He Built a $30 Billion Empire Under Hitler—Then Paid for It D

30 January 1933. Adolf Hitler is  appointed Chancellor of Germany,   bringing an end to German democracy.  Guided by racist and authoritarian ideas,   the Nazis abolish basic freedoms and seek  to create a society united under one Führer.   The Third Reich quickly becomes a police state,  where individuals are subjected to arbitrary   arrest and imprisonment.

Through propaganda, the  regime wins the support of millions, paving the   way for persecution, war, and ultimately genocide. But this system does not function on ideology   alone. It is sustained by industry, by  production, and by men willing to profit   from it. Behind the rise of Nazi Germany stand  powerful industrialists who supply the regime,   finance its expansion, and exploit its victims.

As the war unfolds, forced labour becomes a   central pillar of the German economy, and  hundreds of thousands are forced to work   under brutal conditions in factories and mines. Among those who benefit most is a man who is one   of the largest financial supporters of  the Nazi regime and one of the richest   people not only in the Third Reich, but  in the world. His name is Friedrich Flick.

Friedrich Flick was born on 10 July 1883 in  the town of Ernsdorf then part of the German   Empire. After completing secondary school,  he began a commercial apprenticeship at a   steelworks known as the Bremerhütte. Flick  then performed his military service and went   on to study at the Cologne School of Commerce.

From an early age, he showed a strong interest in   business. Flick spent his time studying company  balance sheets and became one of the first   students to study not only business administration  but also economics. Among his teachers was Eugen   Schmalenbach, a leading figure in the field  and the developer of dynamic balance theory.  After graduating in 1906 with a  degree in business administration,   Flick returned to the Bremerhütte,  where he began his professional career.

In May of 1913, he married Marie Schuss  and the marriage produced 3 sons. Flick’s rise began in 1915, when he became a  board member at the Charlottenhütte steelworks   in the town of Niederschelden in western Germany,  where he gradually acquired shares in the company. During the First World War, which  lasted from July 1914 to November 1918,   Friedrich Flick benefited greatly from the  rapid expansion of the armaments industry.

As demand for coal and steel surged, his company  grew into a highly profitable enterprise. The   war created opportunities for industrialists who  could supply raw materials essential for weapons   production, and Flick positioned himself  to take full advantage of this demand. By   the end of the war, he had already laid the  foundations of a growing industrial empire.

Flick became extremely wealthy under the  Weimar Republic, which emerged after the   fall of the German Empire in 1918. In this  period of instability and economic uncertainty,   he expanded aggressively, building major  industrial concerns in the coal and steel sectors.  Through acquisitions and strategic investments,  he consolidated his position and became one of   the wealthiest industrialists in Germany.

However, the Great Depression placed his   business empire under severe strain. Many  of his companies no longer paid dividends,   and his financial situation became increasingly  precarious. In 1931, Flick managed to stabilize   his position by selling majority shares of  Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG to the German   government under Chancellor Heinrich Brüning  at more than three times their market value.

The deal, later known as the Gelsenberg Affair,  caused a public scandal, not only because of the   inflated price but also due to Flick’s political  donations to multiple parties, ranging from the   Social Democratic Party to the National Socialists  to whom he donated significantly less money. Flick made large financial contributions to  influential politicians, including Chancellor   Heinrich Brüning.

Members of the government  received a total of 450,000 Reichsmarks – an   equivalent to 2.5 million USD today – to  support Paul von Hindenburg’s campaign   in the 1932 presidential election. In  1932, a Pro-Nazi newspaper threatened,   in reference to the Gelsenberg Affair, that Flick  would be expropriated after the party seized   power. Flick then sought closer ties with the  Nazi Party.

In a meeting with Heinrich Himmler,   head of the SS, Flick agreed that all future  donations to the Nazi Party would go exclusively   to the SS. It is estimated that by 1945, he had  contributed more than 7.65 million Reichsmarks.  It is believed that Flick’s donations were  less about bringing the Nazis to power and   more about securing himself and his business  interests against all possible outcomes.

On 30 January 1933,   Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of  Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg. From 1933 onward, Flick pushed aggressively into  the armaments industry. He expanded production   even before it was needed, aiming to  pressure the military into using it.  In February 1933, Flick attended a secret meeting  with Adolf Hitler and leading industrialists,   where Hitler outlined his policies and reassured  them that property rights would remain intact.

Flick became a member of the so-called “Circle  of Friends” linked to Heinrich Himmler.   The group consisted of German industrialists  whose aim was to strengthen ties between the   Nazi Party and the industrial sector. Flick was  also made a member of the Academy for German Law,   an organization tasked with implementing the  Nazi program in the fields of law and economics,   and funded by industrialists.

