How American corporations supported Hitler
In 1939, the Second World War began. The Western powers entered into a military confrontation with Hitler Germany and its allies. Interestingly, even a few months before the start of the war, the Western world as a whole was quite loyal to the regime established in Germany. And this was due to the fact that Adolf Hitler proclaimed the fight against “Bolshevism” as one of his main tasks, and the Soviet Union simply hated the ruling elites of the United States, Great Britain and France.
In addition, we should not forget that before the beginning of the 1940-s, Germany had very close ties with the British and, especially, with the American business. The business circles of the Third Reich and the Western powers maintained good relations based on profitable financial and trade cooperation. It is not in vain that at the Nuremberg trial, defendant Jalmar Schacht, who was president of the Imperial Bank under Hitler, said to an American lawyer:
The words Mine contained not just a grain of truth, but the truth itself. The fact is that American concerns continued to do business with German companies after Adolf Hitler came to power.
Since, as a result of the First World War, Germany had many restrictions, including those related to the military industry, at first the Third Reich could not re-equip its army without relying on cooperation with American companies. By the beginning of the 1940-s military production, many German plants were reoriented, including those belonging to American concerns.
As you know, the beginning of 1930's. It was not the best economically period in stories Twentieth century. Famine in Eastern and Central Europe, the economic crisis in Western Europe, the Great Depression in the United States ... Even the American economy, which rose during the First World War, was falling apart. In the US, there were more than 15 million unemployed, the socio-economic situation in the country was rapidly deteriorating. To correct the deteriorating situation of the United States could only a big war in Europe.
As during World War I, the American elites were not afraid of the consequences of hostilities in European countries. The United States is reliably protected from Europe by the world's oceans, and it was impossible to transfer to the American continent such a large number of troops and equipment that would defeat the American army, not even for a single European country, including Hitler’s Germany. But American corporations could cash in on supplies to warring countries weapons, military equipment, cars, fuel, food. The more global the war, the greater the benefits that American companies and the US economy as a whole would receive.
By the middle of 1930, American corporations were very active in Germany, having acquired more than 60 branches in this country. American capital controlled about 300 of German companies, including Steel Trust. In Germany, the world's largest oil refinery was built, and construction was financed by Standard Oil, owned by John Rockefeller. Needless to say, what role in the preparations for war did the production of petroleum products play!
The American corporation General Electric owned German firms working in the field of radio engineering, the company General Motors - the famous German Opel. A plant built by the American company Ford operated in Cologne.
About communication "General Motors" and "Opel" should be told separately. Dupont, who controlled General Motors, did not conceal his sympathies for National Socialist ideas and financed not only the Hitler party, but also similar political structures in the United States. In the 1930s, Opel factories in Germany produced automotive equipment for the needs of the German army.
Thus, the German industry developed with the active participation of American business. Interestingly, American corporations controlled virtually all industries that were of strategic importance militarily. In the event of a war, the automotive, radio, petrochemical industry would quickly be transferred to military rails. Considering that American corporations owned large stakes in the capital of German firms, the US business community, in the event of a war in Europe, would receive fabulous incomes. Indeed, in the conditions of hostilities, military orders do not stop.
Naturally, American businessmen were well aware that the great European war could reanimate the US economy in crisis, provide jobs for millions of unemployed people, ensure production capacity utilization, and guarantee the multimillion-dollar incomes themselves.
Contacts between American business circles and the elite of the Third Reich were established at a very high level. Many high-ranking officials of the Nazi party and the German leadership were associated with American industrialists and financiers and lobbied for their financial interests.
Back in the first half of the 1920's. Western oligarchs financed the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany through the banks of Sweden and Switzerland. By the way, both countries remained neutral during the Second World War and were not occupied by the Nazi armies, although it wasn’t worth taking them under the control of the Wehrmacht. After 1926, the German banking and industrial structures, closely associated with American business, began to play a key role in financing the Hitlerites.
In 1930, the city of Yalmar Schacht visited the United States. He met with American businessmen and outlined to them his vision of a possible change of power in Germany and the approval of Adolf Hitler as head of state. It must be said that the idea of a change of power and the subsequent struggle against Bolshevism and the Soviet Union came to American financiers. At least, American entrepreneurs began to invest much more actively in the development of the German economy.
