German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

Description

Did big business play a crucial role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power? Did German capitalists undermine the Weimar Republic, finance the Nazi Party, and use their influence on behalf of Hitler's appointment to the chancellorship of Germany? For half a century, such charges as these have been repeatedly made, and today one of the most widely held explanations for the Third Reich's origins places prime responsibility on Germany's leading corporations. Astonishingly, this subject has never been adequately explored--and until now it was commonly believed that the records that might throw light on this important connection had been either lost or destroyed. In the pages of this groundbreaking book, Henry Ashby Turner, Jr., shows us that these records do indeed exist. And the evidence that leads him to his startling conclusion--that big business did not, on balance, support Hitler's political program--overthrows many of our conventional ideas about the rise of Hitler's regime. German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler takes us through the major corporate archives of Weimar and Nazi Germany and inside the executive offices of the giants of Germany industry--I. G. Farben, Flick, Krupp, Siemens, and many others. It shows us the dynamics between corporations and political machines, businessmen and politicians, industrial associations and political parties. Beginning with an examination of the heritage of German big business and the role it played in the politics of the Weimar Republic, Turner scrutinizes the attitudes of the Nazi Party leadership--Hitler in particular--toward economic issues and big business. He then traces the known contacts between the Nazis and the men of big business down to the triumph of Nazism in 1933. For the first time, the story is told form both sides, employing documentation from Nazi as well as business sources. In the course of assessing the significance of financial contributions to Hitler's party, the author provides the first systematic analysis of Nazism's sources of income. He also gives us a new window, not only on Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, but also on the behavior of 20th-century private corporations, their executives, and their influence on our times. As much a book about business history as about the Nazi era, this volume gives us a new window, not only on Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, but one through which we can view the behavior of twentieth-century private corporations, their executives, and their influence on our times. Acknowledgments Contents Introduction 1. The Issues and the Sources 2. Big Business in the Weimar Context I Big Business During the Decade of Weimar Democracy 1. German Capitalism Survives a Revolution 2. Money Versus Votes 3. Assets 4. Liabilities II The Early Party, Businessmen, and Nazi Economics 1. Patrons of the Fledgling Movement 2. The Cacophony of Nazi Economic Policies 3. Hitler's Economics 4. An Abortive Courtship of Ruhr Industry—Nazism in Disrepute III Parliamentary Democracy Ends and Nazism Breaks Through 1. The Great Coalition Gives Way to Presidential Rule 2. The Wherewithal of the Nazi Breakthrough 3. A Long Guessing Game” Begins 4. Capitalist Fellow Travelers and Subsidized Nazis IV Capitalists, Nazis, and the Politics of Deepening Depression 1. Disillusionment with Brüning—The “Harzburg Front”— Capitalists in Fear of the Ruler 2. Ruhr Coal: Canards and Calculations 3. The Proliferating Forks of Nazism's Tongue 4. Nazis and Lesser Businessmen V Politics and Economics in the Power Vacuum 1. Hitlers Industry Club Speech and Its Aftermath 2. Big Business Approaches the Political Maelstrom in Disarray 3. Attempts at Dialogue with the Nazi Hydra 4. Insurance Premiums and Protection Money for Potential Rulers VI Big Business and the Triumph of Nazism 1. Nazis as Champions of Parliament and the Workers— The Capitalists Find Their Chancellor 2. Political Money in the Fall Election Campaign— Maneuvers in the Twilight of Weimar 3. Capitalists Adjust to a “Red General” in the Chancellery 4 .Big Business Experiences the Birth of the Third Reich Conclusions 1. Capitalists, Nazis, and Guilt 2. Myths, Preconceptions, and the Misuse of History Abbreviations Used in Notes Notes Bibliography Index