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Hugo Stinnes

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Hugo Stinnes
Stinnes, c. 1890
Member ofReichstag
In office
4 May 1920 – 10 April 1924 (his death)
ConstituencyDuisburg,Province of Westphalia
Personal details
Born
Hugo Adolf Eugen Victor Stinnes

(1870-02-12)12 February 1870
Mülheim,North German Confederation
Died10 April 1924(1924-04-10)(aged 54)
Berlin,Weimar Republic
NationalityGerman
Political partyGerman People's Party
Spouse
Clara Wagenknecht
(m.1895)
Children7, includingClärenore
OccupationIndustrialist, philanthropist, politician
Signature

Hugo Adolf Eugen Victor Stinnescommonly known asHugo Stinnes(12 February 1870 – 10 April 1924) was a German industrialist and politician who served as a member ofReichstagfrom 1920 to 1924 (his death). During the late era of the German Empire and early Weimar Republic, he was considered to be one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Europe.

Life and career

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Early life

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Stinnes was born inMülheim,in theRuhr Valley,North German Confederation.His parents Hermann Hugo (1842–1887) and Adeline Stinnes (1844–1925), and his grandfather, Matthias Stinnes, had founded a modest enterprise in Mülheim.[1]

After passing his graduating examination from a secondary school (Realschule), young Stinnes was placed in an office atKoblenzwhere he received business training. In order to get a practical knowledge of mining, he worked for a few months as a miner at the Wiethecolliery.Then, in 1889, he attended a course of instruction at theBergakademie Berlin(in 1916 merged theTechnische Hochschulein Charlottenburg (nowTechnische Universität Berlin)). In 1890, he inherited his father'scoalminingand other financial enterprises.[1]

Building a conglomerate

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Gradually, from working in the coal industry, he purchased his own shipyard. He also began to purchase seagoing vessels as well as river steamers and barges, the latter—especially on the Rhine—on a constantly increasing scale. He next organized an extensive international business in coal, and had 13 steamers trading to and fromNorth Sea,Baltic,MediterraneanandBlack Seaports. They carried coal, wood, grain and iron ore. By the age of 23, Stinnes was heavily invested in thesteelindustry. He also imported great quantities of English coal and had an agency atNewcastleas well as an interest in some English mines. This led to his establishing branches of his business atHamburgand atRotterdam.[1]

Hugo Stinnes in 1900

Since its founding in 1898, Stinnes had been on the Board of Directors of the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk Aktiengesellschaft (RWE). He envisioned using the steam from his mines to drive turbines for electricity production. As soon as Stinnes recognized RWE's potential he and steel magnateFritz Thyssenbought shares to become the majority shareholder. The reason for RWE's rapid growth were the permits provided by the communities. However, since these concessions were time-limited, he chose to make the communities permanent shareholders, and gave each mayor a car.[2]

During the First World War

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BeforeWorld War I,he was the possessor of a significant fortune which was vaguely estimated at several million pounds. He was a director of many of the largest industrial and mining companies ofWestphalia,theRhinelandandLuxembourg.Business interests of this magnitude were constantly expanding, and he became interested in numerous subsidiary enterprises, such as tramways and the supply of electric power and light. He was always engaged in founding new companies or amalgamating existing ones. Stinnes managed to maintain an extensive and even a detailed knowledge of the working of all the companies in which he was engaged and, in all of them, to exact zealous and conscientious work from his business subordinates. The secret of his success wasvertical integrationand an essential unity of direction and coordination of aims in all branches of his enterprises.[1]

Hugo Stinnes between 1915 and 1920

When World War I broke out, Stinnes secured an enormous share in the war profits which enlarged the fortunes of the great industrialists. In enemy countries, his enterprises were sequestrated, and his firm at Rotterdam placed on the Allies' "black list". But, apart from the regularindemnificationpaid by the German government, he was richly compensated when he was called in byErich Ludendorff,as the most competent expert to give advice, to organize the coal and the industrial production of occupiedBelgiumand to help to set in motion the gigantic production of war material which the German general headquarters demanded.[1]

During the war, Stinnes extended his activities in Hamburg, and in 1916 he bought up the Woermann and the East African steamship lines. In these new undertakings, he became associated with the two greatest German shipping companies, theHamburg-American Lineand theNorth German Lloyd.His Hamburg interests continued to multiply in something like geometrical progression. He purchased half a dozen landed estates inSaxonyto supply timber for pit props. AtFlensburginSchleswig,he secured control of the largestBalticshipping concern, and proceeded to build a new fleet of ships, christening one of them the "Hindenburg".[1]

