Paul Reusch

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Paul Reusch (no year)

Paul Hermann Reusch (born February 9, 1868 in Königsbronn , † December 21, 1956 at Katharinenhof Palace near Backnang ) was a German industrial manager and long-time chairman of the Gutehoffnungshütte . Under his leadership, the Oberhausen-based mining company finally transformed into a mixed-economy group with a strong mechanical engineering division . As one of the most influential economic functionaries of the Weimar Republic, Reusch tried to set the industry on an anti-republican course. His attitude towards the NSDAP , on the other hand, was contradictory.

Life

Reusch was the son of the Württemberg Oberbergrats Karl Hermann Reusch (1824-1894) and his wife Marie (née Riecke, daughter of the court chamber director Christian Riecke ). In 1895 he married Gertrude Zimmer, the daughter of a district judge from Breslau. The sons Hermann and Paul junior emerged from the marriage. Both were also active as industrialists.

After attending school in Aalen and Stuttgart, Reusch studied at the Technical University of Stuttgart . He studied metallurgy and graduated as an engineer. During his studies he became a member of the Saxonia country team . As an engineer, he worked at Jenbacher Berg- und Hüttenwerke between 1889 and 1890 and at Ganz & Co from 1891 to 1895. active in Budapest . Between 1895 and 1901 Reusch worked as an administrator of the Witkowitz mining and ironworks company . In 1901 he became director of the Friedrich Wilhelms-Hütte in Mülheim an der Ruhr .

Management of the Gutehoffnungshütte

Four years later he was appointed to the board of directors of Oberhausen Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH). In 1909 Reusch took over the chairmanship of this company, which belonged to the Haniel family. He held this office until 1942. With the beginning of his activity, he converted the mining and steel operations into a horizontally structured conglomerate.

During the First World War he was a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the War Resource Department of the War Ministry and a member of the board of the War Food Office .

As part of his conglomerate concept, Reusch was involved in founding the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg in 1918 . In this and most of the other holdings, Reusch ensured a majority stake in Gutehoffnungshütte. As a rule, the investments were made from the company's own resources. In 1920 GHH took over the majority of the shares in Maschinenfabrik Eßlingen , and one year later the company acquired MAN AG under Reusch . This laid the foundation for today's MAN group. This enabled GHH to expand into southern Germany, which is important for the company's sales.

Association official

During the Weimar Republic, Reusch was not only one of the most powerful industrial managers, but also one of the most influential business association officials. Between 1919 and 1929 he was President of the Duisburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry . From 1924 to 1930, Reusch was also head of the employers' organization “Northwestern Group of the Association of German Iron and Steel Industrialists ”. From 1924 to 1929, he also chaired the Langnam Association . In addition, Reusch was a member of the Presidium of the Reich Association of German Industry from 1923 to 1933 . Between 1926 and 1933 he was deputy chairman of the German Industry and Trade Conference . At the international level, Reusch was a member of the board of directors of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, and from 1930 to 1938 he was also represented on the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements in Paris.

Opponent of the republic

Reusch, who until the summer of 1918 was an advocate of annexationist war aims of the German Reich , belonged to the right wing of the DVP and was opposed to the republic. At the annual meeting of the Langnam Association on June 3, 1931, he demanded that the German people "must be led by a strong hand" and must make sacrifices together, otherwise a spiritual breakdown would ensue and thus "the culture of the white race " is doomed. In November 1927 he wrote to Alexander Post:

"You are undoubtedly right that one of the reasons for the unfortunate situation in which Germany finds itself is due to the fact that we are a people without space ."

He and other GHH executives maintained close contacts with government agencies and parties and tried to influence them in their favor. In 1927 he was one of the initiators and leading figures of the Ruhrlade . This was an informal body for collecting donations, which among other things went to right-wing and conservative parties. He also brokered funds to the Gäa . In 1928 he was one of the founders of the anti-republican alliance for the renewal of the empire . In this context, Reusch tried to gain control of various southern German newspapers, including the “Münchener Neusten Nachrichten”, in order to influence public opinion. In 1929 Reusch was one of the personalities from the employers' camp who called on the Reich Association of German Industry to "use all means to promote the defensive front against advancing Marxism and to exert pressure on the bourgeois parties so that they finally become effective resistance Raise against socialism in all areas of our domestic politics. ”This meant the grand coalition under Chancellor Hermann Müller . As a member of the right wing of the DVP, Reusch pushed for a break in the coalition after the Young Plan was implemented . Since 1931 he was a member of the Stahlhelm . In connection with the global economic crisis , Reusch, together with other leading industrialists, demanded that Chancellor Heinrich Brüning end the unemployment benefit system. In the place of insurance, care should come back in case of need. The arbitration system and the collective agreements were also rejected. The industrialists tried to undermine the silent agreement between Brüning and the SPD . Reusch's influence resulted in the relationship between the Brüning government and heavy industry deteriorating in 1932. Reusch wrote on September 6th that he was of the opinion “that Mr. Brüning, after the expectations that we had placed on him were not fulfilled, and after he did not have the courage to part with social democracy, from the economy and must be fought fiercely by the Reich Association and that the industry should express its mistrust openly. "

