Hugo Stinnes
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Hugo Stinnes (February 12, 1870 - April 10, 1924) was a German industrialist and politician born in Mülheim, in the Ruhr Valley, Germany. In 1890 he inherited his father's coal mining and other financial enterprises. At the age of 23 Stinnes invested heavily in the steel industry, and as a result of World War I and a strategy of vertical integration his companies flourished.
Stinnes, a prominent capitalist, and conservative became a founding member of the DVP. Following World War I, he was elected to parliament in Berlin. He acted as spokesman for German industry towards trade-unions and laid the foundation of today's system of cooperation between the unions and employers in Germany, for example, the introduction of the 8-hour work day.
By the early 1920s Stinnes, not only owned his own shipping line, but had become a newspaper magnate, and thus he used his influence in the press used to attack the Versailles Treaty. Stinnes leveraged his access to hard foreign currency during the period of German hyper-inflation by borrowing vast sums in Reichmarks, and repaying the loans with nearly worthless currency later. This earned him the title of "Inflationskönig" (Inflation King). In 1923 the American magazine Time called him "The New Emperor of Germany" to describe his far-reaching political influence and unimaginable wealth.
Stinnes died in Berlin. Although his financial empire held some 4500 companies and 3000 manufacturing plants, it collapsed within a year of his death.
External links
- The History of Stinnes AG (http://www.stinnes.de/english/stinnes/theCompany/history.html)de:Hugo Stinnes