WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER ... WarWolves rebuttal
by Antony C. Sutton
© Copyright 2000, by Antony C. Sutton
Dedicated to the memory of Floyd Paxton -- entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and American, who believed in and
worked for individual rights in a free society under the Constitution.
"The 1945 interrogation of I.G. Farben director von Schnitzler reads:
Q. What did you do when they told you that I.G. chemicals was [sic] being used to kill, to
murder people held in concentration camps?
A. I was horrified.
Q. Did you do anything about it?
A. I kept it for me [to myself] because it was too terrible .... I asked Muller-Cunradi is it
known to you and Ambros and other directors in Auschwitz that the gases and chemicals are
being used to murder people.
Q. What did he say?
A. Yes: it is known to all I.G. directors in Auschwitz."
***
"The critical point is that the German industrialists financing Hitler were predominantly
directors of cartels with American associations, ownership, participation, or some form of
subsidiary connection. The Hitler backers were not, by and large, firms of purely German
origin, or representative of German family business. Except for Thyssen and Kirdoff, in most
cases they were the German multi-national firms — i.e., I.G. Farben, A.E.G., DAPAG, etc.
These multi-nationals had been built up by American loans in the 1920s, and in the early
1930s had American directors and heavy American financial participation."
***
"The American electrical industry has conquered the world, and only a few of the remaining
opposing bastions have been able to withstand the onslaught."
***
Original transfer slip dated March 2, 1933 from German General Electric to Delbruck,
Shickler Bank in Berlin, with instructions to pay 60,000 RM to the "Nationale Treuhand"
fund (administered by Hjalmar Schacht and Rudolph Hess) used to elect Hitler in March
1933. Source: Nuremburg Military Tribunal, document No. 391-395.
Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, by Antony C. Sutton
Table of Contents
 Preface
 Introduction
 Unexplored Facets of Naziism
PART ONE: Wall Street Builds Nazi Industry
 Chapter One: Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler
o 1924: The Dawes Plan
o 1928: The Young Plan
o B.I.S. -- The Apex of Control
o Building the German Cartels
 Chapter Two: The Empire of I.G. Farben
o The Economic Power of I.G. Farben
o Polishing I.G. Farben's Image
o The American I.G. Farben
 Chapter Three: General Electric Funds Hitler
o General Electric in Weimar, Germany
o General Electric & The Financing of Hitler
o Technical Cooperation with Krupp
o A.E.G. Avoids the Bombs in World War II
 Chapter Four: Standard Oil Duels World War II
o Ethyl Lead for the Wehrmacht
o Standard Oil and Synthetic Rubber
o The Deutsche-Amerikanische Petroleum A.G.
 Chapter Five: I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War
o Baron Kurt von Schroder and I.T.T.
o Westrick, Texaco, and I.T.T.
o I.T.T. in Wartime Germany
PART TWO: Wall Street and Funds for Hitler
 Chapter Six: Henry Ford and the Nazis
o Henry Ford: Hitler's First Foreign Banker
o Henry Ford Receives a Nazi Medal
o Ford Assists the German War Effort
 Chapter Seven: Who Financed Adolf Hitler?
o Some Early Hitler Backers
o Fritz Thyssen and W.A. Harriman Company
o Financing Hitler in the March 1933 Elections
o The 1933 Political Contributions
 Chapter Eight: Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt
o Putzi's Role in the Reichstag Fire
o Roosevelt's New Deal and Hitler's New Order
 Chapter Nine: Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle
o The S.S. Circle of Friends
o I.G. Farben and the Keppler Circle
o Wall Street and the S.S. Circle
 Chapter Ten: The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"
o Who Was "Sidney Warburg"?
o Synopsis of the Suppressed "Warburg" Book
o James Paul Warburg's Affidavit
o Some Conclusions From the "Warburg" Story
 Chapter Eleven: Wall Street-Nazi Collaboration in World War II
o American I.G. in World War II
o Were American Industrialists and Financiers Guilty of War Crimes?
