Max Klante
Max Klante (* 1882 or 1883 in Grünberg , Province of Silesia , † 1955 in Berlin ) was a German betting fraudster .
Life
Max Klante worked as a brush maker in his uncle's business. After running his own brush shop for some time, with which he was unsuccessful, he founded a newspaper distributor in Wroclaw . He then worked as a photographer and later as a tipster at the racecourse. As early as 1912 he was fined 60 marks for violating the Totalizator Act. In 1919 he moved from Breslau to Berlin.
The self-proclaimed “people happy” had founded a betting company in Berlin in May 1920 and “Max Klante & Co. GmbH” in December 1920 with share capital of 450,000 marks. He had invented a system, he announced, by means of which one could "make use of luck" at the totaliser with almost infallible security.
In the magazine Der Meldereiter , which he published , Klante promised: “You will give me a sum that you think is appropriate as a loan that can be canceled on a monthly basis. The payer assumes and bears no risk of loss, but receives 600% interest per year. After a year he will be repaid seven times the loan ... ".
The Klante Group appeared on the schedule for the first time in the 1921 racing season. The high dividend could be paid out on the first due date. Klante acquired a modern office building on Frankfurter Strasse in Berlin, and queues soon formed in front of the counters. After the office closed, further payments were received in two Anreißer cafés, the “Rheingold” and the “Gallipoli” café, which also belonged to him. The Klante group quickly expanded beyond Berlin. Branches were opened in almost all major German cities. In the Dresden police headquarters there was even a collection point especially for police officers.
The first critical day for Klante was Saturday, May 28, 1921. On that day, 20 million marks in dividends were to be paid out. From 9 a.m., hundreds were waiting in front of the office building on Frankfurter Strasse. However, only about five and a half million marks were available for payment. In this distress, Klante decreed that the payouts should be covered by the last deposits.
From May to August 1921, one hole was plugged by opening another. Betting amounts of over five million marks were offset by winnings of only three million marks. Although the interest to be paid was cut by half, the collapse of the pyramid scheme could no longer be stopped.
Klante was arrested on September 12, 1921. Although he had previously gone to a sanatorium because of tuberculosis, the sanatorium management had to surrender the patient at the request of the public prosecutor. On the same day, Klante filed for bankruptcy of his company.
On December 11, 1922, the trial against him began before the criminal chamber of District Court III in Berlin. The charges included fraud, commercial gambling and violations of bankruptcy rules. He was sentenced to three years in prison. A total of 260,000 people had entrusted their money to Klante. The total damage caused amounted to 90 million gold marks (adjusted for purchasing power today around € 25 million).
Klante is a prime example of criminal upstart of the interwar period , whose completely unrealistic promises were received uncritically.
Klante died by suicide in East Berlin in 1955 . His legacy consisted of a toto note .
literature
- Hans Erman, Martin Pfeideler: Berlin stories, history of Berlin: histories, episodes, anecdotes . Erdmann, 1975, ISBN 978-3-7711-0067-4 , p. 424 ff.
- Wolfgang Schild: Famous Berlin criminal trials of the twenties . In: Friedrich Ebel, Albrecht Randelzhofer (Ed.): Legal developments in Berlin: eight lectures, held on the occasion of Berlin's 750th anniversary . Walter de Gruyter, 1988, ISBN 978-3-11-011039-5 , p. 152 ff. (Available at Goggel-Books)
- Hermann Behr: The golden twenties - the captivating panorama of an unleashed time . Verlag Hammerich & Lesser, Hamburg, 1964, p. 43 ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nathalie Boegel: Berlin - capital of crime .
- ↑ The dream of a quick buck . one day , October 28, 2018; accessed on October 29, 2018
- ↑ Quoted from: Hans Erman, Martin Pfeideler: Berlin stories, history of Berlin: histories, episodes, anecdotes . Erdmann, 1975, ISBN 978-3-7711-0067-4 , p. 424
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Klante, Max |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German betting fraudster |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1882 or 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Grünberg , Province of Silesia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1955 |
| Place of death | East Berlin |