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Not Politicians but Sound Businessmen: Norton Company and the Third Reich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Charles Cheape
Charles Cheape
Affiliation:
Charles Cheape is associate professor of history atLoyola College, Baltimore
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Abstract

The lengthy dispute about the role of big business in Hitler's Third Reich has generally portrayed business leaders either as instigators or as victims. The experience of Norton Company, an American multinational in Germany between 1933 and 1945, fits neither role. In this article, Professor Cheape demonstrates that Norton's German and American managers acted as outsiders compelled to play a part for their firm's long–run self–interest. As a result, Norton executives variously cooperated with, ignored, or violated Nazi policies, presenting a richer and more complex pattern of behavior than is usually pictured.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1988 , pp. 444 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1988

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References

1 For a survey, see Turner, Henry Ashby, ed., Nazism and the Third Reich (New York, 1972Google Scholar); especially Henry A. Turner, “Big Business and the Rise of Hitler,” 89–108, and T. W. Mason, “The Primacy of Politics—Politics and Economics in National Socialist Germany,” 175–200; Ayçoberry, Pierre, The Nazi Question: An Essay of the Interpretations of National Socialism (1922–1975) (New York, 1981), especially 92–98, 119–23; 150–61Google Scholar; Kershaw, Ian, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (Baltimore, Md., 1985Google Scholar), chap. 3.

2 Kershaw, Nazi Dictatorship, 51, 59.

3 See, for example, Abraham, David, The Collapse of the Weimar Republic: Political Economy and Crisis (Princeton, N. J., 1981Google Scholar). After serious debate about his use of evidence, Abraham has published a second edition with the same basic argument (New York, 1986). For a critique, see Hayes, Peter, “History in an Off Key: David Abraham's Second Collapse,” Business History Review 61 (Autumn 1987): 452–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Turner, Henry Ashby, German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler (New York, 1985Google Scholar).

5 Schweitzer, Arthur, Big Business in the Third Reich (Bloomington, Ind., 1964), 6, 525–31Google Scholar; Gillingham, John, Industry and Politics in the Third Reich: Ruhr Coal, Hitler and Europe (New York, 1985Google Scholar); Overy, R. J., The Nazi Economic Recovery (London, 1982), 58Google Scholar; Hayes, Peter, Industry and Ideology: I. G. Farben in the Nazi Era (New York, 1987Google Scholar). The quotation is from p. xi.

6 For general information about Norton Company and its international operations, see Cheape, Charles, Family Firm to Modern Multinational: Norton Company, A New England Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1985Google Scholar), especially chap. 5. Except for Otto Schutte's Nazi party file, the primary material for this article resulted from the Norton history and does not include German-language sources. Most of the specifically cited primary documents were located in Norton Company's archives in Worcester, Massachusetts. The company subsequently donated much, if not all, of this material to the Worcester Historical Museum, where it is being organized for public use. Some of the material used in this case is also summarized in two unpublished typescripts, Mildred Tymeson, “Norton Behr–Manning Overseas,” in the Norton Company archives, and Steven Koblik, “Business as Usual,” in the possession of John Jeppson. In addition to the specific sources cited below, see the affidavits of Karl Buchsieb, undated (1946?), Walter Jaspers, 29 December 1945, and Joseph Peters, 25 October 1945 among collected documents in a folder headed “Denazification of Otto Schutte”; Samuel Kistler to George Jeppson, 29 June 1945; E. D. Teague to Herbert Stanton, 8 July 1946; Clarence Halleen to Herbert Stanton, 22 July 1945.

7 Turner, German Big Business, xv–xviii.

8 Cheape, Family Firm.

9 Ibid., 207–8.

10 Eric Becker, interview with author, 11 May 1981, Wesseling, Germany, and Ted Meyer, interview with author, 25 March 1981, Worcester, Mass.; notes from an interview with Otto Schutte, May 1956, in the Mildred Tymeson Papers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

11 Ibid.

12 Joseph Peters, “Special Report Regarding the Transfer of the Deutsche Norton Ges. m.b.h. Wesseling as Decreed by the German Government,” 1 March 1946, p. 5.

13 Klein, Burton H., Germany's Economic Preparations for War (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 8–15Google Scholar.

14 Eric Becker interview, 11 May 1981; account book for DNG, 1939–1951; Otto Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 16.

15 Wilkins, Mira, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from 1914 to 1970 (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), 185–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Wiikins, Mira and Hill, Frank Ernest, American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents (Detroit, Mich., 1964), 270–85Google Scholar.

17 Gillingham, Industry and Politics, 164.

18 Wilkins, Maturing of Multinational Enterprise, 188.

19 Ibid., 187–88.

20 Wilkins and Hill, Ford on Six Continents, 284–85.

21 Overy, Nazi Recovery, 47, 65; emphasis added.

22 Aldus Higgins, quoted in the Norton Spirit, Sept. 1938, p. 4.

23 Cheape, Family Firm, 195–204.

24 Ibid., 211.

25 Otto Schutte to Pierre Baruzy, 8 Oct. 1945; Otto Schutte, “To Main-Denazification-Committee,” 9 Aug. 1946, part of a collection of documents in a folder headed “Denazification of Otto Schutte”; Ted Meyer interview, 25 March 1981.