 Chapter Twelve: Conclusions
o The Pervasive Influence of International Bankers
o Is the United States Ruled by a Dictatorial Elite?
o The New York Elite as a Subversive Force
o The Slowly Emerging Revisionist Truth
 Appendix A: Program of the National Socialist German Workers Party
 Appendix B: Affidavit of Hjalmar Schacht
 Appendix C: Entries in the "National Trusteeship" Account
 Appendix D: Letter from the U.S. War Department to Ethyl Corporation
 Appendix E: Extract from Morgenthau Diary (Germany)
 Footnotes
 Bibliography
 Index
WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER
Makes Every Previous Book on World War II Obsolete
Finally, a distinguished scholar has penetrated the cloak of falsehood, deception, and duplicity that for more than
thirty years has protected one of the most incredible secrets of World War II: the support from key Wall Street
financiers and other international bankers in subsidizing Hitler's rise to power.
Professor Antony C. Sutton proves that World War II was not only well planned, it was also extremely profitable -
- for a select group of financial insiders. Carefully tracing this closely guarded secret through original
documents and eyewitness accounts, Sutton documents the roles played by J.P. Morgan, T.W. Lamont, the
Rockefeller interests, General Electric Company, Standard Oil, National City Bank, Chase and Manhattan banks,
Kuhn, Loeb and Company, and scores of other business elitists.
Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler shows how the bloodiest, most destructive war in history was financed and
promoted. It is sure to spark angry denials and heated debate.
ANTONY C. SUTTON was born in London in 1925 and educated at the universities of London, Gottingen, and
California. A citizen of the United States since 1962, he was a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War,
Revolution and Peace at Stanford, California from 1968 to 1973, where he produced the monumental threevolume
study, Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development.
In 1974, Professor Sutton completed National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union, a best-selling study of
Western, primarily American, technological and financial assistance to the U.S.S.R. Wall Street and the Rise of
Hitler is his fourth book exposing the role of American corporate insiders in financing international socialism.
The two other books in this series are Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution and Wall Street and FDR.
Professor Sutton has contributed articles to Human Events, The Review of the News, Triumph, Ordnance,
National Review, and many other journals. He is currently working on a two-part study of the Federal Reserve
System and the manipulation of the U.S. economic system. Married and the father of two daughters, he lives in
California.
PREFACE
This is the third and final volume of a trilogy describing the role of the American corporate socialists, otherwise
known as the Wall Street financial elite or the Eastern Liberal Establishment, in three significant twentiethcentury
historical events: the 1917 Lenin-Trotsky Revolution in Russia, the 1933 election of Franklin D.
Roosevelt in the United States, and the 1933 seizure of power by Adolf Hitler in Germany.
Each of these events introduced some variant of socialism into a major country — i.e., Bolshevik socialism in
Russia, New Deal socialism in the United States, and National socialism in Germany.
Contemporary academic histories, with perhaps the sole exception of Carroll Quigley's Tragedy And Hope, ignore
this evidence. On the other hand, it is understandable that universities and research organizations, dependent on
financial aid from foundations that are controlled by this same New York financial elite, would hardly want to
support and to publish research on these aspects of international politics. The bravest of trustees is unlikely to bite
the hand that feeds his organization.
It is also eminently clear from the evidence in this trilogy that "public-spirited businessmen" do not journey to
Washington as lobbyists and administrators in order to serve the United States. They are in Washington to serve
their own profit-maximizing interests. Their purpose is not to further a competitive, free-market economy, but to
manipulate a politicized regime, call it what you will, to their own advantage.
It is business manipulation of Hitler's accession to power in March 1933 that is the topic of Wall Street and the
Rise of Hitler.
ANTONY C. SUTTON
July, 1976
WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER
INTRODUCTION
Unexplored Facets of Naziism
Since the early 1920s unsubstantiated reports have circulated to the effect that not only German industrialists, but
also Wall Street financiers, had some role — possibly a substantial role — in the rise of Hitler and Naziism. This
book presents previously unpublished evidence, a great deal from files of the Nuremburg Military Tribunals, to
support this hypothesis. However, the full impact and suggestiveness of the evidence cannot be found from
reading this volume alone. Two previous books in this series, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution1 and Wall
Street and FDR,2 described the roles of the same firms, and often the same individuals and their fellow directors,
hard at work manipulating and assisting the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, backing Franklin D.
Roosevelt for President in the United States in 1933, as well as aiding the rise of Hitler in pre-war Germany. in
brief, this book is part of a more extensive study of the rise of modern socialism and the corporate socialists.
This politically active Wall Street group is more or less the same elitist circle known generally among
Conservatives as the "Liberal Establishment," by liberals (for instance G. William Domhoff) as "the ruling
class,"3 and by conspiratorial theorists Gary Allen4 and Dan Smoot5 as the "Insiders." But whatever we call this
self-perpetuating elitist group, it is apparently fundamentally significant in the determination of world affairs, at a
level far behind and above that of the elected politicians.
