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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
absolutely first-rate popular history with a grand sweep, May 17, 2004
This review is from: The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War (Paperback)
This has got to be one of the greatest history books that I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them. While the story is centered around the development of the Steel industry in the Ruhr Gebiet in Germany, it is also about German history - from its beginnings with the "forest mythology" of the Roman era - all the way up to the 1960s. Unusual for historians, Manchester also has a wonderful grasp of character, which the Krupp family supplied in many, many bizarre variations over several generations. The result is a read of the greatest quality. Most important, there is the empire of Krupp, as built up by Alfred. At 14, he inherited a steel company that had dwindled under his father's inept management to 5 employees. By sheer grit and a genius for profitable technical innovation, he built it into a vast conglomerate so powerful that it could literally make empires fall. In particular, the company specialised in the development of weapons, from breach-loading cannons to early prototypes for tanks. He even created a cannon (the Big Bertha for his wife), braced along the side of an entire mountain, that could hurl projectiles deep into France from German soil. The details are fascinating, with graceful descriptions that translate their engineering details for laymen. Alfred controlled everything, from scribbling rules to govern the work force with a pencil nub to relationships with the various ministers of war throughout Europe. There are hilarious scenes where he dines once a year with Bismarck, a great personal friend, and their hysterical laughter at the latter's remark about Napoleon III of France ("Eigentlich ist er dumm"). His drive was so unrelenting that his many failures, such as an early insult to a crucially important aristocrat in the defense ministry (creating a problem for himself that lasted 30 years), took an enormous personal toll - he spent days in bed, depressed and immobile after a failed sale, and his family was a horrible mess. A large part of the book is about his search for an heir who can run the family business. Here too, the characters are remarkable and often as hilarious or pathetic as their continuing genius for business. One of them was a notorious homosexual, who created an entire bacchanal in a Southern Italian castle for young boys, shooting fireworks for every climax, and when it was discovered - it was illegal in Germany - he committed suicide. You also witness the family energy dissipating until the last generation, when it became a public company with the appointment of Berthold Beitz. (Here there is some personal pique in the author, who writes that the last son, also gay, was "an indolent fool.") The tableau is so rich that it covers the many moral ambiguities of the times, such as supplying rival powers who would turn Krupp weapons on eachother, including enemies of Germany, and of course the Nazi period is examined. Through all of this, the Krupp do not come off well, even using slave labor by Hitler's victims. (The only criticism I have of the book is the excessive coverage of the Holocaust, which occupies several chapters of personal stories, indicting the last Krupp who was briefly imprisoned and then released to run the company in the 1950s.) As a business writer, it was a great pleasure to read such a rivetting business story. This book is the fullest of meals. Warmly recommended.
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47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mountains of steel, July 20, 2004
This review is from: The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War (Paperback)
The Arms of Krupp is a brilliantly written book detailing the rise and fall of one of the most powerful families in history. The family of Krupp was the armorer of the first, second and third German Reichs. The origins of the family's wealth begin with Arndt Krupp surviving the Black Plague and purchasing land that just happened to contain the richest coal deposits in Europe. The firm or die Firma was built on 3 basic principles, innovation (many new alloys, metals, methods and weapons are attributable to the Krupp firm), political leverage, and absolute suzerainty of a single head of the family. Indeed the head of the Krupp family ruled a state with in a state.
Unlike most industrial families, the Krupps appear to understand very early on that the health and welfare of the workers is a necessity of the survival and prosperity of die Firma itself. That fact makes Krupp's treatment of the slave labor (Jewish and Eastern "stucke") even more appalling. Indeed, Krupp violated even the pathetic SS prisoner treatment rules, formed an internal Gestapo, and tortured workers accused of ridiculous crimes (stealing food) considering the treatment they were given.
William Manchester spends a great deal of time on the Holocaust and Krupp's involvement in it. Indeed, Krupp raided captured factories across Europe and enslaved tens of thousands. In my opinion, this period represents the heights of wealth and the depths of morality for the firm and the family. Krupp sold his Reich marks to get real capital and at the same time employed the Nazi slave labor program to maintain production. Wealth generated on the backs of the conquered territories and enslaved peoples.
But the single most damning legacy of the Krupp dynasty is Bushmannhof ? a concentration camp for children of Krupp's slave labor program. Not even children really but infants. No fence was erected around this camp as its prisoners couldn't have escaped even if they were big enough to walk. Witnesses at Nuremburg stated that infants lay naked on rubber sheets too weak to do anything until death came to claim them. In theory, mothers could come visit once per week, but this was impossible and no alternative was ever even considered. In total war, innocence is no protection. While Gustav and Alfried Krupp ate with solid gold place ware in a bombproof bunker. Children of workers forced to keep the rolling presses moving were dying of starvation and preventable diseases.
They were buried in the earth beneath small numbered plaques. Never to laugh, never to play, they were born but to die under the suzerainty of Krupp.
But memories are short, Alfried was released to help forge the swords of the cold war and indeed, at his death in 1968, the Krupp firm was turned into a publicly held company and the only Krupp Heir - his son Arndt - continues to prosper due in a large part to the Lex Krupp, a law issued by Adolph Hilter.
And the little numbered plaques have probably crumbled to nothing by now.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
war is good for business, December 28, 2005
This review is from: The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty That Armed Germany at War (Paperback)
This work is the cardinal profile of the rise of the `military-industrial complex' in 19-20C Germany. The Krupp legacy (family and firm) is skillfully traced in a lucid, comprehensive account equal to the finest modern history.
Without Krupp, Germany would never have been unified in 1871. Without war, Krupp would never have grown into the wealthiest concern in the world. Each served the other. And tens of millions died.
What price did Krupp pay for key instrumentality in aggressive war? Not much. Gustav (key Nazi donor, appointed `Leader of Industry' in 1933) was judged too infirm for trial in 1945. Alfried (who joined the SS in 1931) spent 3 years in jail (released to much applause in 1951). The firm self destructed 1967-8 (Arndt II, playboy degenerate, wasn't up to the task of renewing the symbiotic relationship).
Krupp armed regimes that killed civilians without remorse. It used slave labor to produce weapons, and operated camps that (given the regimen) supported extermination. All without apology.
Perhaps the most cynical salute to profit is Krupp's ultimate negotiation of a £40,000 settlement in 1926 for patent royalties from Vickers for 640,000 shells the Brits fired at Germans in WW1 (Gustav insisted 4,160,000 shells were fired -- killing 2,080,000 German soldiers -- and £260,000 was due). Thus Krupp, the preeminent German weapons firm, was paid for the death of German soldiers in a lost war.
Though I read it thirty years ago, this book remains important and memorable. Highly recommended.
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