In May 1933, Yalmar Schacht arrived in the United States again. This time, the American partners arranged for him to meet with US President Franklin Roosevelt himself. This visit of Germany’s chief banker to the United States was even more successful than the previous one. Germany received over a billion dollars in US investment. These funds were directed to the development of German industry.
Following the Americans, the British also caught up - in June 1933 of the year, Schacht met with the head of the British bank N. Montague, after which London provided Berlin with loans totaling two billion dollars.
The scale of German aid from leading American corporations was astonishing. Thus, Standard Oil has invested 120 million dollars in Germany, General Motors - 35 million dollars, ITT - 30 million dollars, Ford - 17,5 million dollars. And we must understand that a million dollars 1930-s - this is not a modern million dollars.
An important role in cooperation between American business and German officials was played by Baron Kurt von Schroeder, a representative of a banking family known in Germany and in the USA. In the United States and in the UK, there were branches of the Schroeder Bank, and in the American branch of the bank at one time Allen Dulles worked in senior positions, who during the Second World War moved to very significant positions in the American intelligence service and was responsible, in particular, for intelligence operations in the territory Germany.
To have an idea of the extent of Schroeder’s influence on German politics, it is enough to note that Hitler’s Führer himself had a personal Schroeder bank account, just from the year 1933, when he came to power. The bank allocated a certain amount of money for the expenses of the SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
Without the support of German banks connected with the USA, Hitler, of course, could not have come to power - any political activity requires considerable resources. But the NSDAP was financed by banks such as Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Kredit Gesellschaft, Henry Schroeder Bank of New York. It is worth noting that Karl Lindemann and Emil Helfrish entered Schröder’s close circle. These people led the German structures Standard Oil, which belonged to Rockefeller, and they were also members of the Himmler circle, sympathizing with Nazism.
In 1940, Kurt von Schroeder was included in the Board of Directors of the Third Reich for Economic Affairs and in the Reich Post Office, which was in charge of communications and worked closely with the telephone company IT&T. The shareholder of the telephone company was himself Walter Schellenberg (pictured) - the head of the VI Directorate (Intelligence Service Abroad) of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security of the RSHA.
The development of the Ford subsidiaries in Germany was patronized personally by Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering - a man who had enormous influence in Hitler Germany and was mixed up in the darkest and dirtiest financial schemes that brought millions of profits to their members.
Goering had something to favor American business with. Luftwaffe aircraft were fueled by fuel produced by American enterprises. And such a paradoxical situation persisted even after the outbreak of World War II. Hitler’s aviationwho fought with British planes in the sky over England, flew on American fuel.
Interestingly, the cooperation of American entrepreneurs with the United States did not stop even after the United States entered World War II against Germany and its allies. Guided by the ancient principle of non olet, American companies continued to cooperate with the enemy countries - Germany, Japan, Italy. They fulfilled the orders of their German partners, not disdaining to supply them with strategically important goods.
13 December 1941, the US president even issued a special decree that allowed doing business with companies of enemy states, if there was no corresponding ban from the US Treasury. But in the American Ministry of Finance there were also not stupid people who understood perfectly well that war was war, but for the USA it was a chance to get rich. Therefore, no one paid much attention to the contacts of American corporations with Hitler Germany. And American corporations continued to supply steel and aircraft engines, fuel and rubber for the needs of the Wehrmacht.
It is interesting that not a single tanker of the Standard Oil Rockefeller company was ever sunk by German submarines. Is this not evidence of the special relationship that was established among the Rockefellers, Dupont, and other American tycoons with Goering, Himmmler and Schellenberg?
Therefore, Yalmar Schacht was perplexed at the Nuremberg Trials, who noted that if we punish business people for cooperating with the Hitler regime, then we can start with American industrial and financial tycoons. After all, they, while American soldiers died in the Pacific, and then in Europe, made a profit by trading in strategically important goods and supplying them to Nazi Germany. But no one then listened to the words of Mine, since, as is well known, all the rules of the game are dictated by the winner, not the vanquished.
As soon as Hitler's Germany was defeated, everything returned to normal. Many of the "bosses" of the Hitler regime, not to mention the industrialists and financiers, did not suffer any real punishment for their support of the Führer. Moreover, soon after the victory over Hitler Germany, the United States and Great Britain began to build a new political system in West Germany under their control. After the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, the American business continued active cooperation with its West German partners. But that's another story.
