. NMT06-T0227
Volume VI · Page 227
| B. Affidavit of Defendant Steinbrinck | |
| TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NI-3508 PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 770 |
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| AFFIDAVIT OF
DEFENDANT STEINBRINCK, 28 JANUARY 1947, CONCERNING POLITICAL CONNECTIONS OF THE FLICK GROUP, AND ARRANGEMENTS CONCERNING CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL PARTIES ¹ |
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| I, Otto Steinbrinck, after
having been duly informed that I make myself liable to punishment if I make
false statements, hereby declare on oath, voluntarily and free from any
compulsion, the following: Connections with the political parties and their financial support. — Previous to the assumption of power [of Hitler] the Flick group had no permanent political connections. In cases where it had to guard its various interests, which extended over Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia, in relation to the parliaments and the public, it had to rely on incidental coordination. Flick and I were averse to any active party policy. As far as I know, he sympathized with the German People's Party. I myself did not belong to any party, and I never was a member of any political organization, union, or club until 1933, except in the years 1920 to 1922 when I belonged to the National Club. I usually voted for the German Nationalist People's Party [Deutschnationale]. Therefore, if the need arose, it was necessary to contact right wing parties, for instance through Voegler-Boehringer, or center parties perhaps through Freiherr von Richthofen, while scanty contacts were established with the left wing parties with the help of men from the press. During the critical years of 1931-32 it was more than ever to our advantage to stop or intercept in good time unfriendly remarks in the press or attacks on the part of local authorities. It was for this purpose that the "Press Office" — Dr. Sholz-Braatz — which had been set up in collaboration with the Wolff group² was extended in order to establish contact with the more radical papers and the left wing parties; and furthermore a special man was appointed to watch all happenings which might concern us in political unions and organizations, such as Stahlhelm, Jungdeutscher Orden, Eiserne Front, and the SA. Our first connections with the NSDAP were brought about by the press (Ley, Graf Reischach, Funk). In the |
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¹ Testimony by defendant Steinbrinck concerning various political relationships is reproduced below in section F.
² The so-called Wolff group was composed of industrial commercial persons, the most important of whom was Otto Wolff.. Otto Wolff should not be confused with Karl Wolff, chief of Reich Leader SS Himmler's personal staff, whose name frequently came up during the Flick trial and who appeared as a prosecution witness (Tr. pp. 10023-10033).
955487 — 52 — 17
