The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, and was the premier weapons manufacturer for Germany in both world wars.
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Krupp bought and sold real estate, and became one of the city's richest men.
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Krupp's descendants produced small guns during the Thirty Years' War and eventually acquired fulling mills, coal mines and an iron forge.
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Krupp became the arms manufacturer for the Kingdom of Prussia in 1859, and later the German Empire.
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Alfried Krupp was convicted as a criminal against humanity for the employment of the prisoners of war, foreign civilians and concentration camp inmates under inhumane conditions in work connected with the conduct of war.
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Krupp was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment, but served just three and was pardoned by John J McCloy.
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Friedrich Krupp launched the family's metal-based activities, building a pioneering steel foundry in Essen in 1810.
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An account cited that, on his deathbed, the elder Krupp confided to Alfred, who was then 14 years old, the secret of steel casting.
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At his death twenty thousand people worked for Krupp—making it the world's largest industrial company and the largest private company in the German empire.
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Krupp's had a Great Krupp Building with an exhibition of guns at the Columbian Exposition in 1893.
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In 1999, the Krupp Group merged with its largest competitor, Thyssen AG; the combined company—ThyssenKrupp, became Germany's fifth-largest firm and one of the largest steel producers in the world.
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The Widow Krupp greatly expanded the family's holdings over the decades, acquiring a fulling mill, shares in four coal mines, and an iron forge located on a stream near Essen.
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Krupp realized he would need a large facility with a power source for success, and so he built a mill and foundry on the Ruhr River, which unfortunately proved an unreliable stream.
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Alfred Krupp was born on Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp, and son of Friedrich Carl, was born in Essen in 1812.
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Krupp's exhibits caused a sensation in the engineering world, and the Essen works became famous.
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Krupp strongly believed in the superiority of breech-loaders, on account of improved accuracy and speed, but this view did not win general acceptance among military officers, who remained loyal to tried-and-true muzzle-loaded bronze cannon.
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Indeed, unable to sell his steel cannon, Krupp gave it to the King of Prussia, who used it as a decorative piece.
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Krupp was bailed out with a 30 million Mark loan from a consortium of banks arranged by the Prussian State Bank.
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In 1878 and 1879 Krupp held competitions known as Volkerschiessen, which were firing demonstrations of cannon for international buyers.
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Krupp was a sole proprietorship, inherited by primogeniture, with strict control of workers.
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Krupp demanded a loyalty oath, required workers to obtain written permission from their foremen when they needed to use the toilet and issued proclamations telling his workers not to concern themselves with national politics.
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In return, Krupp provided social services that were unusually liberal for the era, including "colonies" with parks, schools and recreation grounds - while the widows' and orphans' and other benefit schemes insured the men and their families in case of illness or death.
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Krupp proclaimed he wished to have "a man come and start a counter-revolution" against Jews, socialists and liberals.
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Krupp's spent most of their married years in resorts and spas, with their only child, a son.
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Krupp was particularly interested in promoting the application of genetics to social science and public policy.
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Krupp focused on arms manufacturing, as the US railroad market purchased from its own growing steel industry.
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Fritz Krupp authorized many new products that would do much to change history.
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In 1890 Krupp developed nickel steel, which was hard enough to allow thin battleship armor and cannon using Nobel's improved gunpowder.
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In 1896 Krupp bought Germaniawerft in Kiel, which became Germany's main warship builder and built the first German U-boat in 1906.
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Krupp had a subsequent publicity disaster and was found dead in his chambers not long after.
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Krupp had invested worldwide, including in cartels with other international companies.
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Krupp opened a dental hospital to provide steel teeth and jaws for wounded veterans.
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Later in the year, Britain oversaw the dismantling of much of Krupp's factory, reducing capacity by half and shipping industrial equipment to France as war reparations.
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Krupp was deeply involved with the Reichswehr's evasion of the Treaty of Versailles, and secretly engaged in arms design and manufacture.
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In 1921 Krupp bought Bofors in Sweden as a front company and sold arms to neutral nations including the Netherlands and Denmark.
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In 1922, Krupp established Suderius AG in the Netherlands, as a front company for shipbuilding, and sold submarine designs to neutrals including the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Finland, and Japan.
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Krupp was able to hide this activity from Allied inspectors for five years, and kept up his engineers' skills by hiring them out to Eastern European governments including Russia.
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In 1926, Krupp began the manufacture of Widia cobalt-tungsten carbide.
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Krupp was indicted as a major war criminal at the Nuremberg Trials but never tried, due to his advanced dementia.
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Krupp was thus the only German to be accused of being a war criminal after both world wars.
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Krupp was nursed by his wife in a roadside inn near Bluhnbach until his death in 1950, and then cremated and interred quietly, since his adopted name was at that time one of the most notorious in the American Zone.
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In 1943, Hitler decreed the Lex Krupp, authorizing the transfer of all Bertha's shares to Alfried, giving him the name "Krupp" and dispossessing his siblings.
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Krupp took over production, including at the Molotov steel works near Kharkov and Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, and at mines supplying the iron, manganese, and chrome vital for steel production.
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The British dismantled Krupp's factories, sending machinery all over Europe as war reparations.
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In 1953 Krupp negotiated the Mehlem agreement with the governments of the US, Great Britain and France.
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Hitler's Lex Krupp was upheld, reestablishing Alfried as sole proprietor, but Krupp mining and steel businesses were sequestered and pledged to be divested by 1959.
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Krupp ended unprofitable businesses including shipbuilding, railway tyres, and farm equipment.
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Krupp hired Berthold Beitz, an insurance executive, as the face of the company, and began a public relations campaign to promote Krupp worldwide, omitting references to Nazism or arms manufacturing.
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In West Germany, Krupp made jet fighters in Bremen, as a joint venture with United Aircraft, and built an atomic reactor in Julich, partly funded by the government.
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In 1967, the West German Federal Tax Court ended sales tax exemptions for private companies, of which Krupp was the largest, and voided the Hitler-era exemption of the company from inheritance tax.
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Krupp died in Essen in 1967, and the company's transformation was completed the next year, capitalized at 500 million DM, with Beitz in charge of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and chairman of the corporation's board until 1989.
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The new Krupp had six divisions: steel, engineering, plant construction, automotive supplies, trade, and services.
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In 1997 Krupp attempted a hostile takeover of the larger Thyssen, but the bid was abandoned after resistance from Thyssen management and protests by its workers.
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Krupp artillery was a significant factor at the battles of Wissembourg and Gravelotte, and was used during the siege of Paris.
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Krupp received its first order for 135 Panzer I tanks in 1933, and during World War II made tanks, artillery, naval guns, armor plate, munitions and other armaments for the German military.
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The Germans built large-scale night-time decoys like the Krupp decoy site which was a German decoy-site of the Krupp steel works in Essen.
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Krupp Industries employed workers conscripted by the Nazi regime from across Europe.
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Krupp industries was prosecuted after the end of war for its support to the Nazi regime and use of forced labour.
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Krupp used the name "Mustang" for some of their products, causing a problem for Ford Motor Company in 1964 when they desired to export their car of the same name to Germany, especially since American military personnel stationed there wanted the new car.
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Krupp was the first company to patent a seamless, reliable and strong enough railway tyre for rail freight.
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Krupp received original contracts in the United States and enjoyed a period of technological superiority while contributing the majority of rail to the new continental railway system.
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Krupp included his text "Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Warmemotors".
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