Max Ilgner
Encyclopedia
Max Ilgner was a German
industrialist. He was a member of the board of IG Farben
and a Wehrwirtschaftsführer or war economy leader under the Nazi regime.
at the very end of the First World War. He then joined the Freikorps
for a spell before being discharged from the new Reichswehr
after its numbers were substantially reduced by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
.
The demobbed Ilgner took a doctorate in political science at the Goethe University Frankfurt, having also studied metallurgy
and chemistry
at the Technical College of Charlottenburg. He briefly worked in Stockholm
following completion of his studies and whilst there he met Erna Hällström. The two were later married and had three children.
, the financial chief at BASF
, who secured for Ilgner a position as a salesman at the chemical company. In 1926, having worked for BASF for two years, Ilgner was given a new role working with Schmitz at a newly established central finance unit for IG Farben on Berlin
's Unter den Linden
. Although little more than a messenger boy Ilgner built up a strong network of contacts and, with his uncle's support, advanced through the ranks at the company.
By 1934 Ilgner had been appointed as a deputy member of the Vorstand
of IG Farben and had a remit that gave him some control over not only financial and public relations decisions but also the company's dealings with central government. He lead two important subsections of the central finance unit, namely the Department of Economic Research (known as Vowi) which was established in 1929 and dealt with overseas investment opportunities and the Department of Economic Policy (Wipo) which was set up in 1932, under Heinrich Gattineau and then Ilgner, to keep an eye on legal, foreign policy and taxation issues that might impact on the relationship between the company and the government.
Ilgner's rapid rise, his naked ambition and the feeling that he was being pushed only because of his family connections made him unpopular with many of his fellow executives but Schmitz held too much power in the company for such objections to be raised publicly.
, an organisation that Joseph Goebbels
had declared incompatible with Nazism
. Nevertheless Ilgner was happy to work closely with the fledgling Nazi regime and encouraged public support for Nazism by the company's factory workers. He also worked with Goebbels in an attempt to get the Minister of Propaganda to tone down some of his rhetoric, which Ilgner believed was damaging Germany's reputation internationally, an initiative which initially enjoyed some success until Goebells became angry at Ilgner telling him what to do and broke off communication. Undeterred Ilgner hired the services of the American
public relations expert Ivy Lee
to improve the reputation of Adolf Hitler
on the world stage. After Lee's initial suggestion, the dropping of anti-Semitism
, was rejected out of turn by Hitler, they agreed on a programme of presenting Germany as a welcoming, historical destination to American investors whilst also plotting a policy of arranging for pro-Hitler articles to be added to American newspapers. Ilgner's work was criticised by other Vorstand members, who felt that he was undertaking too much government propaganda and not enough work for IG Farben, but his initiatives won Hitler's approval and increasingly IG Farben's overseas offices also became centres of Nazi Party propaganda. In return Ilgner was able to boost IG Farben's contracts with the government, notably their fading Leuna
arm which was rejuvenated considerably when Ilgner was able to use contacts in the Reichswehr's Weapons Office to secure for this branch of the company the contract to produce fuel for the Luftwaffe
, which was being covertly built up in contravention of the Treaty of Versailles but which would have been discovered had they been forced to import large quantities of aircraft fuel. According to Ilgner's much later claims his influence amongst the Nazi hierarchy even saved the life of Gattineau on Night of the Long Knives
after his fellow executive had been arrested due to his membership of the Sturmabteilung
and his friendship with Ernst Röhm
. Ilgner would finally join the Nazi Party in 1937.
Under Ilgner's direction IG Farben would also play a role in the annexation of the Sudetenland
and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia
. Along with fellow executive Georg von Schnitzler
Ilgner developed a scheme whereby IG Farben would fund pro-German newspapers in Czechoslovakia. The large scale publication of propaganda stories that accompanied the negotiations between Hitler and Neville Chamberlain
helped to whip up strong support for the Nazis amongst the country's German community and the company continued to pour money into Sudeten German Relief Fund and the Sudeten Freikorps. When the fate of the country was sealed and the Nazis took over IG Farben were rewarded for their part in events by being allowed to take control of Aussiger Verein, a Prague
-based chemical company that was the fourth largest in Europe, at a low price.
, a British chemical company that Ilgner had one eye on in the event of Operation Sea Lion being launched.