The influence and work of this same group in the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany is the topic of this book. This is
an area of historical research almost totally unexplored by the academic world. It is an historical minefield for the
unwary and the careless not aware of the intricacies of research procedures. The Soviets have long accused Wall
Street bankers of backing international fascism, but their own record of historical accuracy hardly lends their
accusations much credence in the West, and they do not of course criticize support of their own brand of fascism.
This author falls into a different camp. Previously accused of being overly critical of Sovietism and domestic
socialism, while ignoring Wall Street and the rise of Hitler, this book hopefully will redress an assumed and quite
inaccurate philosophical imbalance and emphasize the real point at issue: Whatever you call the collectivist
system — Soviet socialism, New Deal socialism, corporate socialism, or National socialism — it is the average
citizen, the guy in the street, that ultimately loses out to the boys running the operation at the top. Each system in
its own way is a system of plunder, an organizational device to get everyone living (or attempting to live) at the
expense of everyone else, while the elitist leaders, the rulers and the politicians, scalp the cream off the top.
The role of this American power elite in the rise of Hitler should also be viewed in conjunction with a littleknown
aspect of Hitlerism only now being explored: the mystical origins of Naziism, and its relations with the
Thule Society and with other conspiratorial groups. This author is no expert on occultism or conspiracy, but it is
obvious that the mystical origins, the neo-pagan historical roots of Naziism, the Bavarian Illuminati and the Thule
Society, are relatively unknown areas yet to be explored by technically competent researchers. Some research is
already recorded in French; probably the best introduction in English is a translation of Hitler et la Tradition
Cathare by Jean Michel Angebert.6
Angebert reveals the 1933 crusade of Schutzstaffel member Otto Rahn in search of the Holy Grail, which was
supposedly located in the Cathar stronghold in Southern France. The early Nazi hierarchy (Hitler and Himmler, as
well as Rudolph Hess and Rosenberg) was steeped in a neo-pagan theology, in part associated with the Thule
Society, whose ideals were close to those of the Bavarian Illuminati. This was a submerged driving force behind
Naziism, with a powerful mystical hold over the hard-core S.S. faithful. Our contemporary establishment
historians barely mention, let alone explore, these occult origins; consequently, they miss an element equally as
important as the financial origins of National Socialism.
In 1950 James Stewart Martin published a very readable book, All Honorable Men7 describing his experiences as
Chief of the Economic Warfare Section of the Department of Justice investigating the structure of Nazi industry.
Martin asserts that American and British businessmen got themselves appointed to key positions in this post-war
investigation to divert, stifle and muffle investigation of Nazi industrialists and so keep hidden their own
involvement. One British officer was sentenced by court martial to two years in jail for protecting a Nazi, and
several American officials were removed from their positions. Why would American and British businessmen
want to protect Nazi businessmen? In public they argued that these were merely German businessmen who had
nothing to do with the Nazi regime and were innocent of complicity in Nazi conspiracies. Martin does not explore
this explanation in depth, but he is obviously unhappy and skeptical about it. The evidence suggests there was a
concerted effort not only to protect Nazi businessmen, but also to protect the collaborating elements from
American and British business.
The German businessmen could have disclosed a lot of uncomfortable facts: In return for protection, they told
very little. It is undoubtedly not coincidental that the Hitler industrialists on trial at Nuremburg received less than
a slap on the wrist. We raise the question of whether the Nuremburg trials should not have been held in
Washington — with a few prominent U.S. businessmen as well as Nazi businessmen in the dock!
Two extracts from contemporary sources will introduce and suggest the theme to be expanded. The first extract is
from Roosevelt's own files. The U.S. Ambassador in Germany, William Dodd, wrote FDR from Berlin on
October 19, 1936 (three years after Hitler came to power), concerning American industrialists and their aid to the
Nazis:
Much as I believe in peace as our best policy, I cannot avoid the fears which Wilson emphasized more than once
in conversations with me, August 15, 1915 and later: the breakdown of democracy in all Europe will be a disaster
to the people. But what can you do? At the present moment more than a hundred American corporations have
subsidiaries here or cooperative understandings. The DuPonts have three allies in Germany that are aiding in the
armament business. Their chief ally is the I. G. Farben Company, a part of the Government which gives 200,000
marks a year to one propaganda organization operating on American opinion. Standard Oil Company (New York
sub-company) sent $2,000,000 here in December 1933 and has made $500,000 a year helping Germans make
Ersatz gas for war purposes; but Standard Oil cannot take any of its earnings out of the country except in goods.
