Hans Kleiner

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Hans (Edgar) Kleiner (born January 11, 1907 in Konstanz ; † November 23, 1981 in Buenos Aires ) was a German engineer and the second most important man in Wilhelm Schmidding KG.

Life

Hans Kleiner was born in Constance in 1907. His father died in 1914 and his mother died in 1922. After graduating from high school in Konstanz, he began studying at the TH Karlsruhe in 1925 . During his studies in 1925 he became a member of the Karlsruhe fraternity of Teutonia . In 1930 he acquired the degree of graduate engineer in the local department for mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, from which he received his doctorate in 1935.

Administration entrance of the former Schmiddingwerke in Hanover

The holdings of the Schmidding company kept in the US National Archives contain further information on his career and also reveal which political direction he chose. Kleiner joined the Schmidding company as early as 1935, where he was responsible for the planning and construction of the Hanover and Bodenbach branch plants in the years that followed. In 1940 he became head of all Schmidding plants and in 1941 a partner in the company, so within a few years he rose to a key position in this rapidly expanding company.

NSDAP

In 1923, the year of the November putsch , Kleiner joined the NSDAP . He was a member of the party until it was dissolved in the following year, then again from 1929. In between he belonged to the Black Reichswehr in 1924 and from 1929 to the Schlageter Bund . Little could be ascertained about his political stance during the war and nothing about his attitude towards the treatment of forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners by his company.

Switzerland

In the Swiss Federal Archives Bern documents are kept by the year 1947, which included further insights about Little. On June 12, 1947 he and his wife Lieselotte were born. Hoffmann (born 1915) arrested after illegally crossing the border into Switzerland from the French zone with Argentine courtesy passes. Her companion, a Frenchman named Louis Halmos (born 1899), was also arrested. During the interrogation by the police in Schaffhausen on the following day, Kleiner stated that he had arrived in Cologne on May 13, 1945 and had worked there for Schmidding until March 1946. He then carried out project work at an engineering office in Attendorn (Westphalia) and finally at Fahr AG , an agricultural machinery factory in Gottmadingen (Hegau). According to the minutes of his wife's hearing, the couple moved to Gottmadingen on April 30, 1947.

The minutes of a meeting that took place in Bern on June 13, 1947 between Dr. Balsiger, the head of the Swiss Federal Police, Ernesto Heer , a member of the Argentine Embassy, ​​and Colonel Rodolfo Jeckeln (born 1900), the alleged head of the Argentine military workshops in Buenos Aires. The latter stated "that he was commissioned by the Argentine government to find and hire specialists in Europe for their military operations". Through a middleman in Paris named Helfrich he was on Dr. Little noticed; after "he had been assured that he was politically unencumbered", he wanted to have him come to Switzerland to begin his onward journey to Argentina . Dr. Balsiger met Jeckeln, set the Kleiners free and allowed them to stay in Switzerland until June 17, 1947 in preparation for emigration to Argentina.

An additional protocol from June 17, 1947 shows that his decision was influenced by a Major Schaufelberger who was in "intelligence connection" with Jeckeln and therefore did not want to endanger Jeckeln. On June 17th, Schaufelberger informed Dr. Balsiger, full of satisfaction, about a conversation with Dr. Kleiner, "from whom he received or will receive such valuable information about German inventions which could no longer be evaluated during the war (powder rockets, the latest powder recipes, etc.), that Switzerland would give millions for experiments on this Area can be saved ”. Apparently, Kleiner had spoken to Schaufelberger more openly about his professional activity during the war than during the police interrogation, because he must have realized that a deal could now be made.

Argentina

There was no evidence of where Kleiner worked in the years immediately after his smuggling. From January 15, 1952, he was factory director of Fahr SA , a subsidiary of the aforementioned Fahr AG in Gottmadingen. Soon after, he served as president of the Argentinian Fahr SA as well as the Argentinian companies Forja and Visaargentina . Together with Mercedes-Benz Argentina and many other Argentine companies, according to Gaby Weber's book Daimler-Benz and the Argentina Connection , these three companies are said to have been involved in the extensive money laundering carried out by Jorge Antonio , a confidante of Juan Peron , in the Argentina-Federal Republic triangle Germany - Switzerland was raised. This involved money that German companies had brought to Switzerland during the Nazi era. The accommodation of numerous German immigrants with questionable histories in these companies was related to money laundering. After the fall of Peron, an Argentine commission from 1955 investigated only the aspects of these machinations related to him and Jorge Antonio. Hans (Juan) Kleiner also had to appear before her. Little is known about his subsequent life. He died on November 23, 1981 in Buenos Aires .

literature

  • Hermann F. Weiss, Buschvorwerk in the Giant Mountains: a community in Lower Silesia from the war years to the expulsion - Herbolzheim: Centaurus-Verl., 2006. ISBN 3-8255-0663-0
  • Gaby Weber : Daimler-Benz and the Argentina Connection : of rat lines and Nazi money, Berlin: Assoz. A, 2004, ISBN 3-935936-33-8

Individual evidence

  1. Willy Nolte (Ed.): Burschenschafter Stammrolle. List of members of the German Burschenschaft according to the status of the summer semester 1934. Berlin 1934. p. 247.