In addition, we should not forget that before the beginning of the 1940-s, Germany had very close ties with the British and, especially, with the American business. The business circles of the Third Reich and the Western powers maintained good relations based on profitable financial and trade cooperation. It is not in vain that at the Nuremberg trial, defendant Jalmar Schacht, who was president of the Imperial Bank under Hitler, said to an American lawyer:
If you want to indict the industrialists who helped rearm Germany, then you must indict yourself.
The words Mine contained not just a grain of truth, but the truth itself. The fact is that American concerns continued to do business with German companies after Adolf Hitler came to power.
Since, as a result of the First World War, Germany had many restrictions, including those related to the military industry, at first the Third Reich could not re-equip its army without relying on cooperation with American companies. By the beginning of the 1940-s military production, many German plants were reoriented, including those belonging to American concerns.
As you know, the beginning of 1930's. It was not the best economically period in stories Twentieth century. Famine in Eastern and Central Europe, the economic crisis in Western Europe, the Great Depression in the United States ... Even the American economy, which rose during the First World War, was falling apart. In the US, there were more than 15 million unemployed, the socio-economic situation in the country was rapidly deteriorating. To correct the deteriorating situation of the United States could only a big war in Europe.
As during World War I, the American elites were not afraid of the consequences of hostilities in European countries. The United States is reliably protected from Europe by the world's oceans, and it was impossible to transfer to the American continent such a large number of troops and equipment that would defeat the American army, not even for a single European country, including Hitler’s Germany. But American corporations could cash in on supplies to warring countries weapons, military equipment, cars, fuel, food. The more global the war, the greater the benefits that American companies and the US economy as a whole would receive.
By the middle of 1930, American corporations were very active in Germany, having acquired more than 60 branches in this country. American capital controlled about 300 of German companies, including Steel Trust. In Germany, the world's largest oil refinery was built, and construction was financed by Standard Oil, owned by John Rockefeller. Needless to say, what role in the preparations for war did the production of petroleum products play!
The American corporation General Electric owned German firms working in the field of radio engineering, the company General Motors - the famous German Opel. A plant built by the American company Ford operated in Cologne.
About communication "General Motors" and "Opel" should be told separately. Dupont, who controlled General Motors, did not conceal his sympathies for National Socialist ideas and financed not only the Hitler party, but also similar political structures in the United States. In the 1930s, Opel factories in Germany produced automotive equipment for the needs of the German army.
Thus, the German industry developed with the active participation of American business. Interestingly, American corporations controlled virtually all industries that were of strategic importance militarily. In the event of a war, the automotive, radio, petrochemical industry would quickly be transferred to military rails. Considering that American corporations owned large stakes in the capital of German firms, the US business community, in the event of a war in Europe, would receive fabulous incomes. Indeed, in the conditions of hostilities, military orders do not stop.
Naturally, American businessmen were well aware that the great European war could reanimate the US economy in crisis, provide jobs for millions of unemployed people, ensure production capacity utilization, and guarantee the multimillion-dollar incomes themselves.
Contacts between American business circles and the elite of the Third Reich were established at a very high level. Many high-ranking officials of the Nazi party and the German leadership were associated with American industrialists and financiers and lobbied for their financial interests.
Back in the first half of the 1920's. Western oligarchs financed the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany through the banks of Sweden and Switzerland. By the way, both countries remained neutral during the Second World War and were not occupied by the Nazi armies, although it wasn’t worth taking them under the control of the Wehrmacht. After 1926, the German banking and industrial structures, closely associated with American business, began to play a key role in financing the Hitlerites.
In 1930, the city of Yalmar Schacht visited the United States. He met with American businessmen and outlined to them his vision of a possible change of power in Germany and the approval of Adolf Hitler as head of state. It must be said that the idea of a change of power and the subsequent struggle against Bolshevism and the Soviet Union came to American financiers. At least, American entrepreneurs began to invest much more actively in the development of the German economy.
In May 1933, Yalmar Schacht arrived in the United States again. This time, the American partners arranged for him to meet with US President Franklin Roosevelt himself. This visit of Germany’s chief banker to the United States was even more successful than the previous one. Germany received over a billion dollars in US investment. These funds were directed to the development of German industry.