They do little of this, report their earnings at home, but do not explain the facts. The International Harvester
Company president told me their business here rose 33% a year (arms manufacture, I believe), but they could
take nothing out. Even our airplanes people have secret arrangement with Krupps. General Motor Company and
Ford do enormous businesses/sic] here through their subsidiaries and take no profits out. I mention these facts
because they complicate things and add to war dangers.8
Second, a quote from the diary of the same U.S. Ambassador in Germany. The reader should bear in mind that a
representative of the cited Vacuum Oil Company — as well as representatives of other Nazi, supporting American
firms — was appointed to the post-war Control Commission to de-Nazify the Nazis:
January 25. Thursday. Our Commercial Attache brought Dr. Engelbrecht, chairman of the Vacuum Oil Company
in Hamburg, to see me. Engelbrecht repeated what he had said a year ago: "The Standard Oil Company of New
York, the parent company of the Vacuum, has spent 10,000,000 marks in Germany trying to find oil resources and
building a great refinery near the Hamburg harbor." Engelbrecht is still boring wells and finding a good deal of
crude oil in the Hanover region, but he had no hope of great deposits. He hopes Dr. Schacht will subsidize his
company as he does some German companies that have found no crude oil. The Vacuum spends all its earnings
here, employs 1,000 men and never sends any of its money home. I could give him no encouragement.9
And further:
These men were hardly out of the building before the lawyer came in again to report his difficulties. I could not
do anything. I asked him, however: Why did the Standard Oil Company of New York send $1,000,000 over here in
December, 1933, to aid the Germans in making gasoline from soft coal for war emergencies? Why do the
International Harvester people continue to manufacture in Germany when their company gets nothing out of the
country and when it has failed to collect its war losses? He saw my point and agreed that it looked foolish and
that it only means greater losses if another war breaks loose.10
The alliance between Nazi political power and American "Big Business" may well have looked foolish to
Ambassador Dodd and the American attorney he questioned. In practice, of course, "Big Business" is anything
but foolish when it comes to promoting its own self-interest. Investment in Nazi Germany (along with similar
investments in the Soviet Union) was a reflection of higher policies, with much more than immediate profit at
stake, even though profits could not be repatriated. To trace these "higher policies" one has to penetrate the
financial control of multinational corporations, because those who control the flow of finance ultimately control
the day-to-day policies.
Carroll Quigley11 has shown that the apex of this international financial control system before World War II was
the Bank for International Settlements, with representatives from the international banking firms of Europe and
the United States, in an arrangement that continued throughout World War II. During the Nazi period, Germany's
representative at the Bank for International Settlements was Hitler's financial genius and president of the
Reichsbank, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht.
Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht
Wall Street involvement with Hitler's Germany highlights two Germans with Wall Street connections — Hjalmar
Schacht and "Putzi" Hanfstaengl. The latter was a friend of Hitler and Roosevelt who played a suspiciously
prominent role in the incident that brought Hitler to the peak of dictatorial power — the Reichstag fire of 1933.12
The early history of Hjalmar Schacht, and in particular his role in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution
of 1917, was described in my earlier book, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution. The elder Schacht had
worked at the Berlin office of the Equitable Trust Company of New York in the early twentieth century. Hjalmar
was born in Germany rather than New York only by the accident of his mother's illness, which required the family
to return to Germany. Brother William Schacht was an American-born citizen. To record his American origins,
Hjalmar's middle names were designated "Horace Greeley" after the well-know Democrat politician.
Consequently, Hjalmar spoke fluent English and the post-war interrogation of Schacht in Project Dustbin was
conducted in both German and English. The point to be made is that the Schacht family had its origins in New
York, worked for the prominent Wall Street financial house of Equitable Trust (which was controlled by the
Morgan firm), and throughout his life Hjalmar retained these Wall Street connections.13 Newspapers and
contemporary sources record repeated visits with Owen Young of General Electric; Farish, chairman of Standard
Oil of New Jersey; and their banking counterparts. In brief, Schacht was a member of the international financial
elite that wields its power behind the scenes through the political apparatus of a nation. He is a key link between
the Wall Street elite and Hitler's inner circle.
