Hermann Wenzel (business leader)

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Hermann Wenzel (born March 12, 1882 in Wiesbaden , † July 15, 1954 in Düsseldorf ) was a German business leader in the coal and steel industry of the Ruhr area , one of the so-called Ruhr industrialists . In the first half of the 20th century he held numerous management and supervisory board mandates in various mining companies, including the most important member of the management board and later supervisory board member of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG (VSt / Vestag).

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After finishing school, Wenzel completed a degree in mining , including at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg , where he became a member of the Corps Suevia Freiburg . He completed the subsequent legal clerkship with the 2nd state examination and initially worked briefly as a mountain assessor .

After switching to the private sector, Wenzel rose to managerial positions at the German-Luxembourgish Mining and Hütten-AG (Deutsch-Lux); In 1910 he received power of attorney , from 1916 he was a member of the board and in particular responsible for the Dortmund Union department.

When Deutsch-Lux merged into Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG in 1926 , Wenzel moved to the board of directors of VSt together with chairman Albert Vögler . During this time, Wenzel held numerous board and supervisory board positions in companies in which Vereinigte Stahlwerke AB owned shares held, u. a. at Geisweider Eisenwerke AG, Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks AG , Rheinisch-Westfälische Kalkwerke , Westdeutsche Kalk- und Portlandzementwerke , Westfälische Transport AG and the shipping company Frigga .

Wenzel was ambivalent about the politics of the National Socialist government : on the one hand, through his contacts with Albert Vögler, he was part of the extended Keppler circle and remained in a leading position in a company that was most important for the German arms industry until the end of the Nazi regime. On the other hand, according to Ernst Poensgen , he refused to sign the so-called industrial input of 1932 (a petition by German entrepreneurs to Reich President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor). In the denazification after the end of the Second World War it was classified as "unencumbered". The Allies found Wenzel trustworthy and reinstated him in 1945 as chairman of the supervisory board of the VSt. Together with Hans-Günther Sohl , he helped shape the group's unbundling by the Allies.

In addition to his professional obligations, Wenzel was a leading member of the Westphalian Industry Club ; In 1934 he was a member of the advisory board, and when it was re-established in 1948, he was on the board.

At the end of 1953 Wenzel fell seriously ill and resigned from most of his offices.

Honors

The Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg awarded Wenzel an honorary doctorate in 1928 (as Dr. phil. Hc ).

In April 1952, Wenzel was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with a star for his services . At that time he was living in Rüthen .

After Wenzel's death in July 1954, a new power plant on the VSt site in Duisburg-Ruhrort was named as Hermann Wenzel power plant in his honor.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt dated March 11, 1952 (report on Wenzel's 70th birthday) ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.abendblatt.de  
  2. ^ A b c Ernst Poensgen : Hitler and the Ruhr Industrialists. A retrospect by Ernst Poensgen. In: Europe speaks , issue 61 of September 26, 1945 ( online at fes.de, in English)
  3. ↑ Important Corps Brothers at www.suevia-freiburg.de ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.suevia-freiburg.de
  4. ↑ Memorial of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , January 11, 1913 (PDF; 544 kB)
  5. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Axel Drecoll, Bernhard Gotto: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008.
  6. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Walter Pomiluek: Heinrich Wilhelm Beukenberg. A coal and steel industrialist of his time. Dissertation, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, 2002 ( digitized ).
  7. ↑ Geisweider Eisenwerke AG at www.albert-gieseler.de.
  8. ↑ enterprises . In: Die Zeit , No. 09/1954, March 4, 1954, accessed on August 8, 2017.
  9. ^ Frigga shipping company: Historical documents
  10. ^ Paul Erker, Toni Pierenkemper: German entrepreneurs between war economy and reconstruction. Oldenbourg, Munich 1999.
  11. ^ History (of the Westphalian Industry Club ) on www.westf-industrieklub.de.
  12. ↑ Kurt Pritzkoleit: The new gentlemen. The powerful in state and economy. Vienna / Munich / Basel 1955. Quoted from: Stefan Klemp: “There were no real Nazis here”. LIT Verlag, Münster 2000.


personal data
SURNAME Wenzel, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German business manager
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1954
Place of death Dusseldorf