Fritz Thyssen
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Friedrich "Fritz" Thyssen (9 November 1873 – 8 February 1951) was a German businessman, born into one of Germany's leading industrial families. He was an early supporter and financial backer of the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
but later broke with it. He was arrested in 1941 and was confined in
Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
. Liberated at the end of the war in Europe, he was found to be a "lesser offender" in denazification proceedings and was fined. He emigrated to Argentina in 1950 where he died.


Youth

Thyssen was born in
Mülheim Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr (, ; ; ) and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is ho ...
in the
Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...
. His father,
August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Southern Hemisphere, August is the seasonal equivalent of February in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, August ...
, was head of the Thyssen
mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...
and
steelmaking Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and/or scrap. Steel has been made for millennia, and was commercialized on a massive scale in the 1850s and 1860s, using the Bessemer process, Bessemer and open hearth furnace, Siemens-M ...
company, founded by his father Friedrich and based in the Ruhr city of
Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...
. Friedrich studied mining and
metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...
in London,
Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
, and Berlin, and after a short period in the
German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...
, joined the family business. On 18 January 1900 in
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
he married Amelie Helle or Zurhelle ( Mülheim am Rhein, 11 December 1877 – Puchdorf bei Straubing, 25 August 1965), daughter of a factory owner. Their only child, Anna (Anita; later Anita Gräfin Zichy-Thyssen), was born in 1909. Thyssen again joined the army in 1914, but was soon discharged on account of a
lung The lungs are the primary Organ (biology), organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the Vertebral column, backbone on either side of the heart. Their ...
condition.


Weimar Germany

Thyssen was a German nationalist who supported
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
, believing that limited government control of production and ownership of banking and transportation was a means of preventing the spread of full-fledged
communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
. In 1923, when French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr to punish Germany for not meeting its reparations payments in full, he took part in the nationalist resistance against the occupiers, leading the Ruhr steelmakers in refusing to co-operate in producing coal and steel for them. He was arrested, imprisoned and received a large fine for his activities, which made him a national hero. Through the 1920s, the Thyssen companies continued to expand. Thyssen took over the Thyssen companies on his father's death in 1926, and that same year he formed United Steelworks ( Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG), controlling more than 75 percent of Germany's iron ore reserves and employing 200,000 people. He played a prominent role in German commercial life, as head of the German Iron and Steel Industry Association and the Reich Association of German Industry, and as a board member of the Reichsbank. In 1923, Thyssen met former general Erich Ludendorff, who advised him to attend a speech given by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, leader of the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
. Thyssen was impressed by Hitler and his bitter opposition to the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
, and began to make large donations to the party, including 100,000 gold marks ($25,000) in 1923 to Ludendorff. In this he was unusual among German business leaders, as most were traditional conservatives who regarded the Nazis with suspicion. Thyssen's principal motive in supporting the Nazis was his great fear of communism; he had little confidence that the various German
anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
factions would prevent a Soviet-style revolution in Germany unless the popular appeal of communism among the lower classes was co-opted by an anticommunist alternative. Postwar investigators found that he had donated to right-wing parties, mostly to the Nazis, although Thyssen himself claimed to have donated to the Nazi Party. Thyssen remained a member of the
German National People's Party The German National People's Party (, DNVP) was a national-conservative and German monarchy, monarchist political party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major nationalist party in Weimar German ...
until 1932 and did not join the Nazi Party until 1933. In November, 1932, Thyssen and
Hjalmar Schacht Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht (); 22 January 1877 â€“ 3 June 1970) was a German economist, banker, politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank during the ...
were the main organisers of a letter to President
Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German military and political leader who led the Imperial German Army during the First World War and later became President of Germany (1919†...
to urge him to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Thyssen also persuaded the Association of German Industrialists to donate three million ''Reichsmarks'' to the Nazi Party for the March 1933 '' Reichstag'' election. In 1933, the artist
John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements. Heartfield a ...
depicted Thyssen as the puppetmaster manipulating Hitler on the cover of
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
magazine '' Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung'' (AIZ, Workers' Illustrated Newspaper).


