Kurt Weigelt

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Kurt Weigelt (born June 4, 1884 in Berlin , † August 5, 1968 in Hamburg ) was a German manager and Nazi war criminal. He was a member of the board of directors of Deutsche Bank and was a recognized aviation expert during the Weimar Republic . In the time of National Socialism he appeared as a proponent of a new German colonial policy . After the Second World War , as chairman of the supervisory board and president, he played a key role in the reconstruction of Lufthansa .

Life

Weigelt attended the Gray Monastery high school in Berlin . He then studied law and economics in Berlin, Freiburg im Breisgau and Jena . In 1909 he received his doctorate as Dr. jur. and first entered the Prussian judicial service. He soon turned to the private sector and was mainly active in Asia Minor and Africa before the First World War .

From 1913 he was also active in banking. During the First World War Weigelt was head of the War Committee for Oils and Grease. From 1918 he sat on the board of directors of Deutsche Petroleum AG . In 1922 he became deputy director of Deutsche Bank . Weigelt was a member of the bank's board of directors from 1927 until the end of the Second World War . Weigelt was especially important for international contacts.

Even before the First World War, he was intensively involved in the development of aviation. In 1919/1920 Weigelt was involved in the founding of Deutsche Luft Lloyd, the German-Russian airline company in 1921, and in 1923 Deutsche Aero-Lloyd AG as well as in the founding of Scadta-Sociedad Columbia Alemana de Transportes. In the following years he developed into an internationally respected aviation expert. Therefore, Weigelt was appointed to the aviation committee of the International Chamber of Commerce in 1925 . In 1926 he played a key role in the merger of the existing German aviation companies to form Deutsche Lufthansa AG. He was Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board in this company. Between 1931 and 1939 Weigelt was chairman of the aviation committee of the International Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, Weigelt remained the owner of a banana plantation in Cameroon until the Second World War and, since its establishment in July 1936, was head of the Reich Group of German Colonial Economic Enterprises . During the time of National Socialism he was a leader in the economic planning of a new colonial policy. Since 1934 he was a supporting member of the SS and since 1937 a member of the NSDAP . Weigelt dreamed of a National Socialist world empire:

Finally, it should be emphasized that the great cleansing in Europe justifies, but also forces Germany to a colonial solution , which can in no way be compared with the acquisitions made in 1884 , where we had to take what the others had left over. Therefore, the economic considerations about the best possible design of the tropical supplementary area did not stop at the old borders.

After the end of the Second World War, his name was initially on a list of 42 people in the industry who were wanted as war criminals. He was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison and a fine. After that he was initially busy with the liquidation of the old Lufthansa. He later returned to banking and had been a member of the advisory board of Deutsche Bank since 1952.

In the same year Weigelt took over the chairmanship of the preparatory committee for a new federal German air traffic. When the AG für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag) was founded in 1953, he became its supervisory board chairman. He was also chairman of the finance committee. He retained both positions until 1960, even after the company was renamed Deutsche Lufthansa AG. After his time as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he was given the title of "Honorary President". He was also a board member of numerous other companies.

In 1954 he received the Great Federal Cross of Merit and in 1959 the star.

Remarks

  1. ^ "The brown history of Lufthansa", March 11, 2016 , newspaper article in the "Mittelbayerische" from March 11, 2016
  2. ↑ is meant: in mine
  3. ↑ Weigelt: Kolonialwirtschaftliche Denkschrift from July 1940. Quoted from [1] , from Alexandre Kum'a N'Dumbe, Hitler voulait l'Afrique, Paris 1980, German Frankfurt 1993, p. 74

literature

  • Karsten Linne: Africa as a supplementary economic and political area. Kurt Weigelt and the colonial economic planning in the "Third Reich." In: Corporate Crisis and Overcoming it in the 20th Century = Company Crisis and Crisis Management in The 20th Century. Berlin, 2006. P. 146 Digitized
  • Munzinger Archive : International Biographical Archive 42/1968 of October 7, 1968

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Weigelt, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manager
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 5th August 1968
Place of death Hamburg