26 Copy of the records of Schutte's membership in the NSDAP from the Berlin Document Center.

27 Otto Schutte interview, May 1956; Eric Becker interview, 11 May 1981.

28 Pierre Baruzy, interview with author, 26 April 1981, Paris, France.

29 Thomas Green, Jr., interview with author, 30 March 1981, Worcester, Mass.

30 Cheape, Family Firm, 111–13, 206–9.

31 See, for example, Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), 415–16, 450–52, 464–68, 490–92Google Scholar; and Cochran, Thomas C., Business in American Life: A History (New York, 1972), 160–62, 253, 255–58Google Scholar.

32 Otto Schutte to Herbert Stanton, 15 Aug. 1940 and 4 July 1945; Schutte, “To the Main–Denazification–Committee.”

33 Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 42; Angelo D'Imporzano and Nino Barberis, interviews with author, 4 May 1981, Milan, Italy. The specific origins and motivations of the takeover bid are not known.

34 Otto Schutte to Herbert Stanton, 15 Aug. 1940, 13 Sept. 1940, 8 Jan. 1941, and 26 March 1941; Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 38–41; Pierre Baruzy to Herbert Stanton, 8 Dec. 1941; Pierre Baruzy, “Four Years of Occupation … Four Years of Struggle,” 1945; Michel Biscayart to Herbert Stanton, 21 Feb. 1942; Pierre Baruzy interview, 26 April 1981; Armand Lefebvre, interview with author, 19 April 1981, La Courneuve, France.

35 Otto Schutte's corrections to Mildred Tymeson's “Norton Behr–Manning Overseas,” in a typescript titled “Revisions of German Plant Story,” 3–4, Tymeson Papers. See also Otto Schutte to Andrew Holmstrom, 29 Oct. 1957.

36 Schutte to Stanton, 15 Aug. 1940.

37 Baruzy. “Four Years,” 2.

38 Milward, Alan, The German Economy at War (London, 1965), 18–25Google Scholar; Overy, R. J., “Hitler's War and the German Economy: A Reinterpretation,” Economic History Review 35 (May 1982): 278–79, 286–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Milward, Alan S., The New Order and the French Economy (Oxford, 1970Google Scholar), chap. 3. The quotation is from Milward, German Economy, 18.

40 Klein, Germany's Economic Preparations, 237.

41 Ibid, 42–44, 109, 237. See also, Overy, “Hitler's War,” 279–80; Zilbert, Edward R., Albert Speer and the Nazi Ministry of Arms (East Brunswick, N.J., 1981), 92Google Scholar.

42 Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 28.

43 Peters, “Special Report”; Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 43–44.

44 Hayes, Industry and Ideology, 215–18; 231–32, 259–61.

45 Ibid.

46 Milward, German Economy, 60, 77; Zilbert, Albert Speer, 108–13; Speer, Albert, Inside the Third Reich (New York, 1970), 249–51Google Scholar; Klein, Germany's Economic Preparations, 222–23; Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 43–44.

47 Peters, “Special Report”; Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 43–44.

48 Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 44.

49 Baruzy, “Four Years”; Réné Didier to Ralph Gow, translated in Gow to Herbert Stanton, 22 Feb. 1945; Armand Lefebvre interview, 19 April 1981; Pierre Baruzy interview, 26 April 1981.

50 Didier, translated in Gow to Stanton, 22 Feb. 1945.

51 Baruzy, “Four Years,” 1.

52 Ibid; Didier, translated in Gow to Stanton, 22 Feb. 1945.

53 Baruzy, “Four Years,” 5–6.

54 Worcester Telegram, 2 Nov. 1949.

55 Schutte to Holmstrom, 29 Oct. 1957.

56 Pierre Baruzy to Herbert Stanton, 9 Nov. 1944.

57 CMN Executive Committee, “Report,” 2 Oct. 1944.

58 Didier, translated in Gow to Stanton, 22 Feb. 1945.

59 Accounts books for DNG, CMN, and Mole Norton (the Italian plant), 1938–1951.

60 Klein, Germany's Economic Preparations, 109.

61 Account books for DNG, CMN, and Mole Norton, 1938–1951.

62 Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 8; Otto Schutte to Herbert Stanton, 4 July 1945.

63 Milton Higgins, interview with author, 7 Aug. 1980, Worcester, Mass.; DNG account book, 1939–1951.

64 Milton Higgins interview, 7 Aug. 1980.

65 Mildred Tymeson, “A Pottery Maker Becomes a Wheel Maker,” 16, a chapter of “Norton Behr–Manning Overseas”; Armand Lefebvre interview, 19 April 1981; Jack Ewer, interview with author, 26 March 1981, Worcester, Mass.; notes from an interview with Jack Ewer, August 1955, Tymeson Papers.

66 Milton Higgins interview, 7 Aug. 1980.

67 Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 11.

68 Vossmuller, “Declaration.” 22 March 1946, an exhibit in Schutte, “To the Main–Denazification–Committee.”

69 Schutte, “D.N.G., 1939–1946,” 23; Pedro Van Halme to Herbert Stanton, 16 Oct. 1945 with the attachments, “Answers to Questions” and “Report Concerning the Case Establishments Henri Benedictus versus Henry Schutte”; Louis Camarra, telephone interview with author, 7 Jan. 1988.

70 See attachments to Pedro Van Halme to Herbert Stanton, 16 Oct. 1945. For a case in which professionalism and loyalty to the firm led to more complete collaboration, see Hayes, Industry and Ideology, especially 380–83.

71 Wilkins, Maturing of Multinational Enterprise, 245.