1. Emil Kirdorf was a German industrialist, one of the first important employers in the Ruhr industrial sectors.
17 Facts About Emil Kirdorf
1. 2.
Emil Kirdorf was personally awarded by Adolf Hitler the Order of the German Eagle, Nazi Germany's highest distinctions, on his 90th birthday in 1937, for his support to the Nazi Party in the late 1920s.
3.
Emil Kirdorf's father was a wealthy owner of a weaving mill.
4.
Emil Kirdorf had a brother named Adolf who would be his business partner during his adult life.
5.
Emil Kirdorf therefore changed to the mining industry in which he worked as an accountant.
6.
Emil Kirdorf steered the company through the Long Depression of the 1870s, and held this position until 1926.
7.
Under his direction, the GBAG became the largest coal mine enterprise in Europe, and Emil Kirdorf became known as the "Chimney Baron".
8.
Emil Kirdorf then was one of the main founders of the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate employers union in 1893, member of its board of directors until 1913.
9.
Emil Kirdorf was one of the founding members of the pangermanist Alldeutscher Verband league in 1891, which advocated imperialist policies.
10.
Emil Kirdorf was a founding member of the Free Ukraine association, of the German Colonial Association and of the Flottenverein, a lobby in favour of extension of the Kaiserliche Marine against the British Navy.
11.
Emil Kirdorf lost his key position to Hugo Stinnes, to whose management policies he was vehemently opposed.
12.
Emil Kirdorf was well known as a reactionary for his authoritarian and anti-democratic views.
13.
Emil Kirdorf met him for the first time on 4 July 1927, and funded the NSDAP.
14.
Emil Kirdorf then joined the NSDAP in 1927, but left it the following year, alleging as the reason the influence of Gregor Strasser on the party.
15.
Emil Kirdorf mainly supported it in order to divert the working class from Marxism.
16.
Emil Kirdorf then organized, in August 1931, an exchange of views between Hitler and representatives of the steel industry.
17.
Emil Kirdorf benefited on 13 July 1938 from a state funeral in Gelsenkirchen, with Hitler depositing a crown on his coffin.