Max Zeidelhack

Johann Martin Zeidelhack , called Max Zeidelhack , (born October 18, 1891 in Bayreuth , † 1955 Donauwörth ) was a German manager in the arms industry . During the time of National Socialism, as ministerial director, he was head of the business administration department of the Heereswaffenamt (office group “Industrial Armaments”) and one of the main contributors to the coal and steel scheme .

biography

After graduating from high school, Max Zeidelhack studied German, economic history, French, English and political science at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . During the First World War , Zeidelhack was initially an artilleryman , during the last two years of the war he served as a pilot in the Air Force. At that time he also met General Emil Leeb , who later became the head of the Army Weapons Office . In 1922 he received his doctorate in political science.

On November 9, 1923, Zeidelhack took part in Hitler's attempted coup in Munich.

Zeidelhack was an auditor at the Maxhütte and in 1934 moved to the Heereswaffenamt (HWA). Montan GmbH, a shell company with no operational business , had been owned by Maxhütte since 1922. The Maxhütte gave 95% of the share capital of 4,800 Reichsmark to the equipment and apparatus trading company mbH (Gerap), which was controlled by the HWA and held the shares in trust for the HWA.

Zeidelhack was a covert agent in the Montan scheme, involved in the " Aryanization " of the Donauwörth tool and machine factory and co-owner of the Deutsche Fasstoff-Gesellschaft mbH .

Montan scheme

In the Montan scheme , straw men acted as managing directors for facade companies of the Heereswaffenamt. One of these straw men was Max Zeidelhack. The secrecy was strict. Anyone who reported on the illegal armaments at the time was severely punished. Carl von Ossietzky received windy things from the aviation industry for a carefully researched article about the armament of the air force , in his Weltbühne 18 months imprisonment.

Zeidelhack explained his vision of publishing as follows:

"The selection fell on those companies that ... in terms of the small number of committees, in terms of the entire organization of the parent company, etc. were at the level of what one had expected from such a company."

- Max Zeidelhack's interrogation on January 6, 1948; Nürnb. Doc. NI-9192, cit. based on: Hopmann, Montan, p. 81.

The record of negotiations for the "Aryanization" of the property of the Simson family in 1935, in which Zeidelhack participated, has been preserved.

"Aryanization" of the Donauwörth tool and machine factory

From the 1920s onwards, the Donauwörth tool and machine factory manufactured buffer sleeves for the Deutsche Reichsbahn and grenades, known as car cylinders, as well as gun carriages, gun barrel rings and spare parts for the Reichswehr. The artillery shell casings were filled and finished separately by a group of employees limited to 100 people at Gut Loeffellads and brought to Ingolstadt by train for acceptance by the Reichswehr . Emil Loeffellad (1879–1945) did not respond to offers to sell his shares in the tool and machine factory in Donauwörth. Thereupon Loeffellad was arrested by the Secret State Police on May 6, 1934 , he was accused of industrial espionage and he was declared a state pest. On May 16, 1934, Loeffellad was brought before a notary in Berlin and forced to sell the factory property in Donauwörth with all equipment and supplies for 650,000 Reichsmarks to Montan GmbH, represented by Zeidelhack . A few days after this sale, Loefellad collected half of the purchase price as reimbursement for an allegedly improper use of part of the funds made available by the Reichswehr Ministry in the 1920s.

Pulp

On July 8, 1911, the "Deutsche Fasstoff Gesellschaft mbH" from Berlin-Wilmersdorf was established on the site of the Georg Schleber AG charcoal burning plant in Fürstenberg / Havel . The pulp was owned by the Arms and Ammunition Procurement Office . From 1911 to 1929, according to local surrogates and imported vegetable fiber ramie research and Mantles produced. From 1928, machine tools for rifle and machine gun production were stored on the site of the pulp. For legal transactions, the Berlin lawyer Julius Hepner was entered in the land register as the owner and Herbert Neumerkel (born October 4, 1889 in Crimmitschau , resident at Zehdenicker Straße 32) as the factory director . By the end of 1934 a company for the production of bullet cases had been established. 12,000 to 13,000 cases for caliber 7.5 were produced in three-shift operation; 8.8; or 10.5 cm daily. At the end of January 1935, the first order for 30,000 H (10.5 cm) pressed steel cylinders price 17.61 Reichsmarks was fulfilled. At a notary appointment on April 1, 1935, Zeidelhack was entered in the land register as the owner and Carl Harlinghausen from Fürstenberg as the managing director of fiber. According to Hopmann (p. 28), Wolf G. Schleber fared similarly to Emil Loeffellad.

The Ravensbrück concentration camp was partially built on the site of the pulp and got a track connection to the pulp . In the production of bullet casings, prisoners from the Ravensbrück concentration camp and other people referred to in the statistics as Eastern workers were used for forced labor . In May 1943, negotiations were held with Zeidelhack about the real assignment of the pulp to the SS for the Ravensbrück youth concentration camp. In 1944 ownership of the fiber material was transferred from the Reich Weapons Office to the Reich Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition .

“IG-Farben and Dynamit AG approached the Heereswaffenamt in a number of cases with the intention of convincing them of the necessity of building projects (...). The unusually large share of IG-Farben and Dynamit AG in the OKH's construction projects is essentially due to the fact that these companies develop a particularly pronounced initiative in finding building sites and drawing up specific plans. Without the intensive participation of IG-Farben, including Dynamit AG and their experience and initiative, the implementation of the army's chemical projects would have been impossible. "

- Max Zeidelhack, July 31, 1947 Nuremberg

On September 16, 1946 Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth (WMD) was founded, which was incorporated into Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm in 1969 and is now part of EADS within the Eurocopter Group . Zeidelhack died in 1955 as chairman of the supervisory board of Waggon- und Maschinenbau GmbH Donauwörth.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chronicle Waldkraiburg Blood Order Bearer.pdf
2. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Bernhard Gotto: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58683-1 , p. 142. ( limited preview of Google books )
3. ↑ ^{a b} The development of the fibrous material site in the period from 1929 to 1945  ( 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.  
4. ↑ Götz Aly, Wolf Gruner: The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945, German Reich 1933-1937. ( limited preview of Google Books )
5. ↑ Barbara Hopmann: From the coal and steel industry to the industrial management company (IVG) 1916-1951. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, p. 23. ( limited preview of Google books )
6. ↑ Barbara Hopmann: From the coal and steel industry to the industrial management company (IVG) 1916-1951. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, p. 28, ( limited preview of Google books )
7. ↑ The development of the fibrous material site in the period from 1911 to 1929  ( 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.  
8. ↑ Ministerialdir. a. D. Dr. Max Zeidelhack, Chairman d. AR d. Waggon und Maschinenbau GmbH., Donauwörth. In: DIE ZEIT of September 8, 1955 ( online )