After the Nazis consolidated power,   Flick quickly aligned his businesses with the  regime’s needs. His companies received contracts   for aircraft production, bombs, grenades,  and ammunition. Flick’s businesses profited   greatly from the process of Aryanization, under  which Jews were forced to sell their businesses,   often for a fraction of their value.

Flick  formally joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1937,   and in 1938 he was named a  Military Economic Leader. The Second World War started on 1 September  1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Flick’s enterprises played a key role  in Nazi Germany’s rearmament efforts.  During the war, the number of forced  labourers steadily increased. By 1944,   the Flick group employed around 130,000  workers, about half of whom were forced   labourers and concentration camp prisoners  subjected to exploitation.

In total,   an estimated 80,000–100,000 forced  labourers passed through his enterprises.  Initially, like many companies, there was  little interest in employing foreign workers.   This changed due to labour shortages  from late 1939 onward. From 1942,   the number of forced labourers became particularly  high in the armaments and mining industries.

During the Second World War, tens of thousands  of forced labourers, mainly from Eastern Europe,   as well as concentration camp inmates, were used  in Flick’s enterprises. More than 10,000 victims   are estimated to have died due to malnutrition and  brutal treatment.

Conditions were extremely harsh,   and even official authorities noted how severe  they were. A state inspection report from December   1942 described conditions at Essener Steinkohle  AG, one of Flick’s companies, as follows:  “Eastern workers are currently housed  in prisoner-of-war barracks with heavy   barbed wire and barred windows. Disinfection  inadequate. Much vermin.

Straw mattresses   removed, therefore sleeping only on wire  frames. Occasional beatings. Wage issues   unresolved. Food not particularly good.” Friedrich Flick was one of the greatest   beneficiaries of the Nazi armaments boom and  wartime economy. The group’s assets increased   from 225 million Reichsmarks in 1933 to 953  million in 1943.

During the Second World War,   group holding company Friedrich Flick KG  grew into a conglomerate of 132 companies   with annual revenues of 550 million Reichsmarks.  His personal fortune was estimated at around two   to three billion Reichsmarks – an equivalent to  approximately 20 to 30 billion US dollars today.  Despite this, the war brought Flick not  only wealth but also a personal blow.

During Operation Barbarossa, the German  invasion of the Soviet Union, German army   officer and his middle son Rudolf Flick died in  Ukraine on 28 June 1941, at the age 21 or 22. The Second World War ended on 8 May 1945. After the war, the 61-year-old Flick was arrested  on 13 June 1945 and put on trial for war crimes on   19 April 1947.

His case, known as the Flick Trial,  was one of the twelve Subsequent Nuremberg Trials,   which targeted the military, political, and  economic leadership of Nazi Germany. Flick   stood trial alongside five other senior  directors from his group of companies.  The charges focused on the use of forced labour  and the plundering of occupied territories.  Flick and one of his top executives,  Otto Steinbrinck, were also accused   because of their membership in the Circle  of Friends, whose members donated around   one million Reichsmarks each year to a  special account controlled by Himmler. Flick refused to admit any  guilt. He insisted saying:   “Nothing will convince us  that we are war criminals.” Despite this, he was found guilty of war crimes  and crimes against humanity and on 22 December

1947, the international military tribunal  sentenced him to seven years in prison. After the war, East Germany confiscated 75  percent of his former empire and in West Germany,   American and British authorities forced him  to break up what remained of his companies.  Flick was released from Landsberg Prison  in August 1950.

During his time in prison,   he had already begun planning his return.  Known for avoiding public attention,   he left the prison in a large red Mercedes,  shouting at reporters: “Get out of here. I   do not want to have anything to do with you.” Once released, he immediately set about rebuilding   what was left of his coal and steel empire.

By the 1950s, Friedrich Flick had once again   become one of the richest men in West Germany.  He soon became the largest shareholder in   Daimler-Benz – today’s Mercedes-Benz Group  – and held major stakes in companies such as   Feldmühle, Dynamit Nobel, Buderus, and  Krauss-Maffei. By 1955, he controlled   around 100 companies with a total turnover  of approximately 8 billion Deutsche Marks.

By the late 1960s, Flick was widely regarded as  the richest man in Germany. In the early 1960s, he   chose his youngest son, Friedrich Karl Flick, as  his successor. His eldest son, Otto Ernst Flick,   challenged this decision but failed and eventually  left the company in 1966. That same year,   after the death of his wife Marie, Flick withdrew  from active business life due to illness and moved   to the city of Konstanz in southern Germany.

When 89-year-old Friedrich Flick died on 20 July   1972 in Konstanz, he was one of the richest  people in the world and left behind a vast   industrial empire. The group included around 330  companies, employed approximately 300,000 people,   and generated annual revenues of  about 18 billion Deutsche Marks. Thanks for watching the World History  Channel.

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