Nazi Germany

Thyssen welcomed the Nazi suppression of leftist organisations such as the Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, and
trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
s. On 11 July 1933, he was among the first members appointed to the
Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...
of
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
, the largest German state. At the November 1933 parliamentary election, he was elected to the '' Reichstag'' from electoral constituency 22 ( Düsseldorf East) and retained this seat until his break with the Nazis in September 1939. Thyssen also became a member of Hans Frank's
Academy for German Law The Academy for German Law () was an institute for legal research and reform founded on 26 June 1933 in Nazi Germany. After suspending its operations during the Second World War in August 1944, it was abolished after the fall of the Nazi regime on ...
in 1933. In 1934, he was one of the business leaders who persuaded Hitler to suppress the SA, leading to the " Night of the Long Knives". Thyssen accepted the anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany that excluded Jews from business and professional life, and dismissed his Jewish employees. But as a Catholic, he objected to the increasing Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany, which gathered pace after 1935: in 1937 he sent a letter to Hitler, protesting at the persecution of Christians in Germany. The breaking point for Thyssen was the violent pogrom against the Jews in November 1938, known as ''
Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...
'', which caused him to resign from the Prussian Council of State. By 1939, he was also bitterly criticising Nazi economic policies, which focused on rearmament in preparation for war.


World War II

On 1 September 1939, the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
marked the commencement of World War II. Thyssen sent
Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 â€“ 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
a telegram saying he was opposed to the war, shortly after arriving in Switzerland with his family. He was expelled from the Nazi Party and the ''Reichstag'', and his company was nationalised. The company was returned to other members of the Thyssen family several years after the war. In 1940, Thyssen took refuge and moved to France, intending to emigrate to Argentina, but was caught up in the German invasion of France and the Low Countries while he was visiting his ill mother in Belgium. In 1941, Thyssen fled Germany, but he was arrested by
Vichy France Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...
in a hotel in
Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionSachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...
. His wife Amelie did not escape to Argentina and spent the whole war in the concentration camp with her husband. In February 1945, Thyssen was sent to Dachau concentration camp. He was comparatively well-treated and transferred to Tyrol in late-April 1945 together with other prominent inmates, where the SS left the prisoners behind. He was liberated by the 42nd Infantry Division and 45th Infantry Division on 5 May 1945.


Later life

Thyssen was tried for being a supporter of the Nazi Party. He did not deny that he had been a Nazi supporter until 1938, and he accepted responsibility for his companies' mistreatment of Jewish employees in the 1930s, although he denied involvement in the employment of slave labour during the war. On 2 October 1948, a denazification tribunal declared Thyssen a lesser offender and sentenced him to a fine of 15% of his assets. Thyssen agreed to pay 500,000 Deutschmarks () as compensation to those who suffered as a result of his actions, and was acquitted of other charges. In January 1950, he and his wife emigrated to
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, where he died in 1951. In 1953, Thyssen was buried in the family mausoleum in
Mülheim Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr (, ; ; ) and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is ho ...
.


Legacy

In 1959, Thyssen's widow Amélie and daughter, Anita Countess Zichy-Thyssen established the Fritz Thyssen Foundation to advance science and the humanities, with a capital of 100 million Deutschmarks (equivalent to € million ). Amélie Thyssen died in 1965. Anita Countess Zichy-Thyssen ran the Foundation until her death in 1990. The family has had a dispute over the running of the Foundation.


''I Paid Hitler''

While Thyssen was imprisoned in Germany, a memoir was published in the United Kingdom and the United States, in 1941, under the title ''I Paid Hitler''. The book was ghostwritten by the journalist Emery Reves, the memoirs are seen as unreliable by historians. Thyssen himself repeatedly denounced the authenticity of the memoirs, once referring to them as a 'literary forgery'."


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thyssen, Fritz 1873 births 1951 deaths Businesspeople from Düsseldorf Businesspeople from North Rhine-Westphalia Dachau concentration camp survivors German anti-communists German emigrants to Argentina German industrialists German National People's Party politicians German people of World War II German steel industry businesspeople Members of the Academy for German Law Members of the Prussian State Council (Nazi Germany) Members of the Reichstag 1933–1936 Members of the Reichstag 1936–1938 Members of the Reichstag 1938–1945 Nazi Party members People from Mülheim People from the Rhine Province Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Fritz Thyssen