Shacht and Montague
Following the Americans, the British also caught up - in June 1933 of the year, Schacht met with the head of the British bank N. Montague, after which London provided Berlin with loans totaling two billion dollars.
The scale of German aid from leading American corporations was astonishing. Thus, Standard Oil has invested 120 million dollars in Germany, General Motors - 35 million dollars, ITT - 30 million dollars, Ford - 17,5 million dollars. And we must understand that a million dollars 1930-s - this is not a modern million dollars.
An important role in cooperation between American business and German officials was played by Baron Kurt von Schroeder, a representative of a banking family known in Germany and in the USA. In the United States and in the UK, there were branches of the Schroeder Bank, and in the American branch of the bank at one time Allen Dulles worked in senior positions, who during the Second World War moved to very significant positions in the American intelligence service and was responsible, in particular, for intelligence operations in the territory Germany.
To have an idea of the extent of Schroeder’s influence on German politics, it is enough to note that Hitler’s Führer himself had a personal Schroeder bank account, just from the year 1933, when he came to power. The bank allocated a certain amount of money for the expenses of the SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
Without the support of German banks connected with the USA, Hitler, of course, could not have come to power - any political activity requires considerable resources. But the NSDAP was financed by banks such as Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Kredit Gesellschaft, Henry Schroeder Bank of New York. It is worth noting that Karl Lindemann and Emil Helfrish entered Schröder’s close circle. These people led the German structures Standard Oil, which belonged to Rockefeller, and they were also members of the Himmler circle, sympathizing with Nazism.
In 1940, Kurt von Schroeder was included in the Board of Directors of the Third Reich for Economic Affairs and in the Reich Post Office, which was in charge of communications and worked closely with the telephone company IT&T. The shareholder of the telephone company was himself Walter Schellenberg (pictured) - the head of the VI Directorate (Intelligence Service Abroad) of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security of the RSHA. The development of the Ford subsidiaries in Germany was patronized personally by Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering - a man who had enormous influence in Hitler Germany and was mixed up in the darkest and dirtiest financial schemes that brought millions of profits to their members.
Goering had something to favor American business with. Luftwaffe aircraft were fueled by fuel produced by American enterprises. And such a paradoxical situation persisted even after the outbreak of World War II. Hitler’s aviationwho fought with British planes in the sky over England, flew on American fuel.
Interestingly, the cooperation of American entrepreneurs with the United States did not stop even after the United States entered World War II against Germany and its allies. Guided by the ancient principle of non olet, American companies continued to cooperate with the enemy countries - Germany, Japan, Italy. They fulfilled the orders of their German partners, not disdaining to supply them with strategically important goods.
13 December 1941, the US president even issued a special decree that allowed doing business with companies of enemy states, if there was no corresponding ban from the US Treasury. But in the American Ministry of Finance there were also not stupid people who understood perfectly well that war was war, but for the USA it was a chance to get rich. Therefore, no one paid much attention to the contacts of American corporations with Hitler Germany. And American corporations continued to supply steel and aircraft engines, fuel and rubber for the needs of the Wehrmacht.
It is interesting that not a single tanker of the Standard Oil Rockefeller company was ever sunk by German submarines. Is this not evidence of the special relationship that was established among the Rockefellers, Dupont, and other American tycoons with Goering, Himmmler and Schellenberg?
Therefore, Yalmar Schacht was perplexed at the Nuremberg Trials, who noted that if we punish business people for cooperating with the Hitler regime, then we can start with American industrial and financial tycoons. After all, they, while American soldiers died in the Pacific, and then in Europe, made a profit by trading in strategically important goods and supplying them to Nazi Germany. But no one then listened to the words of Mine, since, as is well known, all the rules of the game are dictated by the winner, not the vanquished.
As soon as Hitler's Germany was defeated, everything returned to normal. Many of the "bosses" of the Hitler regime, not to mention the industrialists and financiers, did not suffer any real punishment for their support of the Führer. Moreover, soon after the victory over Hitler Germany, the United States and Great Britain began to build a new political system in West Germany under their control. After the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, the American business continued active cooperation with its West German partners. But that's another story.
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