Karl Eckardt (economic functionary)
Karl Eckardt (born November 10, 1896 in Großbodungen ; † 1953 ) was a German economic functionary and from 1937 to 1941 NSDAP - Gau economic advisor in Gau Hessen-Nassau
During the time of National Socialism Eckardt was among other things chairman of the supervisory board of the " Gemeinnützige Wohnungs- und Siedlungsbau AG Frankfurt / Main ", the shoe factory Hassia in Offenbach, member of the supervisory board of the Adlerwerke Frankfurt, the optical works Moritz Hensoldt and Sons in Wetzlar, the Philipp Holzmann AG , the Maschinenfabrik Moenus AG and the Torpedo-Werke Frankfurt and supervisory board of the Frankfurter Sparkasse from 1822 .
The J. & CA Schneider case
As a regional economic advisor, Eckardt organized the " Aryanization " of " H. Fuld & Co. " and the shoe factory " J. & CA Schneider " (JCAS) together with the Frankfurt customs investigation and foreign exchange office . The Gestapo also partly participated in the "Aryanizations" carried out by Eckardt, for example in the case of the JCAS, which exemplifies numerous other cases in which regional economic advisors enriched themselves.
During the Reichspogromnacht , the manufacturer Fritz Adler was arrested and deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp . At the shoe factory that belonged to him and his brother, at that time one of the largest manufacturers of slippers in Europe, Nazi greats had cast a covetous look for years. Since the owners were exposed to economic pressure, they were looking for suitable buyers as early as 1938. The " Deutsche Revisions- und Treuhandgesellschaft AG ", whose supervisory board included Hitler's economic advisor Wilhelm Keppler , set a purchase price of around 4.2 million RM on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs as the approval authority for JCAS , although it was around 15 million RM lay.
While the Ministry of Economic Affairs was still checking prospective buyers for economic solvency and political reliability, Eckardt, in his role as NSDAP district economic advisor, found a new buyer in his friend Bruno Seletzky from Vienna, who was the director of the Škoda works in Brno .
As the Adler brothers were still unwilling to squander their fortune in November 1938, Fritz Adler, who was imprisoned in Buchenwald, was threatened that he could only count on being released from the concentration camp if he were sold. Worn down, the owners signed the sales contract after a few weeks in front of the Frankfurt notary Kurt Wirth in the presence of Eckardt.
The contract contained detailed arrangements for the segregation of Jewish workers and a clause that compensation payments were the responsibility of the seller. Seletzky was Eckardt's front man, who was appointed General Director of JCAS.
From the four million purchase price, the Ministry of Economics initially simply deducted a quarter of a million for “ social purposes such as the beauty of work, creation of a common room, improvement of sanitary facilities ” in the “Aryanized” factory. The tax authorities then deducted 1.3 million for the Reich flight tax , Jewish property tax and income tax. Another two million went to the state treasury and the participating commercial bank von Seletzky and Eckardt as aryanization profit, while Dresdner Bank received another 40,000 RM as commission.
Eckardt was appointed as the new operations manager and in this role declared to the workforce: " We are proud to be living in this time and to be able to help the Führer to our modest part in creating an eternal Greater German Empire ".
Eckardt went into hiding in 1945, was tracked down near Duderstadt in 1949 , and was killed in a car accident in 1953. After 1949, no legal proceedings were brought against him.
literature
- Hilberg, Raul: The annihilation of the European Jews: the total history of the Holocaust. From the American by Christian Seeger et al. 840 pp. Frankfurt am Main et al. Büchergilde Gutenberg 1990. ISBN 3-7632-2763-6 .
- Ludwig, Johannes: Boycott, expropriation, murder: the "de-Judaization" of the German economy . 399 S. Hamburg; Munich: Facta-Oblita-Verlag 1992. ISBN 3-492-11580-2 .
- Meinl, Susanne and Zwilling, Jutta: Legalized robbery: the plundering of the Jews under National Socialism by the Reich Finance Administration in Hesse . Scientific series of the Fritz Bauer Institute; Vol. 10: 745 S. Frankfurt / Main u. a.:Campus-Verlag. 2004. ISBN 3-593-37612-1 .
- 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
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eckardt, Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German economic functionary and NSDAP regional economic advisor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 10, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Large floors |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1953 |