Max von der Porten

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Max von der Porten (born April 12, 1879 in Hamburg , † September 6, 1943 in New York City ) was a German industrialist.

Authorized officer and military service

As the son of the partner in the Von der Porten & Frank company , he attended secondary school in Hamburg and then began an apprenticeship as a businessman at the Norddeutsche Affinerie . In 1909 he obtained the position of authorized signatory at the Otavi Mining and Railway Company in Berlin . Two years later, on December 11, 1911, he was appointed deputy member and the following year a full member of the board. He later moved to the company's board of directors.

With the beginning of the First World War he was transferred to the Prussian War Ministry, where he worked as a consultant in the field of metal industry. He was also employed as state commissioner in Kriegsmetall AG , a management office for metals essential to the war effort. In 1920 he acquired the position of General Director of the United Aluminum Werke AG (VAW). A year later, the TH Braunschweig appointed him Dr.-Ing. e. H. Politically, he was nationally liberal and became a member of the German People's Party (DVP). In Berlin he lived in Berlin-Charlottenburg on Schlüterstrasse. 38.

Danat Bank

When the Darmstädter und Nationalbank (Danat-Bank) collapsed in the German banking crisis in 1931, the President of the Reichsbank, Hans Luther , wanted to merge the bank with Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft AG (RKG). Luther received the support of IG Farben's finance director , Hermann Schmitz , for this plan . At that time, Porten was Deputy Chairman of the RKG Supervisory Board. Together with the member of the board of the RKG, Otto Christian Fischer , and Samuel Ritscher from VIAG , he turned against Luther's plan and thus prevented the merger.

Gelsenberg affair

As part of the Gelsenberg affair , a meeting took place on January 25, 1932, which was attended by Porten, Friedrich Flick and Albert Vögler . Flick proposed to merge the Charlottenhütte AG founded in 1864 in Niederschelden with the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke AG . Porten rejected this as dubious, as the economic end of the Charlottenhütte could not be spread to the public and, on the other hand, a merger valued in shares could not be realized. In further negotiations, Flick and Vögler submitted an offer from Fritz Thyssen . In further analyzes, Porten was able to find out that this proposed transaction would have led to the majority of the share capital of Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (GBAG) being owned by Belgian and French companies.

Porten then informed the Reich Finance Minister Hermann Dietrich about the dangers that could arise for the German armaments industry. The Chancellor Franz von Papen and Dietrich agreed with the intention that Porten should conduct the following negotiations about the purchase of the majority of GBAG.

Turkey and USA

After the National Socialists came to power, he went to Turkey from 1934 to 1939 and organized an industry in Ankara with others as financial advisors. On December 20, 1940, the Christian Science Monitor in the USA reported that Porten had applied for permanent residence in the USA. He died in New York three years later on September 6, 1943.

membership

Chair or deputy chair

  • General committee for safeguarding the interests of the German metal industry
  • Supervisory Board Berg-Heckmann-Selve AG, Altena (Westphalia)
  • Supervisory board of Erftwerk AG, Grevenbroich
  • Supervisory board of Rheinische Blattmetall AG, Grevenbroich
  • Supervisory board Rheinische Metallwaren- und Maschinenfabrik, Düsseldorf
  • Supervisory Board Triebwagen AG, Kiel
  • Advisory Board Süddeutsche Metallwarenfabrik KG, Mußbach (Palatinate)
  • Supervisory board of Deutsche Werke AG, Kiel
  • Reich Credit Society, Berlin
  • United Industrial Companies AG, Berlin
  • Eisenwerk-Gesellschaft Maximilianshütte, Rosenberg

President or Vice President

  • Board member of Bauxit Trust AG, Zurich
  • Board of Directors of Societa Anonima per l'Escavo e lIndustria di Minerali d'Alluminio, Trieste

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. German business publisher, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 .
  2. ↑ Kurt Gross Weiler: big banks - industrial monopolies - State , Berlin 1971, p 381
  3. ↑ Harold James: Association Policy in National Socialism , Munich 2001, p. 25
  4. ↑ 675 years of Niederschelden ( Memento from June 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Johannes Bähr et al .: The Flick Group in the Third Reich , Munich 2008, p. 767
  6. ↑ DBE, Volume 8, Munich 2007, p. 36
  7. ↑ Christian Science Monitor ( Memento from July 15, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
personal data
SURNAME Porten, Max from the
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH September 6, 1943
Place of death New York City