This book is divided into two major parts. Part One records the buildup of German cartels through the Dawes and
Young Plans in the 1920s. These cartels were the major supporters of Hitler and Naziism and were directly
responsible for bringing the Nazis to power in 1933. The roles of American I. G. Farben, General Electric,
Standard Oil of New Jersey, Ford, and other U.S. firms is outlined. Part Two presents the known documentary
evidence on the financing of Hitler, complete with photographic reproduction of the bank transfer slips used to
transfer funds from Farben, General Electric, and other firms to Hitler, through Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht.
Footnotes:
1(New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1974)
2(New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1975)
3The Higher Circles: The Governing Class in America, (New York: Vintage, 1970)
4None Dare Call It Conspiracy, (Rossmoor: Concord Press, 1971). For another view based on "inside"
documents, see Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966)
5The Invisible Government, (Boston: Western Islands, 1962)
6Published in English as The Occult and the Third Reich, (The mystical origins of Naziism and the search for the
Holy Grail), (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1974). See also Reginald H. Phelps, " 'Before Hitler Came:'
Thule Society and Germanen Orden" in the Journal of Modern History, September 1968, No. 3.
7(Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1950)
8Edgar B. Nixon, ed., Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs, Volume III: September 1935-January 1937,
(Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1969), p. 456.
9Edited by William E. Dodd Jr. and Martha Dodd, Ambassador Dodd's Diary, 1933-1938, (New York: Harcourt
Brace and Company, 1941), p. 303.
10Ibid, p. 358.
11Quigley, op. cit.
12For more information about "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, see Chapter Nine.
13See Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, op. cit., for Sehacht's relations with Soviets and Wall
Street, and his directorship of a Soviet bank.
WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER
INTRODUCTION
Unexplored Facets of Naziism
Since the early 1920s unsubstantiated reports have circulated to the effect that not only German industrialists, but
also Wall Street financiers, had some role — possibly a substantial role — in the rise of Hitler and Naziism. This
book presents previously unpublished evidence, a great deal from files of the Nuremburg Military Tribunals, to
support this hypothesis. However, the full impact and suggestiveness of the evidence cannot be found from
reading this volume alone. Two previous books in this series, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution1 and Wall
Street and FDR,2 described the roles of the same firms, and often the same individuals and their fellow directors,
hard at work manipulating and assisting the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, backing Franklin D.
Roosevelt for President in the United States in 1933, as well as aiding the rise of Hitler in pre-war Germany. in
brief, this book is part of a more extensive study of the rise of modern socialism and the corporate socialists.
This politically active Wall Street group is more or less the same elitist circle known generally among
Conservatives as the "Liberal Establishment," by liberals (for instance G. William Domhoff) as "the ruling
class,"3 and by conspiratorial theorists Gary Allen4 and Dan Smoot5 as the "Insiders." But whatever we call this
self-perpetuating elitist group, it is apparently fundamentally significant in the determination of world affairs, at a
level far behind and above that of the elected politicians.
The influence and work of this same group in the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany is the topic of this book. This is
an area of historical research almost totally unexplored by the academic world. It is an historical minefield for the
unwary and the careless not aware of the intricacies of research procedures. The Soviets have long accused Wall
Street bankers of backing international fascism, but their own record of historical accuracy hardly lends their
accusations much credence in the West, and they do not of course criticize support of their own brand of fascism.
This author falls into a different camp. Previously accused of being overly critical of Sovietism and domestic
socialism, while ignoring Wall Street and the rise of Hitler, this book hopefully will redress an assumed and quite
inaccurate philosophical imbalance and emphasize the real point at issue: Whatever you call the collectivist
system — Soviet socialism, New Deal socialism, corporate socialism, or National socialism — it is the average
citizen, the guy in the street, that ultimately loses out to the boys running the operation at the top. Each system in
its own way is a system of plunder, an organizational device to get everyone living (or attempting to live) at the
expense of everyone else, while the elitist leaders, the rulers and the politicians, scalp the cream off the top.
