Konrad Kaletsch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Konrad Kaletsch in a court photo, 1945

Konrad Kaletsch (born December 18, 1898 in Kassel ; † September 18, 1978 in Kreuztal ) was in the front row of the Flick Group's executives as a specialist in financial matters, he was also a military economist and defendant in the Nuremberg trials .

biography

Before 1945

After completing commercial training at Buderus in Kassel , he worked there for a year as an employee. He then studied law , economics and technical subjects and joined the Flick concern in the early 1920s. His uncle Friedrich Flick had recommended and financed his studies. During his studies he became a member of ATV Markomannia Cologne . Kaletsch initially worked as an authorized signatory and later as a board member of Charlottenhütte AG and Mitteldeutsche Stahl AG , which were owned by Friedrich Flick. During the time of National Socialism he was represented on the supervisory boards of Südchemie AG , Maschinenbau AG Balcke in Bochum, Vereinigte Bleichererdefabriken in Munich and Montaninteressen AG for the Flick Group . In addition to Otto Steinbrinck, he was authorized to act for the Flick Group from 1937. He was the group's specialist in financial matters and worked at the headquarters in Berlin.

He joined the NSDAP in 1937 . In 1941 he was appointed military economist. He received the War Merit Cross Second (1941) and First Class (1944). At Flick, Kaletsch was responsible for distributing the donations to the SS .

After 1945

He was arrested on December 8, 1945. In the Nuremberg trials, Kaletsch and Friedrich Flick and Otto Steinbrinck were accused of having been involved in the aryanization of three Jewish companies, along with other charges . Kaletsch was acquitted in the Flick trial on December 22, 1947 , although the prosecution showed that it was clear to those involved in the expropriation that one day they would have to answer before an international court. The indictment stated:

"The participation of Flick, Steinbrinck and Kaletsch in the draft of a general Aryanization law proves with all desirable clarity their participation in the general process of making life in Germany impossible for Jews."

- From the indictment of the Flick trial

Since Friedrich Flick was convicted and imprisoned, Kaletsch began negotiations with the Allies about the Flick Group from 1948 onwards, as the company had been confiscated. When the Anglo-American authorities had a liquidation plan for Friedrich Flick KG, Kaletsch successfully intervened with the German government and an agreement was reached in 1952. The iron and steel works remained fully in the control of Flick KG. Only the hard coal companies had to be sold and this within 5 years at normal market prices, and these unbundling measures produced liquid funds amounting to a quarter of a billion DM.

Kaletsch was again CEO of the Flick Group and also a member of the supervisory board of Daimler-Benz , Dynamit Nobel , Süd-Chemie and others. In the mid-1960s, Kaletsch came into the public eye when he was listed in a "List of important armaments experts and military economic leaders of the Hitler regime ...", which was published by the GDR in a " Brown Book of War and Nazi Criminals ".

In 1965 he was honored with the Great Cross of Merit and in 1969 with the Bavarian Order of Merit . The city of Kreuztal made him an honorary citizen in 1975. In 1976 he founded the Konrad Kaletsch Foundation based in Kreuztal. When the foundation wanted to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation published an information brochure entitled "An attempt to come to terms with what is necessary". The celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Konrad Kaletsch Foundation was then canceled. On the 100th birthday of Kaletsch in 1988, the then mayor of Kreuztal laid a wreath on his tomb in his memory.

literature

  • Susanne Jung: The legal problems of the Nuremberg trials. Depicted in the trial against Friedrich Flick. Tübingen 1992.
  • Ernst Klee : The personal lexicon for the Third Reich - who was what before and after 1945. 2nd edition. Frankfurt am Main, 2007, p. 296.
  • Kim Christian Priemel: Flick - A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 .
  • Old gentlemen's association of the ATB (ed.): 100 years of the Academic Gymnastics Association 1883–1983. Melsungen 1983, pp. 192-193.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Priemel: Flick - A corporate history . P. 256
  2. ↑ Johannes Bähr et al: The Flick Group in the Third Reich, p. 129. Ed. Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin on behalf of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Oldenbourger Wissenschaftsverlag. Munich 2008.
  3. ↑ Jung: Legal Problems. P. 28.
  4. ↑ a b Regionales Personenlexikon, article Konrad Kaletsch
  5. ↑ Klee: Personal Lexicon. P. 296.
  6. ↑ Jung: Legal Problems. P. 63
  7. ↑ Thomas Ramge: Die Flicks: a German family story about money, power and politics. P. 110. Online partial view
  8. ↑ Kim Christian Priemel: Reloaded company history: How Friedrich Flick KG dealt with the Nazi past, unbundling and restitution after 1945. In: Johannes Bähr et al: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Edited by Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin on behalf of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Oldenbourger Wissenschaftsverlag, p. 677. Munich 2008. ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1
  9. ^ Norbert Podewin (Ed.): Braunbuch - Reprint of the 1968 edition . Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-360-01033-7 , p. 54
  10. ↑ Foundations. Konrad Kaletsch Foundation. Foundation established in 1976 . In: Citizens' Service of the City of Kreuztal, accessed on March 6, 2015
  11. ↑ Flick. Part of the booty . In: spiegelonline.de, May 8, 1988, accessed March 6, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Kaletsch, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1978
Place of death Kreuztal