Rhenish-Westphalian Industrial Magnates and the Nazis

Rhenish-Westphalian Industrial Magnates

Reported as bankrupt in December 1932 , the NSDAP or Nazi Party was in the Big Money by the middle of January because the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial magnates assumed responsibility for said debts .These were the finacial and industrial leaders who put the Nazi party back into the political arena after a large fall in the Nazi vote in November 1932 in return for promises to pay as ,if and when Hitler came to power . It is reported that " without the formidable assistance of the industrialists the Nazi party would have foundered on the rocks of bankruptcy ( Op Cit The Nemesis of Power by John Wheeler-Bennett , Macmillan 1953).

The magnates petitioned President Hindenberg after the November elections seeking the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor . Amongst the 38 signers of the petition were Schacht , Thyssen, Krupp, Siemens , Bosch , and the heads of the Hamburg-Amerika and the North German -Lloyd Shipping Lines . Hitler was assiduous in fulfilling his promises after achieving the Chancellorship by eliminating the Communists, abolishing the trade unions , forcing no nationalization of industry and causing rearmament on a huge scale .

Following the Nuremburg trials , none of the industrial concerns were penalised . In America those 'trading with the enemy' were equally disculpated .