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German Industrialist Family
Breaks Silence Over Nazi Ties
Almost nine months after a German television documentary
highlighted the exploitation of Nazi prisoners that helped the Quandt family
make its fortune, a family member spoke up about the issue.
The Quandt family, which owns close to 47 percent of the
shares in German car maker BMW, had been maintaining a wall of silence
following the broadcast of a film that put the spotlight on the stories of
former Nazi prisoners who were forced to work in a battery factory owned by
magnate Guenther Quandt (1881-1954).
The workers recounted beatings, mistreatment and even deaths
at the factory in the film which premiered at the Hamburg Film Festival last
year.
Hoping to repair the family's damaged reputation, Stefan
Quandt used the recent award ceremony for the "Herbert Quandt Media
Prize" to undercut the documentary's integrity, German daily FAZ reported
on Thursday, July 31.
"The allegation that the family's assets can be traced
back to the time of the Third Reich defrauds fifty years of entrepreneurial
success on the part of my great grandfather Emil and my grandfather Guenther
Quandt before the year 1933," he was quoted as saying.
Integrity of media prize questioned
The documentary's broadcast has tarnished the Quandt moniker
to such an extent that three prominent members of the board of trustees
responsible for awarding the prize resigned their posts.
Mathias Muller, Editor in Chief of Der Spiegel, Gabriele
Fischer, Editor in Chief of Brand Eins and Christoph Keese, former Editor in
Chief of Welt am Sonntag and current CEO of Public Affairs for the publishing
giant Axel Springer have called for the cancellation of the prize until the
family's role during the time of the Nazis was clarified.
But the Quandt family is determined to see the media prize
live on. After the documentary was aired, the family hired historian Joachim
Scholtyseck to spend three years exploring the family history.
Scholtyseck's findings may lead the Quandts -- one of
Germany's last corporate dynasties that has not dealt with its past -- to
finally face the skeletons in the family closet.
Nazi ties misjudged
Bildunterschrift: Grossansicht des Bildes mit der
Bildunterschrift: Through her
re-marriage to Joseph Goebbels, Magda Quandt directly linked the family to the
Nazi regime
In addition to being one of the most important German arms
producers during World War II, the Quandt family also had a private connection
to the Nazis.
Guenther Quandt's first wife Magda Ritschel married Joseph
Goebbels, Hitler's future propaganda minister, two years after divorcing
Guenther. Their first son Harald then lived with her and Goebbels.
Stefan Quandt, however, found fault with the documentary for
leaving out a very important aspect of the Quandt-Goebbels connection: the fact
that Guenther Quandt took legal action against Goebbels in 1934 in order to
gain custody over Harald.
"The court did not accept the claim against the
influential Minister Goebbels and the lawyer representing my grandfather was
removed from his leading position in the lawyers' association," he said.
He also said that his family members were only human and
that the circumstances of their time were largely beyond their control.
"Some people followed national socialism from
conviction," he said. "Some agreed to small or large compromises.
Others were forced. In a world of fear and instability, it wasn't any different
for Guenther and Herbert Quandt as entrepreneurs."
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