The role of this American power elite in the rise of Hitler should also be viewed in conjunction with a littleknown
aspect of Hitlerism only now being explored: the mystical origins of Naziism, and its relations with the
Thule Society and with other conspiratorial groups. This author is no expert on occultism or conspiracy, but it is
obvious that the mystical origins, the neo-pagan historical roots of Naziism, the Bavarian Illuminati and the Thule
Society, are relatively unknown areas yet to be explored by technically competent researchers. Some research is
already recorded in French; probably the best introduction in English is a translation of Hitler et la Tradition
Cathare by Jean Michel Angebert.6
Angebert reveals the 1933 crusade of Schutzstaffel member Otto Rahn in search of the Holy Grail, which was
supposedly located in the Cathar stronghold in Southern France. The early Nazi hierarchy (Hitler and Himmler, as
well as Rudolph Hess and Rosenberg) was steeped in a neo-pagan theology, in part associated with the Thule
Society, whose ideals were close to those of the Bavarian Illuminati. This was a submerged driving force behind
Naziism, with a powerful mystical hold over the hard-core S.S. faithful. Our contemporary establishment
historians barely mention, let alone explore, these occult origins; consequently, they miss an element equally as
important as the financial origins of National Socialism.
In 1950 James Stewart Martin published a very readable book, All Honorable Men7 describing his experiences as
Chief of the Economic Warfare Section of the Department of Justice investigating the structure of Nazi industry.
Martin asserts that American and British businessmen got themselves appointed to key positions in this post-war
investigation to divert, stifle and muffle investigation of Nazi industrialists and so keep hidden their own
involvement. One British officer was sentenced by court martial to two years in jail for protecting a Nazi, and
several American officials were removed from their positions. Why would American and British businessmen
want to protect Nazi businessmen? In public they argued that these were merely German businessmen who had
nothing to do with the Nazi regime and were innocent of complicity in Nazi conspiracies. Martin does not explore
this explanation in depth, but he is obviously unhappy and skeptical about it. The evidence suggests there was a
concerted effort not only to protect Nazi businessmen, but also to protect the collaborating elements from
American and British business.
The German businessmen could have disclosed a lot of uncomfortable facts: In return for protection, they told
very little. It is undoubtedly not coincidental that the Hitler industrialists on trial at Nuremburg received less than
a slap on the wrist. We raise the question of whether the Nuremburg trials should not have been held in
Washington — with a few prominent U.S. businessmen as well as Nazi businessmen in the dock!
Two extracts from contemporary sources will introduce and suggest the theme to be expanded. The first extract is
from Roosevelt's own files. The U.S. Ambassador in Germany, William Dodd, wrote FDR from Berlin on
October 19, 1936 (three years after Hitler came to power), concerning American industrialists and their aid to the
Nazis:
Much as I believe in peace as our best policy, I cannot avoid the fears which Wilson emphasized more than once
in conversations with me, August 15, 1915 and later: the breakdown of democracy in all Europe will be a disaster
to the people. But what can you do? At the present moment more than a hundred American corporations have
subsidiaries here or cooperative understandings. The DuPonts have three allies in Germany that are aiding in the
armament business. Their chief ally is the I. G. Farben Company, a part of the Government which gives 200,000
marks a year to one propaganda organization operating on American opinion. Standard Oil Company (New York
sub-company) sent $2,000,000 here in December 1933 and has made $500,000 a year helping Germans make
Ersatz gas for war purposes; but Standard Oil cannot take any of its earnings out of the country except in goods.
They do little of this, report their earnings at home, but do not explain the facts. The International Harvester
Company president told me their business here rose 33% a year (arms manufacture, I believe), but they could
take nothing out. Even our airplanes people have secret arrangement with Krupps. General Motor Company and
Ford do enormous businesses/sic] here through their subsidiaries and take no profits out. I mention these facts
because they complicate things and add to war dangers.8
Second, a quote from the diary of the same U.S. Ambassador in Germany. The reader should bear in mind that a
representative of the cited Vacuum Oil Company — as well as representatives of other Nazi, supporting American
firms — was appointed to the post-war Control Commission to de-Nazify the Nazis:
January 25. Thursday. Our Commercial Attache brought Dr. Engelbrecht, chairman of the Vacuum Oil Company
in Hamburg, to see me. Engelbrecht repeated what he had said a year ago: "The Standard Oil Company of New
York, the parent company of the Vacuum, has spent 10,000,000 marks in Germany trying to find oil resources and
building a great refinery near the Hamburg harbor." Engelbrecht is still boring wells and finding a good deal of
crude oil in the Hanover region, but he had no hope of great deposits. He hopes Dr. Schacht will subsidize his
company as he does some German companies that have found no crude oil. The Vacuum spends all its earnings
here, employs 1,000 men and never sends any of its money home. I could give him no encouragement.9
And further:
These men were hardly out of the building before the lawyer came in again to report his difficulties. I could not
do anything. I asked him, however: Why did the Standard Oil Company of New York send $1,000,000 over here in
December, 1933, to aid the Germans in making gasoline from soft coal for war emergencies? Why do the
International Harvester people continue to manufacture in Germany when their company gets nothing out of the
country and when it has failed to collect its war losses? He saw my point and agreed that it looked foolish and
that it only means greater losses if another war breaks loose.10
The alliance between Nazi political power and American "Big Business" may well have looked foolish to
Ambassador Dodd and the American attorney he questioned. In practice, of course, "Big Business" is anything
but foolish when it comes to promoting its own self-interest. Investment in Nazi Germany (along with similar
investments in the Soviet Union) was a reflection of higher policies, with much more than immediate profit at
stake, even though profits could not be repatriated. To trace these "higher policies" one has to penetrate the
financial control of multinational corporations, because those who control the flow of finance ultimately control
the day-to-day policies.
