Heinz Pulvermann

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Heinz Pulvermann (born May 12, 1895 in Hamburg , † January 1972 in Rye , New York ) was a politician of the German Democratic Party and German-American manager .

Life

Heinz Pulvermann came from a Jewish family. His father, the engineer Leo Pulvermann, owned an architecture and engineering office in Hamburg at Rödingsmarkt 4–9. After completing his schooling at Wilhelm-Gymnasium , he began studying law at the University of Freiburg in 1913. During the First World War , Pulvermann served as a sergeant in the field artillery on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918 . In 1916 he received the Hanseatic Cross and was the holder of the Iron Cross . From 1919 onwards, Pulvermann continued his studies, which included both law and economics , in Hamburg, Munich and Berlin. In 1923 he graduated from Hamburg University with a Magister iuris .

Pulvermann was politically active during his studies in the German student body and, as a young democrat, was a member of the youth association of the German Democratic Party (DDP). In 1920 he built a nationwide active espionage organization called the "Freedom German Wehrring". The members of this secret society infiltrated various parties and gathered information about their activities and goals in order to combat republican opponents. According to US court reports, Pulvermann worked for two lignite companies in controlling , investment and business development between 1923 and 1930 .

This professional information is juxtaposed with various entries in domestic and foreign address books by directors and supervisory boards, according to which he was director general (chairman of the board) of Verkehrs- und Handels AG, based in Berlin, from 1927 to 1932 and a member of the German gentlemen's club since 1931 at the latest . The Verkehrs- und Handels AG was in connection with the Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft , which was considered an important donor of the DDP and was led by leading DDP members. At that time, Pulvermann lived in Grunewald , Hubertusbader Str. 22, and was part of the 15-strong internal leadership circle of the DDP (renamed German State Party in 1930 ).

Although the headquarters of the company was in a representative location in Berlin NW 7, Unter den Linden 28, it is not known what the company was actually doing. In the manual of German stock corporations , only the "acquisition of or participation in industrial or trading companies, the management and monitoring of companies and investments as well as the execution of related or related transactions of all kinds" was specified as the business object. At least in August 1932, Pulvermann's signature was depicted on the shares of Verkehrs- und Handels AG.

According to US court information, he became chairman of the board of Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG (WW) and Anhaltischen Kohlenwerke (AKW) in 1931, but according to official business reports only demonstrably in autumn 1932 . The two companies had been linked as part of an administrative community since 1924 and were among the largest coal and steel companies in the central German lignite district . The majority of the shares in AKW and WW were owned by the heirs of Julius Petschek , who from autumn 1932 increasingly established themselves in England and, with the help of the Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft, transferred their company shares to an American holding company, United Continental Corp. based in New York.

In his functions as CEO of the two joint stock companies and representative of the Julius Petschek heirs, Pulvermann was a member of the supervisory boards of the Central German Brown Coal Syndicate and the East Elbe Brown Coal Syndicate from 1933 to 1936 . In 1936 he emigrated to Great Britain. Before that, Pulvermann had transferred an extensive block of shares in the AKW and WW to London, which enabled him to control both companies until 1937. He officially resigned on May 31, 1937 from the board of Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG and Anhaltischen Kohlenwerke. Paul Leverkuehn , the chairman of the supervisory board of both companies at the time, thanked Pulvermann in an annual report for his many years of work and emphasized his "great skills with which he had made a significant contribution that would also have an impact on the future".

As a leading employee of the Julius Petschek heirs, who the German authorities accused of, among other things, share fraud and tax evasion, Pulvermann was later added to the special wanted list by the Reich Security Main Office , a directory of people who were to be arrested by special units of the SS during a German occupation of England . In fact, Pulvermann stayed in France from the late 1930s, from where he organized the emigration of German Jews to South America in collaboration with the Societe Europeenne d'Etudes et d'Entreprises .

After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, he was able to stay in France with the approval of the French government. In the course of the occupation of France by German troops, he fled to North Africa in 1940, where he was interned by the Vichy government . After Allied troops landed in French North Africa in November 1942 and the internment camps were closed, Pulvermann remained in Algeria until 1946. In 1947 he went to London and worked as an agent for a British construction company. A short time later he moved to the United States and established himself in New York as an investment advisor. In January 1950, he was granted US citizenship .

In cooperation with Lawrence Westbrook, a member of the Democratic National Committee and President of the Trans-American Development Corporation, Pulvermann initially brokered construction contracts for the reconstruction of apartments and buildings in Germany for British and US real estate companies. He later switched to trading in mining concessions . Among other things, in 1951 he brokered mining rights in Portugal for manganese , tungsten and tin to the US government. The tungsten deals in particular were the subject of extensive legal proceedings from 1952 to 1960. At that time Portugal was the world's most important supplier of tungsten. After the German Wehrmacht had used tungsten as armor-piercing ammunition due to its high density, the shiny white heavy metal was also favored by the US army for impact projectiles after the Second World War .

