. NMT06-T0301
Volume VI · Page 301
| or the Keppler Circle. You were a
member of that organization, were you not? A. Yes. Q. When did you first become associated with this group? A. As a result of my activity in the Aufsichtsrat of the North German Lloyd; as chairman, I had a close personal contact with the chairman of the Aufsichtsrat of the Hamburg-America Line, Emil Helfferich. This contact between Helfferich and myself became all the closer since both of us, who knew each other from East Asiatic connections, had the aim of eliminating the old competition between North German Lloyd and the Hamburg-America Line by closer personal collaboration, or, at the very least, of lessening it. Therefore, I had closer personal and friendly contact with Helfferich. Since matters of the North German Lloyd and the Hamburg-America Line, with regard to the Reich government, were in exactly the same position, both Helfferich and myself frequently had to negotiate in Berlin with the Reich government. As a result of these common sojourns in Berlin, Helfferich, about August of 1933, asked me to meet Wilhelm Keppler, the Fuehrer's adviser on economic questions, because he believed at the time that Keppler would become the future Reich Minister of Economics. Helfferich then invited Keppler and myself to a breakfast at the Kaiserhof. Fritz Kranefuss, assistant of Keppler, was also present at this breakfast. This was the first time I met Keppler, and the conversation was concerned mainly with making each other's acquaintance. Shortly afterward I received from the Fuehrer, from Adolf Hitler, an invitation to be guest of honor at the Reich Party rally in Nuernberg. As I did not intend to concern myself with Party or political matters at all, I did not accept this invitation and did not go to Nuernberg. Then from September 1933, during the time which followed, I met Keppler several times in Berlin, through Helfferich-perhaps two or three times. Then, in August 1934, I again received an invitation to the Reich Party rally at Nuernberg as guest of honor and since, in the meantime, both Helfferich and others who had already taken part in the Reich Party rally since 1933, told me that I had missed something in 1933 and that it was a most impressive ceremony at Nuernberg, and as my colleagues in the Aufsichtsrat of the North German Lloyd held the view that I ought to accept such invitations in view of the fact that the North German Lloyd, to a large extent, was financially dependent on the Reich government — I went to Nuernberg in September 1934. I did not take part in all the Party rally ceremonies. I was only there for the first 3 days. On the fourth day I left Nuernberg, and Helfferich and Kranefuss reproached me |