Carroll Quigley11 has shown that the apex of this international financial control system before World War II was
the Bank for International Settlements, with representatives from the international banking firms of Europe and
the United States, in an arrangement that continued throughout World War II. During the Nazi period, Germany's
representative at the Bank for International Settlements was Hitler's financial genius and president of the
Reichsbank, Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht.
Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht
Wall Street involvement with Hitler's Germany highlights two Germans with Wall Street connections — Hjalmar
Schacht and "Putzi" Hanfstaengl. The latter was a friend of Hitler and Roosevelt who played a suspiciously
prominent role in the incident that brought Hitler to the peak of dictatorial power — the Reichstag fire of 1933.12
The early history of Hjalmar Schacht, and in particular his role in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution
of 1917, was described in my earlier book, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution. The elder Schacht had
worked at the Berlin office of the Equitable Trust Company of New York in the early twentieth century. Hjalmar
was born in Germany rather than New York only by the accident of his mother's illness, which required the family
to return to Germany. Brother William Schacht was an American-born citizen. To record his American origins,
Hjalmar's middle names were designated "Horace Greeley" after the well-know Democrat politician.
Consequently, Hjalmar spoke fluent English and the post-war interrogation of Schacht in Project Dustbin was
conducted in both German and English. The point to be made is that the Schacht family had its origins in New
York, worked for the prominent Wall Street financial house of Equitable Trust (which was controlled by the
Morgan firm), and throughout his life Hjalmar retained these Wall Street connections.13 Newspapers and
contemporary sources record repeated visits with Owen Young of General Electric; Farish, chairman of Standard
Oil of New Jersey; and their banking counterparts. In brief, Schacht was a member of the international financial
elite that wields its power behind the scenes through the political apparatus of a nation. He is a key link between
the Wall Street elite and Hitler's inner circle.
This book is divided into two major parts. Part One records the buildup of German cartels through the Dawes and
Young Plans in the 1920s. These cartels were the major supporters of Hitler and Naziism and were directly
responsible for bringing the Nazis to power in 1933. The roles of American I. G. Farben, General Electric,
Standard Oil of New Jersey, Ford, and other U.S. firms is outlined. Part Two presents the known documentary
evidence on the financing of Hitler, complete with photographic reproduction of the bank transfer slips used to
transfer funds from Farben, General Electric, and other firms to Hitler, through Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht.
Footnotes:
1(New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1974)
2(New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1975)
3The Higher Circles: The Governing Class in America, (New York: Vintage, 1970)
4None Dare Call It Conspiracy, (Rossmoor: Concord Press, 1971). For another view based on "inside"
documents, see Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966)
5The Invisible Government, (Boston: Western Islands, 1962)
6Published in English as The Occult and the Third Reich, (The mystical origins of Naziism and the search for the
Holy Grail), (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1974). See also Reginald H. Phelps, " 'Before Hitler Came:'
Thule Society and Germanen Orden" in the Journal of Modern History, September 1968, No. 3.
7(Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1950)
8Edgar B. Nixon, ed., Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs, Volume III: September 1935-January 1937,
(Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1969), p. 456.
9Edited by William E. Dodd Jr. and Martha Dodd, Ambassador Dodd's Diary, 1933-1938, (New York: Harcourt
Brace and Company, 1941), p. 303.
10Ibid, p. 358.
11Quigley, op. cit.
12For more information about "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, see Chapter Nine.
13See Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, op. cit., for Sehacht's relations with Soviets and Wall
Street, and his directorship of a Soviet b