behrendt: Stasi led Bernt Engelmann as IM "Albers" . In: Die Welt , June 19, 2004.
  2. ^ Rudolf Gerhardt: The Engelmann process. Dispute over a factual novel. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . 23rd January 1975.
  3. ↑ (AFP :) Biedenkopf rejects speculation about donations. State Chancellery justifies commitment to the company . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 21, 2000.
  4. ^ Peter Pragal, Matthias Krupa : Kohl flew at the expense of the Kirch concern. CDU receives documents on controversial parliamentary group account. ( Memento from January 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Berliner Zeitung , January 27, 2000.