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Volume VI · Page 156
| honor, as I had, to discuss this cry of
distress with the late Cardinal during the time of the decay of German legal
life, will consider it a legacy to help realize it in a sorely tried
Fatherland. In submitting evidence the necessity for clarity will lead me to discuss definitions, to examine the title and official position of my client, which on first sight may lead to suppositions as to a sphere of responsibility which, however, cannot be brought into accordance with the facts. In this connection it is to be mentioned in advance that it is impossible to deal with every one of the numerous assertions of the prosecution in its opening statement, which could easily be refuted. However, as far as the judicial decision of our case can be concerned by these assertions, I shall comment upon them on the basis of the documents submitted by the prosecution, as far as they concern my client. But it does not appear to me to be essential to correct the arguments of the prosecution which, for instance, say that Konrad Kaletsch owned enormous resources, natural man-made and which made him an enormously wealthy man. My client was neither owner of the Flick Konzern, nor did he exploit resources created by the hand of man, and he did not become a tremendously wealthy man either. He did not hold any shares of the Konzern or the Konzern companies, he was not personally interested in the net profit, he was an employee who had his fixed salary which definitely did not exceed the customary remuneration for men in his position in industry. In my argumentation, therefore, I shall show first of all the career and the professional development of my client, which, at the same time, will give me the possibility of indicating the development and reorganization of the Flick Konzern wherever necessary. It will be proved that since that time, namely since the year 1925, until the very end, Konrad Kaletsch was always engaged in one sphere of tasks only, namely finance, balances, and taxes, in a clearly perceptible and logical line. It is correct when the prosecution in its opening statement says "The defendant Kaletsch occupied himself with the financial problems of the Flick enterprises and, in this field, his authority extended to all companies in the Konzern." However, it will be necessary for me to examine the nature of the authoritative powers; and at the same time I shall discuss his positions as Plenipotentiary General of the Flick Kommanditgesellschaft, as member of the Vorstand of the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke AG, and as Aufsichtsrat of the different companies. Only if one clearly exposes the duties and rights of the individual defendants, can one free one's self from vague ideas which, at first sight, may be connected with so powerful-sounding a title as that of Plenipoten- […tiary] |