Attitude to the NSDAP

At the beginning of 1932 Reusch advocated an alliance between the conservatives and the NSDAP . He and Fritz Springorum hoped to be able to promote the moderate elements at the expense of the radical elements in the ranks of the National Socialists. Their aim was to involve the NSDAP in coalition governments, initially at the state level and finally also at the national level. On February 21, 1932, Reusch met with Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler in the management office of Gutehoffnungshütte. He gave Hitler the assurance that the three South German newspapers controlled by the group, which were actually close to the DVP, would behave “benevolently neutral” towards the NSDAP in the election campaign. This was in contrast to the attitude of Karl Haniel . Reusch's attempt failed because of the editorial team and the publishing house of the Munich Latest News. On March 19, 1932, he met again with Hitler and urged him not to let the party's economic policy course be determined by its left wing (e.g. the National Socialist factory cell organization ). However, he had no success with his actual main concern, namely to get Hitler to renounce his candidacy against Hindenburg in the upcoming presidential election in 1932 .

Just six months after starting cooperation with the NSDAP, he turned away from this course and at times supported Franz von Papen's plan to establish an authoritarian state. Ultimately, however, he was also disappointed with its policies. Whether he had given his consent to the industrialists' submission to the Reich President with the aim of appointing Hitler as Reich Chancellor in November 1932 was long debated in research. For a long time, Marxist research maintained that Reusch, like the heavy industrialists Albert Vögler and Fritz Springorum, subsequently showed solidarity with the submission. A letter from the National Socialist banker Friedrich Reinhart to State Secretary Otto Meissner dated November 21, 1932 was cited as evidence . The American historian Henry A. Turner , however, pointed out that Reusch had signed an election appeal “With Hindenburg for people and empire!” In autumn 1932, which spoke out in favor of the Papen government, for the DNVP and thus clearly against the NSDAP. In this context, it was assumed that Reinhart's communication should be interpreted as misinformation based on interests.

Third Reich and post-war period

Reusch and with him parts of the Ruhr industry welcomed the fall of Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, who had been criticized as conciliatory . However, this did not mean unreserved approval of the new regime. Immediately after January 30, 1933, he wrote to the editor of the “Franconian Courier” directed by Reusch: “I still ask you to remain sober and wait and see towards the government. Enthusiasm is out of place for the time being. ”Reusch and other more moderate Ruhr industrialists were skeptical as to whether Papen's plan to“ frame ”the National Socialists in the government could succeed. Other of his industrial friends, u. a. Albert Vögler (Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG), Fritz Springorum (Hoesch Group), Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (Krupp AG), Ernst Tengelmann (GBAG) and Ludwig von Winterfeld (Vereinigte Stahlwerke / Siemens) expressed their solidarity at a meeting on 20. February 1933 with Hitler's policy: annihilation of Marxism, abolition of democracy and rearmament. Before the Reichstag elections of March 5, 1933, Reusch feared a further shift in the political balance in favor of the NSDAP and to the detriment of the bourgeois parties. He said that if it were not possible to unite them into one big party, the bourgeois camp would "temporarily no longer play a role in Germany's political life." But Reusch did not have a feasible plan for this either.

The example of the newspaper Münchener Neusten Nachrichten, which belongs to the GHH group, shows that Reusch quickly adapted to the new circumstances. The newspaper was brought into line and Reusch did little to protect employees from reprisals. In terms of economic policy, Reusch was increasingly in conflict with the new regime. Already at the beginning of the National Socialist rule he criticized the interference in the internal affairs of the RDI. Under pressure from the National Socialists, he had to give up his management and supervisory board positions in the GHH and over 20 corporations in 1942. The politically motivated resignation was strongly emphasized after 1945 in order to have a positive influence on his denazification process .

He retired to his Swabian estate. Towards the end of the war he founded the "Reusch Circle", a discussion group that was in close contact with the resistance movement around Carl Goerdeler .

There were six farmers and six industrialists each in the Reusch district: the agrarian Count Borcke , Richard von Flemming-Paatzig, Carl Wentzel , Tilo von Wilmowsky , Zastrow, Zitzewitz-Kottow and the industrialists Hermann Bücher , Hjalmar Schacht , Carl Friedrich von Siemens , Fritz Thyssen , Albert Vögler and Reusch themselves.

After the war, he was too old to take an active role. Nevertheless, he remained a consultant in many areas to his son Hermann , who took over the management of Gutehoffnungshütte in 1947. Because his forced resignation and the developments in post-war Germany embittered him, he refused to enter the Ruhr area again.