Investment in right-wing politics

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Timecover, 17 Mar 1923

Stinnes' connection with Ludendorff led to his becoming an influence behind the scenes in German politics. In 1918 he became a founding member of theDeutsche Volkspartei(German People's Partyor DVP), the new electioneering name of the formerNational Liberal Party.On his initiative, on January 10, 1919, Stinnes conducted a meeting of top representatives of the German economy in revolutionary Berlin and fundedAntibolschewistenfonds(Anti-Bolshevist Fund) of theAnti-Bolshevist League,which distributed anti-communist propaganda and financed right wing groups such as theFreikorps.CaptainWaldemar Pabst,who was responsible for the murder ofRosa LuxemburgandKarl Liebknecht,is said to have been financed through one of his confidants. Already at the end of 1918 he had contributed around 4.4 million Reichsmarks to the financing of theAlfred Hugenbergmedia empire, which was supposed to carry nationalist propaganda to the population and which later became the nation-wide propaganda machine forAdolf Hitler'sNSDAP.[3]

In June 1920, after theGerman Revolution,Stinnes was elected to theReichstag.[1]He acted as spokesman for German industry towardstrade unionsand laid the foundation of today's system of cooperation between the unions and employers in Germany. The introduction of theeight-hour dayis a prime example of it.

Stinnes denounced theKapp Putschas a senseless adventure, but at the same time made friendly gestures towardsWolfgang Kapppersonally. Substantial support was provided by Stinnes to the NSDAP. It is assumed that it was his donations to theNazi partytreasury that created the financial base of theBeer Hall Putsch.[4]

About the time of his election to the Reichstag, Stinnes began to buy up leading German newspapers, one of his main objects being to organize a solid and powerful bloc of opinion in Germany in support oflaw and orderand the promotion of the highest industrial and commercialefficiency.His newspaper purchases included theDeutsche Allgemeine ZeitunginBerlin,formerly the organ ofOtto von Bismarckand then of all the succeeding German governments, theMünchener Neueste Nachrichtenand theMünchen-Augsburger Zeitung,the latter being one of the oldest newspapers in Germany. Both of the Munich journals were previously exponents of a very much more democratic trend of opinion than that which came to characterize them under his proprietorship. Ancillary to these acquisitions, Stinnes secured large interests in paper mills in order to make his newspapers independent of the paper market.[1]

Later life

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By the early 1920s, Stinnes was also using his influence in thepressto attack theVersailles Treaty.Stinnes used his access to hard foreign currency during the period ofinflation in the Weimar Republicto borrow vast sums in Reichsmark, repaying the loans with nearly worthless currency later. This earned him the title of "Inflationskönig"(Inflation King). In 1923, theAmericanmagazineTimecalled him "The New Emperor of Germany" to describe his far-reaching political influence and wealth.

In the 1920s, Stinnes was embroiled in a legal dispute with Mayer Wilderman. Wilderman, who had been born inBessarabia(then part of Russia), had set up a series of factories in Germany in 1912. However, at the outbreak of World War I, Stinnes seized the factories and deprived Wilderman of his assets, using the excuse that Wilderman was an "enemy alien". In 1918, Bessarabia became part ofRomania,and Wilderman attempted to recover his assets. However, Stinnes delayed the process by disputing the facts surrounding Wilderman's birth, such as accusing Wilderman of forging his birth certificate, and used financial sleight of hand to pretend the assets had in fact been dissipated and, therefore, there was nothing that could be restored.[5]

The coffin of Stinnes being carried during his funeral

Stinnes died in Berlin as a result of a gall bladder operation. Although his financial empire held some 4500 companies and 3000 manufacturing plants, it collapsed within a year of his death. Parts of his empire continued as Stinnes AG (nowDB Mobility Logistics),Hugo Stinnes SchiffahrtandRWE,the second-largest energy supplier in Germany.

Family

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In 1895, Hugo Stinnes married Cläre Wagenknecht; the couple had seven children:Edmund Hugo(1896–1980),Hugo Hermann(1897–1982),Clärenore(1901–1990),Otto(1903–1983), Hilde (1904–1975), Ernst (1911–1986), and Else (1913–1997). Their daughterClärenorewas the first European woman to circumnavigate the world with an automobile in 1929.

His sonEdmund Stinneswas a financier who left Germany and gave his home for theSecret Surrender negotiationsin 1945 which brought WW2 to an end in Italy.

References

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  1. ^abcdefghChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922)."Stinnes, Hugo".Encyclopædia Britannica(12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
  2. ^Florian Opitz (27 October 2014)."Akte D (3) - Die Macht der Stromkonzerne".Das Erste(in German). ARD. Archived fromthe originalon 29 October 2014.Retrieved29 October2014.
  3. ^"George W. F. Hallgarten and Joachim Radkau. <italic>Deutsche Industrie und Politik: Von Bismarck bis Heute</italic>. Frankfurt am Main: Europäische Verlagsanstalt. 1974. Pp. 574".The American Historical Review.April 1976.doi:10.1086/ahr/81.2.407-a.ISSN1937-5239.
  4. ^Lochner, Louis Paul (1954).Tycoons and tyrant German industry from Hitler to Adenauer.H. Regnery Co.OCLC582320510.
  5. ^Albert Geouffre de Lapradelle,Causes célèbres du droit des gens: Tribunal arbitral mixte Roumano-Allemand. Affaire Wilderman c/ Stinnes et autres(Paris: Les Éditions Internationales, 1931)
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