First, in October 1952 , the Baltimore Sun reported a tungsten contract worth $ 9,000,000, for which Pulvermann received a 5% commission from the US government. Also involved in the deal was Westbrook, who also received a 5% commission, and who was accused of influencing the award of the contract while serving as vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Then brought Westbrook and Pulvermann a libel suit against the editor of the Baltimore Sun . The lawsuit was ruled in May 1955 by the United States Court of Appeals as inapplicable.

The case received a lot of public attention because no member of this committee is allowed to do business with the United States government. Ultimately, Westbrook was fired from his position and the US government terminated the Wolfram contract. As a result, the Portuguese mining company sued the United States for breach of contract. The United States Court of Claims upheld the legality of the commission payments and ruled in January 1960 that the contract should have been honored and ordered the United States to pay the plaintiff $ 508,200 in damages.

In the early 1990s, Pulvermann's widow Gretchen (* 1913) founded the Pulvermann Foundation . The non-profit foundation supports cultural events and enables economically disadvantaged people to attend classical music concerts free of charge (so-called "community concerts").

literature

  • United States Court of Claims (Ed.): Cases Decided in the United States Court of Claims. With Report of Decisions of the Supreme Court in Court of Claims Cases, Volume. 148. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962, pp. 90-92.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Böhmer (ed.): Wilhelm-Gymnasium Hamburg 1881-1956. Christians, Hamburg 1956, p. 120.
  2. ^ H. Seger, E. Cramer (eds.): Tonindustrie-Zeitung and Keramische Rundschau. Central sheet for the entire area of ​​stones and earth. Volume 40. Issues 1-6. Hübener, 1916, p. 176.
  3. ↑ Address directory Hamburg Universität Hamburg, accessed on April 13, 2020.
  4. ↑ United States Court of Claims (ed.): Cases Decided in the United States Court of Claims. With Report of Decisions of the Supreme Court in Court of Claims Cases, Volume. 148. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962, p. 90.
  5. ↑ Paul Bang, Erich Jung a. a. (Ed.): Germany's renewal. Monthly for the German people. Volume 5. Issues 7-12. JF Lehmanns Verlag, 1921, pp. 686-688.
  6. ↑ Horst R. Sassin: Liberals in the Resistance. Christians, 1993, p. 29.
  7. ↑ United States Court of Claims (ed.): Cases Decided in the United States Court of Claims. With Report of Decisions of the Supreme Court in Court of Claims Cases, Volume. 148. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962, p. 90.
  8. ↑ International Management Institute (Ed.): Bulletin of the International Management Institute. Volumes 2-4. Geneva, 1928, p. 91.
  9. ↑ Julius Mossner (ed.): Address book for directors and supervisory boards . Volume II. Finanz-Verlag, 1930, p. 968.
  10. ^ Rüdiger Hachtmann: Networking at any price. On the everyday political activities of the general administration in the “Third Reich”. Wallstein, 2007, p. 148. Zeitgeschichte Digital, accessed on April 13, 2020.
  11. ^ Ludwig Luckemeyer: The German Democratic Party from the Revolution to the National Assembly 1918-1919. Dissertation, Giessen, 1975, p. 265 f.
  12. ^ Udo Wengst: Theodor Eschenburg. Biography of a political leader 1904-1999. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015, p. 81.
  13. ↑ Manfred Schoeps: Der Deutsche Herrenklub: a contribution to the history of young conservatism in the Weimar Republic , p. 50.
  14. ↑ Jewish address book for Greater Berlin 1931/1932 edition Central and State Library Berlin, accessed on April 13, 2020.
  15. ↑ Verkehrs- und Handels-AG Nonvaleur, accessed on April 14, 2020.
  16. ↑ United States Court of Claims (ed.): Cases Decided in the United States Court of Claims. With Report of Decisions of the Supreme Court in Court of Claims Cases, Volume. 148. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962, p. 90.
  17. ↑ cf. Press releases and annual reports from Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG and Anhaltischen Kohlenwerke HWWA, accessed on April 13, 2020.
  18. ↑ Kim Christian Priemel: Flick - A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic . Wallstein 2007. ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 , Figure III / 6 The German subsidiaries of the Petschek groups 1938/39 p. 392 f.
  19. ↑ United States Court of Claims (ed.): Cases Decided in the United States Court of Claims. With Report of Decisions of the Supreme Court in Court of Claims Cases, Volume. 148. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962, p. 90.
  20. ^ Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG Annual Report 1936 of July 1, 1937 HWWA, accessed on April 13, 2020.
  21. ^ Special wanted list GB (entry on Pulvermann) .
  22. ↑ Pulvermann vs. AS Abell Company US Justia Corporate Center, accessed April 14, 2020.
  23. ↑ Companhia Atlantica De Desen, etc. vs. United States The Leagle Lawyer, accessed April 14, 2020.
  24. ^ Roberta Hershenson, "A Free Concert in Rye Establishes a Memorial," New York Times, May 17, 1992, accessed April 16, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Pulvermann, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH January 1972
Place of death Rye , New York