Rudolf Ruscheweyh

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Rudolf Ruscheweyh (born December 31, 1905 in Erfurt , † January 15, 1954 in Schaan , Liechtenstein ) was a German-Liechtenstein arms dealer , secret service employee and party donor.

Life

His father, Paul Rusheweyh (1875–1915), was the first director of JA John AG and, as chairman of the Thuringian Metal Industry Association , was a member of the Great Committee of the Federation of Industrialists in 1914 .

As a Prussian cadet, Rudolf had suffered a severe gout disease that forced him to walk on sticks all his life. After completing his training as a commercial clerk, Rudolf worked in his father's machine factory until 1933, for which he set up a European network of representatives. He lived abroad and was considered a non-resident after the introduction of the forced exchange economy in 1931. He dealt with patent and licensing law, settled in Amsterdam and acquired various patents from French ownership, which he brought into NV Handel Maatschappij Cellastic from 1935-36 .

Arms dealer activities

Netherlands

Since 1936 Ruscheweyh ran a company in the Netherlands that manufactured bulletproof tires, the Hollandsche Maatschappij voor Fabricatie en verkoop van Cellastic-Banden ("Dutch company for the manufacture and sale of Cellastic tires"). The DAF M39 Pantserwagen was equipped with these . The company was connected to the “Rhodius Koenigs Handelmaatschappij”, which also means a connection to the German secret service. In 1940 Ruscheweyh transferred the Cellastic , Netherlands patent to Liechtenstein as Patva . Ruscheweyh was confidante of Heinrich Himmler and Wilhelm Canaris . From 1940 to 1943 Ruscheweyh was employed by the " Abwehr " as an economic expert with a post in Paris .

Zurich

20 mm Oerlikon cannon

When it was not possible for the machine tool factory Oerlikon-Bührle (WO) to deliver to France and Great Britain in the summer of 1940, the cannon production was delivered to Germany. Ruscheweyh was the general agent for the German Empire of WO during World War II . The business activities of WO with the countries of the axis - Germany, Italy and Romania - reached a total volume of 543.4 million Swiss francs in the years 1940 to 1944 and included the delivery of 7,013 pieces of 20 mm cannons and 14,758,489 rounds of ammunition , 12,520 replacement tubes and 40,092 magazines. In return, Ruscheweyh received commissions of over 10 million Swiss francs. In mid-1941, Emil Georg Bührle initiated the establishment of Press- und Stanzwerk AG Eschen , which manufactured cases for Oerlikon's 20 mm ammunition.

In 1944 Ruscheweyh exchanged his German diplomatic passport for a Liechtenstein diplomatic passport .

Liechtenstein

Ruscheweyh brought gold and foreign exchange from Pierre Laval to Liechtenstein. Laval was Prime Minister of the Vichy regime until August 20, 1944 . He was then taken to Sigmaringen , where he lived in the castle with Philippe Pétain and led a puppet government in exile with cabinet meetings and his own watch until he fled to Spain in May 1945 . Ruscheweyh tried to bring Laval across the Swiss border.

After the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, Ernst Kaltenbrunner advised Abwehr officers newly integrated into Office VI of the RSHA on how to contact the Western Allies for a separate peace. As a possible mediator, Prince Franz Josef II was suggested by an SD major, Bernhard Schlütter. Ruscheweyh made contact with Franz Josef II with other officers of the Office VI. Ruscheweyh arranged that Franz Josef II got his Viennese art collection back from the German confiscation. In return, this protected Ruscheweyh, who was on the Allied war criminals list, from punishment. The governments of Great Britain and the USA demanded Ruscheweyh's extradition. Before May 8, 1945, Rusheweyh had moved to Liechtenstein with his wife, two sons and his fortune. On May 4, 1948 he was granted citizenship in Liechtenstein.

Octogon Trust

The Villa Ruscheweyh in Schaan, in the Steinegerta 26 is supported by a surrounding enclosure wall which forms an octagon. The name of the "Octogon Trust", which was founded there on January 24, 1952, is derived from this. The “Octogon Trust”, headed by Rudolf Ruscheweyh, had itself entered in the commercial register of Vaduz for all kinds of business and was the acquirer of the arms company Hispano-Suiza in Geneva. The purpose of the Octogon Trust was to supply the newly established Bundeswehr with armaments in the course of the German rearmament and at the same time to use the commissions to finance the West German parties that enforced the unpopular rearmament , which had been forbidden by the constitution . The reptile fund created in this way was made known to exponents from the German political landscape. Gottfried Treviranus presented a list of ten beneficiaries of the Octogon Trust to Franz Josef Strauss two hours before a state visit by Harold Macmillan on October 8, 1958 . It did not prevent Leyland Motors from making money on the HS 30 production. Treviranus saw himself in the role of Laocoon , while Strauss saw existential threats to the funding of his party.

Hans Klein , better known as China-Klein, also switched from Oerlikon to Octogon .

