Latest news with #HermannGöring
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: Remember What Happened the Last Time Fascism Met Capitalism?
In February 1933, the future Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring sent out telegrams to 25 of Weimar Germany's leading businessmen, inviting them to a secret meeting with Adolf Hitler—to discuss a potential alliance. Despite their growing success in the polls, the Nazi party was as good as broke, and desperately needed investment; Hitler was subsequently able to secure it by convincing his wealthy guests that they shared the same interests—stopping the spread of communism, protecting private enterprise and breaking up trade unions. More alluring still was his oxymoronic belief that 'private enterprise cannot be maintained in a democracy.' The connection between German industrialists and Nazi leaders—until recently a grossly overlooked aspect in World War II studies—resembles the relationship that's currently developing in the U.S. between MAGA Republicans and big tech CEOs, Silicon Valley elites and hedge fund moguls like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the latter of whom not only facilitated Trump's return to the presidency in part through his donations (and ownership of the social media platform X), but has since obtained a key role in the White House. As Musk's DOGE continues to decimate the federal workforce—gutting anti-Trump opposition under the guise of making the country's political apparatus more productive and cost-effective—many Americans are wondering what comes next. Historical precedent gives us a possible answer. It isn't pretty. The industrialists who answered Göring's call for help went on to benefit from the Nazi regime in three big ways. First and foremost, they received lucrative government contracts for the production of arms, chemicals, food and textiles—contracts that grew in scale and scope once World War II got going. Günther Quandt, whose ex-wife Magda married Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and infamously poisoned herself and her children inside the Führerbunker, provided the Third Reich with rifles, ammunition, and batteries. Pharmaceutical conglomerate IG Farben produced Zyklon B, the cyanide-based pesticide used in concentration camp gas chambers, while 'Pudding Prince' Rudolf August Oetker, of Dr. Oetker fame, was the German army's go-to caterer. Through Aryanization, the industrialists grew their empires, buying out Jewish competitors—at fractions of the companies' actual worth—and then folding them into their own. The twin heads of automobile manufacturer Porsche for example, used the Third Reich's antisemitic policies as a pretext to oust their Jewish cofounder, Alfred Rosenberger, before going on to develop the Volkswagen and, subsequently, military vehicles like the amphibious Schwimmwagen and armored Kübelwagen. And they were able to save vast amounts of money by replacing paid employees with slave labor from concentration camps and PoW prisons. Not only did these workers work for free, but they did so for longer hours and with minimal rations. Those who couldn't perform their duties due to exhaustion or illness were killed—and replaced. While many Nazi leaders were executed at Nuremberg (or committed suicide to avoid such a fate), the vast majority of German industrialists were never brought to justice. Some, like Quandt, went on to claim that they, much like the German population in general, had been tricked or coerced. Others offered to make themselves useful to the Americans, who came to see German capital as a valuable asset in the looming Cold War with the USSR, by helping rebuild the West German economy and supporting transatlantic trade. (Porsche, for example, began selling Volkswagens in the U.S. as early as 1949.) As a result, many formerly pro-Nazi companies are still around today. Despite assertions like Quandt's, or arguments that they had no choice, their relationships with the Nazi party were more than merely transactional, with many becoming honorary SS officers and entering the inner circle of Holocaust architect Heinrich Himmler. Musk and other big tech CEOs, meanwhile, are not just cozying up to Trump for financial reasons, but because they appear to genuinely share the president's worldview—or, at least, are willing to make it seem like they do. In the U.S., Zuckerberg has firmly planted himself on the side of Trump's culture wars, axing Meta's independent fact-checking services, loosening rules on hate speech, and claiming companies need more 'masculine energy.' Musk, having secured his place at Trump's side, is using his wealth and influence to support far-right movements in other countries, notably Germany, where he urged supporters of the Alternative for Germany (AFD), which won a record 152 seats in the German Bundestag following recent elections, not to 'focus on past guilt.' The story of the German industrialists, then, serves as a warning for today's America and the Western world at large. Despite their claims to the contrary, neither the German industrialists nor their 21st-century American counterparts seem to care much about free markets and capitalism, at least not in the contemporary, neoliberal sense of the word. (Certainly they seem indifferent at best to many of the democratic institutions that guarantee these systems' existence.) Rather, their business practices and goals increasingly appear to be pushing for an economic order more akin to colonial-era mercantilism or a kind of 'technofeudalism,' as the Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis argues in his 2023 book of the same name. Although they claim to champion meritocracy and free speech, the capitalists who have joined hands with Trump—whether Musk, Zuckerberg or many others—appear to dream of a world that's more about a free-for-all than freedom for all. That comes with quite a cost.
The Independent
12-02-2025
- The Independent
Glasgow auctioneers defend sale of Nazi memorabilia
An auction house is defending its sale of Nazi memorabilia, including several items featuring the swastika and others linked to high-profile Nazi Hermann Göring. Several artefacts from the Third Reich were sold on Wednesday as part of a wider auction of military items at the Glasgow auction house McTear's. A 1933 badge featuring the swastika went under the hammer, along with a 1939 Iron Cross medal, for £300. A Third Reich Luftwaffe dress dagger went for £220, while swastika-emblazoned Nazi bunting sold for £50. Multiple items linked to Hermann Göring, one of the most powerful figures in Adolf Hitler's Germany, were also included in the sale. They included two silver plates thought to be from Göring's personal train dining wagon. They sold for £500 each. Commenting on the sale on Tuesday, a spokesperson for McTear's auctioneers said: 'As the only auctioneer in Scotland to run dedicated sales of historic militaria, McTear's has frequently consigned important artefacts from both World Wars. 'On occasion, our auctions, like many others across the world, include items related to the Third Reich, which are always handled with sensitivity. 'It is important to note that these historical artefacts provide a tangible link to an important — albeit extremely dark — era in our history that should never be forgotten.' The sale also included an item described as a 'Third Reich North Africa propaganda one pound note' which sold for £10. While it is not illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia in the UK, sales of such items have been controversial. In 2019, Bloomfield Auctions in Belfast cancelled a sale of such artefacts after an outcry from Jewish leaders. The auction house was set to auction a dinnerware set, which had an estimate of £20,000. Described on their Facebook page as 'historically rare', the tablecloth, napkins and silver cutlery set are emblazoned with swastikas. They allegedly come from Adolf Hitler 's 50th birthday glass observation wagon on the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Third Reich's German state railway. Mark Gardner, from the Community Security Trust, a British charity established to ensure the safety of the Jewish community in the UK, said at the time the auctioneers were turning a profit from Nazi memorabilia.