Honors

Paul-Reusch-Strasse in Aalen

literature

  • Johannes Bähr : Robert Bosch - Paul Reusch - Jürgen Ponto . In: Werner Plumpe (Hrsg.): Entrepreneurs - facts and fictions. Historical-biographical studies (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, 88), De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, pp. 197–225, ISBN 978-3-486-71352-7 .
  • Johannes Bähr, Ralf Banken, Thomas Flemming: The MAN. A German industrial history. Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57762-8 , Google preview .
  • Werner Bührer:  Reusch, Paul Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 455-457 ( digitized version ).
  • Bodo Herzog: Paul Reusch and the German Museum in Munich: On the 100th birthday of Paul Reusch. Treatises and Reports, Volume 35, Issue 3, 1967.
  • Bodo Herzog: Paul Reusch and the Lower Rhine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Duisburg-Wesel. In: Duisburg research. Vol. 14, 1970, ISSN  0419-8026 , pp. 91-103.
  • Peter Langer: Power and responsibility. The Ruhr Baron Paul Reusch. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0822-2 .
  • Peter Langer: Paul Reusch and the synchronization of the Munich latest news . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 53, No. 2, 2005, pp. 203–246, digitized version (PDF; 7.8 MB) (long loading time).
  • Christian Marx: It's all in the mix. On the importance of cultural, economic and social capital at Paul Reusch during the establishment of the Gutehoffnungshütte group (1918–1924) . In: Markus Gamper, Linda Reschke (Ed.): Knots and Edges. Social network analysis in economic and migration research . transcript, Bielefeld 2010, pp. 159-193, ISBN 978-3-8376-1311-7 .
  • Christian Marx: Paul Reusch and the Gutehoffnungshütte. Head of a large German company . Wallstein, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1119-0 .
  • Christian Marx: Paul Reusch - a political entrepreneur in the age of system breaks. From the Empire to the Federal Republic . In: VSWG , Vol. 101, H. 3 (2014), pp. 273–299.
  • Erich Maschke : A group is created. Paul Reusch and the GHH. Rainer Wunderlich Verlag Hermann Leins , Tübingen 1969.
  • Reinhard Neebe: Industry and January 30, 1933. In: Karl Dietrich Bracher , Manfred Funke , Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (eds.): National Socialist dictatorship 1933–1945. A balance sheet. Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-921352-95-9 , pp. 155–176.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Marx: Paul Reusch - a political entrepreneur in the age of system breaks. From the Empire to the Federal Republic . In: VSWG , Vol. 101, H. 3 (2014), pp. 273–299, here. P. 275.
  2. ↑ Werner Bührer: New publications on Paul Reusch (review), in: sehepunkte 13 (2013), No. 10, October 15, 2013.
  3. ↑ Winkler, Weimar, p. 365.
  4. ^ Gustav Luntowski: Hitler and the gentlemen on the Ruhr, economic power and state power in the Third Reich . Frankfurt am Main 2000, p. 29.
  5. ^ Karsten Heinz Schönbach: The German Corporations and National Socialism 1926-1943 . Berlin 2015, p. 54.
  6. ↑ Winkler, Weimar, p. 361.
  7. ↑ Winkler, Weimar, p. 365f.
  8. ↑ Winkler, Weimar, p. 422.
  9. ↑ Winkler, Weimar, p. 427.
  10. ^ Thomas Trumpp: To the financing of the NSDAP by the German big industry. Attempt to take stock. In: Karl Dietrich Bracher / Manfred Funke / Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (eds.): National Socialist Dictatorship 1933–1945. A balance sheet, Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-921352-95-9 , p. 145.
  11. ↑ Winkler, Weimar, p. 452.
  12. ↑ Dieter Ziegler (Ed.): Upper bourgeoisie and entrepreneurs, p. 181.
  13. ↑ Eberhard Czichon , Who helped Hitler to power? . Cologne 1967, p. 71 f.
  14. ^ Henry A. Turner : The big entrepreneurs and the rise of Hitler , Siedler, Berlin 1985, p. 365f.
  15. ^ Neebe, Industrie, p. 156.
  16. ↑ Eberhard Czichon, Who helped Hitler to power? . Cologne 1967, p. 71 ff.
  17. ^ Neebe, Industrie, p. 157
  18. ↑ In detail: Langer, Paul Reusch and the synchronization.
  19. ^ Neebe, Industrie, p. 174.
  20. ^ Ziegler (Ed.): Großbürger und Unternehmer, p. 60.
  21. ↑ Tilo von Wilmowsky: Looking back, I would like to say ... On the threshold of the 150th Krupp anniversary. Stalling, Oldenburg 1961, p. 182. Members:
  22. ^ Johannes Bähr: Robert Bosch - Paul Reusch - Jürgen Ponto . In: Werner Plumpe (Hrsg.): Entrepreneurs - facts and fictions. Historical-biographical studies (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, 88), De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, pp. 197–225, here p. 214, ISBN 978-3-486-71352-7 .
  23. ^ Kindergarten Strümpfelbach gets a new name

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reusch, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reusch, Paul Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manager
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsbronn
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1956
Place of death Backnang