Essen – Who was Alfried Krupp? 55 years after the death of the last sole owner of the group, the Krupp Foundation started the research project “Alfried Krupp and National Socialism”, led by the Marburg history professor Eckart Conze.
“The foundation is thus continuing the line of independent research on the history of Krupp that it has taken,” says Prof. Ursula Gather, head of the foundation. The provides 90,000 euros for the initially one-year project.
Prof. Ursula Gather: “The foundation bears his name, which is why we have a responsibility to deal with Alfried Krupp’s biography.” The project is headed by Prof. Conze (right).
Sources on Alfried Krupp and his attitude towards National Socialism since the 1920s are to be researched by early 2023. Krupp’s handling of its own Nazi past after the Second World War should also be included.
The project was presented in the Villa Hügel in Essen, the former residential and representative building of the Krupps
Prof. Conze: “We are well informed about his entrepreneurial activities based on the documents of the Nuremberg trials. We know little about the private citizen and political figure Alfried Krupp.”
Now, among other things, more than 1,000 files from Krupp’s private secretariat are being evaluated. According to Gather, the project should result in a “real biography of Alfried Krupp that has never existed before”.
In the mid-1970s, star historian Golo Mann researched Alfried Krupp on behalf of Berthold Beitz. However, the results were never published.