Bertha Krupp
Encyclopedia
Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (29 March 1886 - 21 September 1957), born Bertha Krupp and commonly known by this name outside Germany, was a member of the Krupp
Krupp
The Krupp family , a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, have become famous for their steel production and for their manufacture of ammunition and armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th...

 family, Germany's leading industrial dynasty of the 19th and 20th centuries. As the elder child and heir of Friedrich Alfred Krupp
Friedrich Alfred Krupp
Friedrich Alfred Krupp was a German steel manufacturer of the company Krupp.- Biography :Krupp was born in Essen, Germany. His father was Alfred Krupp. In 1887, Friedrich took over the leadership of his father's company. He married Margarethe Krupp...

 she was the sole proprietor of the Krupp industrial empire from 1902 to 1943, although her husband, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
Gustav Georg Friedrich Maria Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, "Taffi", ran the German Friedrich Krupp AG heavy industry conglomerate from 1909 until 1941...

, ran the company in her name. In 1943 she transferred ownership of the company to her son, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach
Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach , often referred to as Alfried Krupp, was a convicted war criminal, an industrialist, a competitor in Olympic yacht races and a member of the Krupp family, which has been prominent in Germany since the early 19th century.The family company, known...

.

Bertha Krupp was born in Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

, home of the Krupp family and their company since the 16th century. Her mother was Margarethe Krupp, born Margarethe von Enden. At the time of Bertha's birth the company was owned and managed by her grandfather, Alfred Krupp. Following his death the following year, her father Friedrich inherited ownership and control. Her sister Barbara (later Barbara Freifrau von Wilmowsky) was born in 1887 {d. 1972}, but the absence of a male heir put the future of the company in doubt.

When Friedrich Krupp died in 1902, it was considered impossible for a woman to exercise control over the vast Krupp coal, steel and armaments empire. In 1907, therefore, Kaiser Wilhelm II arranged for Bertha to marry Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach (on May 7), a professional diplomat of good family and a familiar figure at the Kaiser's court. He added the name Krupp to his surname and assumed executive control of the company. Barbara received a large cash settlement and Bertha became sole owner of the company.

Gustav and Bertha had eight children: Alfried (1907–67), Arnold (1908-1909), Claus (1910–1940), Irmgard (1912–1998), Berthold (1913–87), Harald (1916–85), Waldtraut (1920–2005) and Eckbert (1922–1945). Of these only Alfried as the eldest son took the surname Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. The others used the surname von Bohlen und Halbach. Claus and Eckbert were killed on active service in World War II, and Harald spent ten years in captivity in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the Krupp company manufactured large mortars that the German army used to bombard forts in Belgium and France. German troops nicknamed these Dicke Bertha ("fat Bertha") after Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Allied troops used the translated name, "Big Bertha
Big Bertha (Howitzer)
Big Bertha Bertha") is the name of a type of super-heavy howitzer developed by the famous armaments manufacturer Krupp in Germany on the eve of World War I...

," to refer to all German long-range artillery, particularly those that shelled Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1918.

After Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach suffered a stroke in 1941, his health declined sharply. In 1943 Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 issued a decree known as the Lex Krupp
Lex Krupp
The Lex Krupp was a document signed into federal law on November 12, 1943 by Adolf Hitler that made the Krupp company a personal company with specially regulated rules of succession, in order to ensure that the Krupp family enterprise remain intact.-History:...

, which passed full ownership of the Krupp empire—which was vital to Germany's war effort—from Bertha to her son Alfried, who then assumed control of the company. Bertha took Gustav to a family estate in Tyrol
Tyrol (state)
Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

 region of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, where they remained until the end of the war.

In 1945 Gustav was indicted as a war criminal, but was declared medically unfit to stand trial. He died in 1950. Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was indicted on charges of crimes against humanity in relation to the Krupp company's use and mistreatment of concentration camp inmates as slave labour in Krupp factories—particularly at the Berthawerk, a factory near the Auschwitz extermination camp, which was named after Bertha. He was sentenced to twelve years in prison and the confiscation of all his property. He served five years in prison before being freed in 1951 when the U.S. High Commissioner in Germany, John J. McCloy
John J. McCloy
John Jay McCloy was a lawyer and banker who served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II, president of the World Bank and U.S. High Commissioner for Germany...

, unilaterally overturned his conviction.

In 1951 Bertha Krupp returned with Alfried to Essen, where Alfried resumed control of the company and rapidly restored it to a dominant position in the German economy, although it no longer made armaments. She had become a much-loved figure in the city, known for her charitable work and her frequent visits to injured or ill Krupp workers and their families. Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach died in Essen in 1957 and is buried in the family crypt outside the city. Alfred Krupp Von Bohlen und Halbach's only child Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach
Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach
Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach was a German entrepreneur and the last member of the Krupp dynasty.- Biography :...

(1938–1986) died just one year short of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first Krupp in Essen in 1587. Arndt married but had no children; thus the line of Krupp died out.

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