Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

Everyone knows that among these people, Bao Zixuan is the most difficult person. He wants to exchange soil for German industrial equipment. This is very difficult. He might be regarded as a fool by others, and he will make a big joke if he is not careful.

However, Bao Zixuan knew that the only way to solve this matter perfectly was by himself. Others don't understand the value of rare earths. If the time comes, they will never be able to bear the price of rare earths.

Bao Zixuan also understood that it was impossible to achieve his goals relying on a German steel company. So he set his sights on three German companies. They are Rheinmetall, Thyssen and Krupp, the three most important heavy industrial companies in Germany.

Thyssen and Krupp currently belong to two different companies and have not yet merged. However, we communicate a lot in private, so we can say that our relationship is very good.

This time, Rheinmetall's Oliver Lehard called the heads of the other two companies to negotiate. I don’t know why, but Bao Zixuan always wants to take advantage of Rheinmetall every time he comes to Germany, and this time is no exception. It seemed that Rheinmetall owed him money in his previous life, and he had to repay it in this life.

August Thyssen (1842-1926) made his fortune in the steel industry at the end of the 19th century and was known as the "King of the Ruhr". Fritz Thyssen (1873-1951) was a German monopoly capitalist. In 1926, he inherited his father's business and merged seven companies into the largest United Steel Company in Europe. He served as president. He had funded the Nazi Party since the early 1920s and officially joined the party in 1931. After that, he actively arranged and organized German industrial giants to financially support and politically support the Nazi Party, which played a huge role in Hitler's rise to power in 1933. After the Nazi Party came to power, he was a member of the Friends of Himmler and an advisor to the Prussian state government. In the late 1930s, there were differences with Hitler. Fleeed to Switzerland in 1939. The following year he moved to France. In 1941, he was arrested by the French Vichy government, extradited to Germany, and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. After the war, he was interrogated by the German Denazification Court and ordered to hand over 15% of his property as a compensation fund for Nazi victims. He moved to Argentina in 1950 and wrote "I Funded Hitler." Its company is now ThyssenKrupp AG, one of the world's top 500 companies.

The current president of Thyssen is Rehagel Thyssen, the grandson of Fritz Thyssen. He is 50 years old this year, which can be said to be the golden age of an entrepreneur.

Alfred Krupp Sr. was born into a Jewish family in Essen in 1812. The cannons he produced enabled Bismarck to defeat Austria and France in the mid-19th century. Alfred Jr.'s mother, Bertha, was the granddaughter of Alfred Sr.. Bertha's marriage was personally arranged by Kaiser Wilhelm II. He asked the diplomat Gustav to marry Bertha and added the surname "Krupp" in order to run this prominent family's business and prevent it from falling into the hands of political opponents.

The Krupp family has always been the pillar of German militarism and is favored by the highest authorities in the country. Keeping time, obeying discipline, and following orders are the traditions of this family. Take meal time as an example. Breakfast is at 7:15. People who arrive at 7:16 will find that the restaurant is closed and others have already started eating. In addition, even in the dead of winter, Gustav Krupp refused to turn on the fireplace and deliberately kept the office chilly to avoid becoming listless. Alfred grew up in such an environment. Since he was a child, he has been specially cultivated by his parents and has the right to dine with them.

Germany's defeat in World War I was the first pain he experienced in life: the Kaiser bid farewell to Essen, the Allies came to demolish the factory, his father was declared a war criminal (he was not imprisoned), the Weimar Republic was established, and the workers revolted and occupied Essen. , the French occupied the Ruhr area. These mental insults in his childhood became the reason for his unwavering loyalty to Hitler in the future.

After the war, the Krupp family still focused on developing their family business. They set up new companies, built new factories, bought new coal mines. Products are mainly sold to the Soviet Union. Soon, at the request of the German General Staff, the Krupp family secretly participated in Germany's rearmament, manufacturing the first batch of armored vehicles in 1926, and resumed the production of artillery two years later.

At this time, Alfred Krupp Jr. had reached adulthood. As the eldest son, he had all the rights of the family heir. In Hugel's villa, he lived alone on the first floor with five servants. He studied physics and chemistry at university and served as a trainee at the Dresdner Bank.

In 1930, he joined the German Nazi Party and became a member of the SS the following year. He regarded Hitler as the main figure who could clear up the humiliation of 1918 and revive Germany. On October 1, 1936, the 29-year-old Krupp was officially appointed as deputy manager in charge of rearmament. In 1939, he succeeded his father at the helm of the Krupp Empire, and the era of Alfred Krupp began.

For the next five years, he devoted himself to the role of the Third Reich's armorer. At the beginning of the war, he built another small building near Hugel's villa, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed sentries. He arrives here by car at 9 a.m. every day and works until late at night. A portrait of Hitler hung in the office, with the words "With the Führer until victory!" underneath. He worked alone there, drinking whiskey and smoking Camel cigarettes at night. He was accompanied by only servants and no friends. If he was not working here, he would travel around Germany-occupied France, Ukraine, Poland, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and other places. He favored the confiscation of industrial and mining enterprises in occupied countries, so he controlled many mines and blast furnaces. By 1943, the Krupp Empire directly or indirectly employed 200,000 people, manufacturing cannons, armored vehicles, tanks, submarines and various small arms for the German army.

After the war began, German workers at the Krupp factory went to the front line, and they were replaced by prisoners of war from various European countries, including 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war. From 1943, Krupp began to use a large number of exiled Jews to build factories near the concentration camps. By the end of the war, there were as many as 100,000 "Krupp slaves". The situation of these people was miserable. In Essen, they were beaten with steel whips to go to work. Even if Allied planes came to bomb, they could not leave the factory. In the subsequent Nuremberg interrogation, Krupp confessed to this, He also brazenly told his interrogator: "In the huge inheritance of the Krupp family, this cell belongs to me."

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1948 on charges of "anti-humanity, plundering occupied areas and conspiracy against peace", and his factory was taken over by the British army.

After the Cold War began, the United States and Britain wanted to rearm Germany and "make it a new sword." Krupp therefore became a beneficiary of this new "realpolitik." On January 31, 1951, Krupp was released along with 60 prisoners. He spent less than 4 years in prison.

As soon as he returned to Essen he reorganized the family business. In October 1952, he signed an agreement with the occupation authorities to resolve the fate of Krupp. All of his heavy industry, mining and steel production enterprises were transferred to a company, which was responsible for the sale; Krupp retained interests in the shipbuilding, truck manufacturing and locomotive manufacturing sectors; as compensation for the transfer of property rights, Krupp received Compensation is 250 million francs.

Within 10 years, the Krupp Empire re-emerged. By the early 1960s, he had as many as 110,000 employees and an annual turnover of US$1.5 billion, making him one of the top ten companies in Europe. His business scope included shipbuilding, complete sets of equipment, bridge construction, chemicals, textiles, plastics, water treatment, Oil refining and nuclear reactors.

Although Andert-Krupp was unwilling to inherit the family business, he and Oliver Lehard were good friends. Hearing that Heiyun Bao Zixuan wanted to negotiate with several industrial giants in Germany, he came to the negotiation site out of curiosity about this young man. Although he doesn't care about any specific matters in the company, his surname has already determined his fate, and he can't just ignore everything.