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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1963)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 14. 1913 E 3 (rupp Dynasty Still Prospers But Mills Supplant Arms Today By WERNER ZWICK United Press International Frankfurt, Germany - (LTD -The Third Reich was dying that morning of April 8, 1943, when American troops took tile German industrial capital of Essen and sent a jeep roar ing out to a suburban hilltop mansion. A butler in knee breeches and white gloves opened the big front door of the Villa Huegel and told the G.I.'s, "Herr Von Gohlen expects you." The soldiers brushed past Don't V. Crater Lions Club's TV AUCTION Sunday, Feb. 17 From 12 to 2 CHANNEL 5-KBES-TV For Benefit of Jackson Park Diving Pool MEDFORD$$IfeTRiBUNE the butler, dashed up the sweeping staircase that em perors and dictators had ascended before them and ar rested Alf ried Krupp Von Bohlen. It seemed the end of the Krupp empire, the mightiest of all the industrial barons and dynasties of the Ruhr. The victorious Allies marked their industrial complexes for extinction. Krupps Still Her But the Krupps and their fellows today are important figures in the role West Ger many plays in the European Common Market. Their stay ing power is historic. Napoleon's armies came and went. Kings and kaisers entered and existed from the German scene. The second and third reichs had their rise and fall. A century and a half passed. The Ruhr barons were here then and they are here today. In 1945 the name Krupp was cursed as bitterly as the swastika. ! When Hitler was building his war machine, Hermann Goering called for guns in stead of butter. It was the Krupp works that supplied the guns. Destroy Plants On March 11, 1945, a raid I by 1,000 Royal Air Force J bombers on Essen converted j the major Krupp plants into I heaps of twisted steel and j debris. When the war ended ! Krupp and a score of his directors were sentenced to 1 12-year prison terms by the Nurenberg Tribunals. The Krupps had been down before. F r i e d r i c h Krupp founded the empire in 1811 when Napoleon's blockade of Britain deprived the conti nent of the island's high qual ity steel. Krupp, a grocer in the sleepy town of Essen, thought he had discovered the secret of producing the famed "English steel." But the firm was nearly bankrupt when his son Alfred took over at the age of 14. Alfred eventually carried the company to the heights by inventing the seamless rail road wheel, producing steel that was equal to the British and turning out cannons for the Franco -Prussian war of 1870-71. Krupp, Sick Man The next head of the em pire, Friedrich Albert Krupp, was a sick man who died in 1902 under still unexplained circumstances on the Isle of Capri. His daughter Bertha married Dr. Gustav Von Boh-len-Halbach, who was granted the right to call himself Krupp by a decree of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Gustav headed the firm dur ing World War I, producing the famed "Big Bertha" can non, named after hi.; wife, that was used to shell the out skirts of Paris. He helped Hitler re -arm Germany after the dictator as sumed power in 1933. When Gustav Krupp suffer ed a brain hemorrhage in 1943, Hitler appointed his son Alfried sole heir of the family fortunes, A chain smoker with a shy and reticent personality who had lived his life in the shadow of his overbearing father, Alfried had to pay the bill of four generations at Nuernberg. Serves Half Term On Feb. 3, 1951, American High Commissioner John Mc Cloy pardoned Alfried Krupp after he had served half of his 12-year sentence in Lands berg prison. The dismantling of his factories also had stop ped as the western powers had little use for machinery that was by then obsolete, and the allied-supervised firm's ship ments to Soviet Russia were halted when the Russians fail ed to supply promised raw materials in r turn. Even before his pardon, the Nuernberg Tribunal's decision confiscating all of Krupp's property had been revised. Upon his release from jail, he was ordered only to sell his coal and steel holdings and pay his relatives $115 million in cash and shares. Krupp paid off his relatives but fought to keep his "bread and butter" industries, the coal and steel holdings. The Allied orders for sale of the holdings still stand to day. But their deadline is ex tended periodically because Krupp says he cannot find a buyer with enough money. Financiers agree. The Krupp industries today produce instead of arms entire steel plants, rolling mills, ce ment and chemical factories and, in 1962, had a turnover . '4... " t A .. vt "x - mil s m A few years ago a representative group of Ameri cans gathered at a university round table to discuss our economy, and named it "people's capitalism." Reaction from the Communists was instant. They were appalled. They scorned the idea. They called it "impossible as fried ice." They mobilized their professors who wrote papers proving to their com plete satisfaction there could be no such thing as "people's capitalism." The fact is that much of the capital that runs America comes from the millions of people who make up America. It flows into our economy through their savings accounts, pension funds, stock and bond purchases, life insurance premiums. And through the $45 billion worth of U. S. Savings Bonds held by tens of millions of Americans. This stake the American people have in their coun try is evidence of our abiding faith in our way of life and our determination to keep our freedoms in tact. And to help mankind all over the world in its fight against slavery and oppression. Are you in the fight? Show that you are by buying Savings Bonds at your bank or through Payroll Sav ings where you work. And see if you don't feel pretty good about it. How U. S. Savings Bonds help build your own capital 1. You get $1 for every $3 at maturity. 2. Your Bonds are replaced free if lost. 3. You tan get your money anytime. 4. You can save automatically on Payroll Savings. Keep freedom in your future with U.S. SAVINGS BONDS . YJQ . ... . , j. w - l Ut, 4rtoM. ZU rnwri Dtmftmtnt tknkt IU r(W CwU d O.U c.p.W It fUitto npperi. T. 1 " r :ft,7 n CURRENT EMPIRE HEAD Alfried Krupp von Bohlen, current head of the Krupp industrial empire, walks past a bust of his grandfather, the late Friedrich Alfried Krupp. Bust of the elder Krupp was unveiled in front of Yacht of more than 4 billion marks ($1 billion dollars). Thyssen Dynasty Another of Germany's early industrial barons, August Thyssen, founded the Thyssen dynasty about 100 years ago. When he died he left his son Fritz about $200 million, con trol over half of Germany's coal and steel, 14 harbors, 60,000 houses, plus banks, shipyards and factories. Fritz Thyssen, born in 1873, wanted to maintain his power but was afraid of the growing influence of socialism and communism in Germany dur ing the Weimar republic. So he financed Hitler. Thyssen persuaded other Rhur barons" to jointly spend about $20 million to help put Hitler into power. But as Hitler brought Ger many to the brink of war, Thyssen became suspicious. He fled the country when German troops invaded Po land, and denounced Hitler. The Nazis promptly confis cated Thyssen's property in Germany. In 1941, Thyssen was handed over to Hitler by the Vichy French government along with other German refugees. He was taken back to Germany and given the chance of renouncing his anti Nazi attitude. Whatever his answer, his path did not lead to the gallows or a concentra tion camp, but to a sanator ium. Fritz Thyssen spent the years after the war in retire ment, while his empire was administered by the Allied military government. His for tune has since passed to Ame- lie Thyssen and Countess Anita Zicky, his widow and daughter, who today control 21 per cent of West Germany's steel. There are other Ruhr bar ons in West German, such as Dr. Friedrich Flick, a former bookkeeper who today con trols Nobel Dynamite, the Daimler Bcnz (Mercedes) car works and numerous coal and steel plants although the Al- ies ordered him to get rid of these holdings after the war. There are also the Haniels, who number about 250 and run the giant Guettenwerk Oberhausen and the Maschin- enfabrik Augsburg-Nuernberg (MAN) industrial concerns. While Germany's Industrial giants again accumulated tre mendous financial power after World War II, their Influence in the political sphere seems far less pronounced than un der the Kaiser or Adolf Hitler. Economically, their power is limited today by the ex treme labor shortage In West Germany, which has boosted the power of trade unions to a new high. And Alfried Krupp, whose godfather was Kaiser Wilhelm II, has vowed he will never again produce arms. Club building prior to opening of 1962 Kiel Krupps, once apparently an extinct breed, figures in Germany. (UPI) Regatta week, are again top CASH SAVINGS ON ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES Prices Effective Thru Feb. 21 Famous Circle Brand 12-2 Building Wire With Ground Used by the Professionals 250-FT. COIL... Less than 3c Ft. For Hot Water Heaters S4A Gambler Loses All Three Bets Dallas, Tex. - HM - An anonymous caller Wednes day asked the Dallas Timei Herald: "How many ilatot are there In the United States?" He was told SO. "Does that Include Can ada?" he asked. The aniweri "No." "What Is the biggest one?" he inquired. "Alaska." he was told. "Well, what do you know," he said. "I lost on all three bets." FEET OF CLAY Peoria. 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