15 Facts About Heinrich Gattineau

Heinrich Gattineau was a German economist, Sturmabteilung leader, director of IG Farben and defendant during the Nuremberg trials.

The young Heinrich Gattineau was initially educated in Switzerland before being sent to high school in Munich, ultimately studying economics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, completing his doctorate in 1929.

Heinrich Gattineau took a minor role in local politics, serving with the right-wing Bund Oberland in 1923.

Heinrich Gattineau married Dr Wera Fritzsche, with whom he had five children, in 1929.

Heinrich Gattineau was employed by IG Farben from 1928, becoming head of commercial policy and public relations at the firm in 1931.

Heinrich Gattineau enlisted the aid of Karl Haushofer, under whom he had studied at university for a time, and after Haushofer vouched for the German credentials of the IG Farben leaders to Hitler the attacks ceased for around a year.

In September 1932 Gattineau, along with Heinrich Butefisch, had held a meeting with Hitler at which they discussed the issue of producing synthetic oil, something Hitler felt crucial to end German energy dependence and to ensure his plans for secret rearmament would remain secret were he to be elected.

Nonetheless Heinrich Gattineau took up a part-time role with the SA in an attempt to prove his Nazi credentials.

Heinrich Gattineau rose swiftly through the ranks, already holding the rank of SA-Standartenfuhrer by 1934 and being recognised as one of Ernst Rohm's main advisers on economic issues.

Heinrich Gattineau was interrogated for several hours and feared execution but then was surprisingly released from custody.

Heinrich Gattineau immediately resigned from the SA but faced anger at IG Farben where his superior Erwin Selck attempted to secure his dismissal or deployment away from the company's main Unter den Linden Berlin offices to the provinces.

Heinrich Gattineau spent much of the Second World War in Bratislava as a director of Dynamit-Nobel-Fabrik and other Czechoslovakian chemical companies that had been brought under the IG Farben umbrella by the Nazis.

In 1947 Heinrich Gattineau was one of 24 executives indicted for war crimes by the United States as part of what became known as the IG Farben trial.

Heinrich Gattineau was however acquitted of all charges and released.

Heinrich Gattineau secured a number of boardroom positions in the corporate world following the trial.