Flick trial

The United States of America vs. Friedrich Flick, et al.orFlick trialwas the fifth of twelve Naziwar crimestrials held byUnited Statesauthorities in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) afterWorld War II.It was the first of three trials of leadingindustrialistsofNazi Germany;the two others were theIG Farben Trialand theKrupp Trial.

These trials were all held before Americanmilitary tribunals.The Flick trial was one of the 12Subsequent Nuremberg Trialsof the military, political, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, held after theNuremberg Trials(the "Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal" ), the most well-known trial which tried 22 of the most important captured Nazis. Like the other trials, the Flick trial took place at thePalace of Justice.

The defendants in this case wereFriedrich Flickand five other high-ranking directors of Flick's group of companies,FlickKommanditgesellschaft,orFlick KG.The charges centered onslave laborand plundering, but Flick and the most senior director,Otto Steinbrinck,were also charged for their membership in the "Circle of Friends of Himmler." The circle was a group of influential German industrialists and bankers—founded in 1932 byWilhelm Kepplerand taken over by Himmler in 1935—for the purpose of giving financial support to the Nazis. Its members "donated" annually about 1 millionReichsmarkto a "Special Account S" in favor ofHeinrich Himmler.

The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal IV, wereCharles B. Sears(presiding judge), former Chief Judge of theNew York Court of Appeals;William C. Christianson,formerMinnesota Supreme Courtjustice;Frank Richman,formerIndiana Supreme Courtjustice; andRichard D. Dixon,formerNorth CarolinaSuperior Court judge, as an alternate judge.

The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution wasTelford Taylor,and the lead Prosecutor in this case was Joseph M. Stone, Esq., a labor lawyer on leave from the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. Theindictmentwas filed on February 8 and amended on March 18, 1947; the trial lasted from April 19 to December 22, 1947. Friedrich Flick was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment, two of the other defendants received shorter sentences, and the remaining three were acquitted.

Indictment

War crimesandcrimes against humanityby participating in the deportation and enslavement of the civilian populations of countries and territories under the belligerent occupation of or otherwise controlled by Germany, and ofconcentration campinmates, for use inslave laborin Flick mines and factories.
War crimes and crimes against humanity through the plundering and spoliation of occupied territories, and the seizure of plants both in the west (France) and the east (Poland, Russia).
Crimes against humanity through participation in the persecution of Jews and the "aryanization" of their properties.
Membership in theNSDAPand the "Circle of Friends of Himmler".
Membership in a criminal organization, theSS.

Count 2 excluded Terberger, count 3 applied to Flick, Steinbrinck, and Kaletsch, count 4 to Flick and Steinbrinck, while count 5 applied only to Steinbrinck, who had been an SSBrigadeführer.The SS had been declared a criminal organization previously by the IMT.

All defendants pleaded "not guilty".

The court dismissed count 3, stating that the evidence presented (which was all for cases prior to September 1939) fell outside its jurisdiction as the tribunal had a mandate only for acts committed during World War II, i.e., from September 1939 to May 1945.

Defendants

Name	Charges					Sentence
	1	2	3	4	5
Friedrich Flick	G	G	I	G		7 years, incl. time already served. Died on 20 July 1972.
Otto Steinbrinck	I	I	I	G	G	5 years, incl. time already served. Died in prison on 16 August 1949.
Bernhard Weiss	G	I				2.5 years, released from prison in 1949. Died in 1973.
Odilo Burkart	I	I				Acquitted
Konrad Kaletsch	I	I	I			Acquitted
Hermann Terberger	I					Acquitted