As the war dragged on an Nazi defeat began to look inevitable Ilgner took steps to safeguard his own future. After a bomb struck the Unter den Linten offices in January 1945 Ilgner announced that he could not work under such conditions and, taking all sensitive documented material with him, relocated his office to Frankfurt am Main. In fact Ilgner was simply trying to avoid falling into the hands of the Soviet Union
and so moved westwards and whilst in Frankfurt ensured the disappearance of the incriminating documents he had taken with him.
. Ilgner in particular was singled out for the leading role he played in German rearmament and at the trial it was noted that he was the only executive who continued to fraternise openly with Carl Krauch
who was bearing the bulk of the guilt due to his close relationship to Hermann Goering. Ilgner was one of nine defendants found guilty of "spoilation and plunder", which was defined as the taking of property without the owner's full and non-coerced consent and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Ilgner announced his conversion to Christianity
in prison and vowed to follow a missionary path following his release. For a time he followed this path, undertaking work on behalf of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia
. This did not prove to be long-lived however and instead he became a professional political lobbyist. In 1955 he was appointed the chairman of the board at a chemical company in Zug
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
industrialist. He was a member of the board of IG Farben
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
and a Wehrwirtschaftsführer or war economy leader under the Nazi regime.
Early life
Ilgner came from an established military family, with his father and grandfather both officers, and followed in their footsteps by entering cadet school. He briefly served as a junior officer on the Western FrontWestern Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
at the very end of the First World War. He then joined the Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
for a spell before being discharged from the new Reichswehr
Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
after its numbers were substantially reduced by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
.
The demobbed Ilgner took a doctorate in political science at the Goethe University Frankfurt, having also studied metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
and chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
at the Technical College of Charlottenburg. He briefly worked in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
following completion of his studies and whilst there he met Erna Hällström. The two were later married and had three children.
Rise in IG Farben
Despite his extensive qualifications Ilgner found work hard to come by in depressed post-war Germany, and so he called on his uncle Hermann SchmitzHermann Schmitz (industrialist)
Hermann Schmitz was a German industrialist, and CEO of IG Farben from 1935 to 1945. He was sentenced to four years in the IG Farben Trial....
, the financial chief at BASF
BASF
BASF SE is the largest chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Germany. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik . Today, the four letters are a registered trademark and the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and Zurich Stock...
, who secured for Ilgner a position as a salesman at the chemical company. In 1926, having worked for BASF for two years, Ilgner was given a new role working with Schmitz at a newly established central finance unit for IG Farben on Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
's Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways....
. Although little more than a messenger boy Ilgner built up a strong network of contacts and, with his uncle's support, advanced through the ranks at the company.
By 1934 Ilgner had been appointed as a deputy member of the Vorstand
Vorstand
In German corporate governance, a Vorstand is the management board of a corporation. It is hierarchically subordinate to the Aufsichtsrat , as German corporate law imposes a two-tier board system....
of IG Farben and had a remit that gave him some control over not only financial and public relations decisions but also the company's dealings with central government. He lead two important subsections of the central finance unit, namely the Department of Economic Research (known as Vowi) which was established in 1929 and dealt with overseas investment opportunities and the Department of Economic Policy (Wipo) which was set up in 1932, under Heinrich Gattineau and then Ilgner, to keep an eye on legal, foreign policy and taxation issues that might impact on the relationship between the company and the government.
Ilgner's rapid rise, his naked ambition and the feeling that he was being pushed only because of his family connections made him unpopular with many of his fellow executives but Schmitz held too much power in the company for such objections to be raised publicly.
Working with the Nazis
Ilgner was offered membership of the Nazi Party in 1933 but refused on the grounds that he wished to retain his membership of Rotary InternationalRotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
, an organisation that Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
had declared incompatible with Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. Nevertheless Ilgner was happy to work closely with the fledgling Nazi regime and encouraged public support for Nazism by the company's factory workers. He also worked with Goebbels in an attempt to get the Minister of Propaganda to tone down some of his rhetoric, which Ilgner believed was damaging Germany's reputation internationally, an initiative which initially enjoyed some success until Goebells became angry at Ilgner telling him what to do and broke off communication. Undeterred Ilgner hired the services of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
public relations expert Ivy Lee
Ivy Lee
Ivy Ledbetter Lee is considered by some to be the founder of modern public relations. The term Public Relations is to be found for the first time in the preface of the 1897 Yearbook of Railway Literature....
to improve the reputation of 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...