Joachim (Achim) Oster was a founding member of the CSU and a friend of Franz Josef Strauss. From 1946 to 1948 he worked as a secretary to the CSU state management and from 1948 to 1949 as its managing director. Ruscheweyh knew Hans Oster and his son Achim Oster from their time together in the defense. Oster served on the board of the Octogon Trust. His frequent stay in the Villa Octogon in 1952 and 1953 was later based on his position as head of the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD). Ruscheweyh showed Oster all the industrial espionage files of the Canaris defense in the basement of the Villa Octogon. The declaration has more credibility than Reinhard Gehlen's , saying that he microfilmed the archive material of the Eastern Enlightenment and buried it on an alpine meadow .

The Federal Ministry of the Interior under Robert Lehr , with the approval of the competent Bundestag committee and the Allied Security Office, bought 20 mm cannons for maritime protection through Ruscheweyh at Hispano-Suiza Geneva .

Friedrich Holzapfel was parliamentary group leader of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group from September 21 to September 30, 1949. On January 20, 1953, he resigned his parliamentary mandate and became Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany in Switzerland in Bern . In 1953, Holzapfel became aware of Hispano-Suiza General Representative, Conrado José Kraémer , and Rudolf Ruscheweyh, after the Bernese federal authorities had banned Octogon dealers from exporting 100 HS cannons for Bonn's maritime protection. Holzapfel informed his office, the Foreign Ministry, Walter Hallstein and Konrad Adenauer's Chancellery, Hans Globke :

  • "Ruscheweyh, and thus also the Octogon Trust, have the reputation of being the outspoken 'gun pushers', as I was told verbatim by an authoritative man in the federal administration".
  • "Insiders of the old German military" would know that the Octogon consultant "Klein has developed very special skills in the field of bribery".
  • "There is not the slightest doubt that attempts at bribery are being made."

Holzapfel was quoted in Bonn. In preparation for the conversation in his office, the personnel manager Josef Löns had made a "special note for State Secretary Hallstein". Holzapfel should be advised to "immediately submit a request to be put on hold", because then he could "not make any stories because he is still obliged to maintain official secrecy". Hallstein, Holzapfel later reported, had explained to him at the time "in a very sharp manner", "I should stay out of the whole thing" - otherwise he would have to "initiate disciplinary proceedings immediately". Holzapfel found "no opportunity to present anything factual about the arms deals".

As a late consequence of the Octagon-Trust may, inter alia the suicide of the Swiss Federal Prosecutor , René Dubois seen on March 23, 1957th Dubois had been involved in the Octogon Trust affair.

The Villa Octogon in Schaan is now an adult education center.

Documentation

literature

  • Stefanie Waske: More liaison than control. Control of the BND by Parliament 1953-1978 . VS, Verlag für Sozialwesen, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16347-5 (Dissertation University of Marburg 2007, 285 pages).
  • Cannons for teaching . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1953 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ request Federal Department of Justice and Police of the Swiss Federal Council of 18 October 1955: "Court Police investigation in terms OCTOGON» 1. (Biographical data Ruscheweyh) in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
  2. ↑ Steffen Raßloff: Flight into the national community: The Erfurt bourgeoisie between ... ; P. 87.
  3. ↑ a b cannons for teaching . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1953 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Liechtenstein's financial relations at the time of National Socialism . Study on behalf of the Independent Commission of Historians Liechtenstein, Second World War, Part 2; P. 142.
  5. ↑ Figure Daf M39 "Pantserwagen" (also Pz Sp Wg DAF 210) ( Memento from October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Press report “Morgenster, 26 januari 2000 met een forse update in april 2001” de CDU affaire , section “Richard en Rudolf” ( memento of 10 September 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (viewed on 18 Aug 2009)
  7. ^ David Beattie: Liechtenstein: A Modern History . Tauris IB, 2004, ISBN 978-1-85043-459-7 .
  8. ↑ Report on one Rudolf Ruscheweyh ( Memento from October 28, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), who "must be considered one of the biggest war-profiteers and unscrupulous 'fixers' of World War II," July 11, 1945, 4 pp. Among other things, Ruscheweyh was suspected of being "one of the key figures in the transfer of German capital to Liechtenstein."
  9. ↑ How the Prince of Liechtenstein had his collection of paintings saved by the Nazis . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 17, 2004.
  10. ↑ Kulturweg No. 6, Villa Ruscheweyh in Schaan
  11. ↑ HS 30 - Or How to Ruin a State . In: Der Spiegel . No. 44 , 1966 ( online ).
  12. ↑ In the niche . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1967 ( online - HS 30 committee).
  13. ↑ Jürg Schoch: The federal prosecutor lay dead on the screed . In: Tages-Anzeiger , March 22, 2007, p 12 ( Jürg Schoch: The Attorney lay dead on the floor . March 22, 2007, filed by the original on April 2007 , accessed on August 24, 2015 . )
personal data
SURNAME Ruscheweyh, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch-Liechtenstein arms dealer, secret service employee and party donor
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 1954
Place of death Schaan