on the world stage. After Lee's initial suggestion, the dropping of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, was rejected out of turn by Hitler, they agreed on a programme of presenting Germany as a welcoming, historical destination to American investors whilst also plotting a policy of arranging for pro-Hitler articles to be added to American newspapers. Ilgner's work was criticised by other Vorstand members, who felt that he was undertaking too much government propaganda and not enough work for IG Farben, but his initiatives won Hitler's approval and increasingly IG Farben's overseas offices also became centres of Nazi Party propaganda. In return Ilgner was able to boost IG Farben's contracts with the government, notably their fading Leuna
Leuna
Leuna is a town in the Saalekreis, Saxony-Anhalt, eastern Germany, south of Merseburg and Halle. It is known for the Leunawerke , at 13 km2 one of the biggest chemical industrial complexes in Germany, where a very wide range of chemicals and plastics is produced...
arm which was rejuvenated considerably when Ilgner was able to use contacts in the Reichswehr's Weapons Office to secure for this branch of the company the contract to produce fuel for the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, which was being covertly built up in contravention of the Treaty of Versailles but which would have been discovered had they been forced to import large quantities of aircraft fuel. According to Ilgner's much later claims his influence amongst the Nazi hierarchy even saved the life of Gattineau on Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...
after his fellow executive had been arrested due to his membership of the Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
and his friendship with Ernst Röhm
Ernst Röhm
Ernst Julius Röhm, was a German officer in the Bavarian Army and later an early Nazi leader. He was a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung , the Nazi Party militia, and later was its commander...
. Ilgner would finally join the Nazi Party in 1937.
Under Ilgner's direction IG Farben would also play a role in the annexation of the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Along with fellow executive Georg von Schnitzler
Georg von Schnitzler
Georg August Eduard Schnitzler, since 1913, von Schnitzler was a member of the board at IG Farben and a convicted war criminal.-Early years:...
Ilgner developed a scheme whereby IG Farben would fund pro-German newspapers in Czechoslovakia. The large scale publication of propaganda stories that accompanied the negotiations between Hitler and Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
helped to whip up strong support for the Nazis amongst the country's German community and the company continued to pour money into Sudeten German Relief Fund and the Sudeten Freikorps. When the fate of the country was sealed and the Nazis took over IG Farben were rewarded for their part in events by being allowed to take control of Aussiger Verein, a Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
-based chemical company that was the fourth largest in Europe, at a low price.
World War Two
Immediately after the outbreak of the Second World War Ilgner handed over the company's extensive collection of geological maps to the government, informing them of the locations across Europe where chemicals might be extracted. As head of Vowi he had also built up extensive knowledge of IG Farben's main overseas competitors and he was able to supply the government with full details of the operations of Imperial Chemical IndustriesImperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
, a British chemical company that Ilgner had one eye on in the event of Operation Sea Lion being launched.
As the war dragged on an Nazi defeat began to look inevitable Ilgner took steps to safeguard his own future. After a bomb struck the Unter den Linten offices in January 1945 Ilgner announced that he could not work under such conditions and, taking all sensitive documented material with him, relocated his office to Frankfurt am Main. In fact Ilgner was simply trying to avoid falling into the hands of 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....
and so moved westwards and whilst in Frankfurt ensured the disappearance of the incriminating documents he had taken with him.
Post-war
Ilgner was one of 24 executives of the company indicted for war crimes by the Americans on 4 May 1947 in what became known as the IG Farben TrialIG Farben Trial
The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al., also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany after the end of World War II....
. Ilgner in particular was singled out for the leading role he played in German rearmament and at the trial it was noted that he was the only executive who continued to fraternise openly with Carl Krauch
Carl Krauch
Carl Krauch was a German chemist and industrialist. He was an executive at BASF ; during World War II, he was chairman of the supervisory board. He was a key implementer of the Reich’s Four-Year Plan to achieve national economic self-sufficiency and promote industrial production...
who was bearing the bulk of the guilt due to his close relationship to Hermann Goering. Ilgner was one of nine defendants found guilty of "spoilation and plunder", which was defined as the taking of property without the owner's full and non-coerced consent and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Ilgner announced his conversion to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
in prison and vowed to follow a missionary path following his release. For a time he followed this path, undertaking work on behalf of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia
Evangelical Church of Westphalia
The Evangelical Church of Westphalia is a Protestant church body in the German state of Northrhine-Westphalia. It's the most important Protestant denomination in Westphalia...
. This did not prove to be long-lived however and instead he became a professional political lobbyist. In 1955 he was appointed the chairman of the board at a chemical company in Zug
Zug
Zug , is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. The name ‘Zug’ originates from fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to ‘pull up’ fishing nets and hence to the right to fish.The city of Zug is located in the Canton of Zug and is its capital...
.