-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- an excerpt from: Treason's Peace Howard Watson Armbruster©1947 A Crossroads Press Book Beechurst Press New York 438 pps. -- First/Only Edition -- Out-of Print --[5]-- CHAPTER V Farben's Royal Family LIKE M0ST great industrial corporations, I. G. Farben has a royal family–the original members of which created its pattern and formed its corporate policy. Leading members of the Farben royalty are Dr. Hermann Schmitz, perhaps the most dangerous of Germany's living war criminals, and the late Doctors Karl Duisberg and Karl Bosch. These three gentlemen, their relatives, and their associates appear from time to time in other chapters of this story. But the plan to plant their offspring in our midst plays so important a part in the Farben pattern that the individual profiles gathered here may appear of value. Dr. Hermann Schmitz, by sheer brain power and complete ruthlessness, came up the hard way from his boyhood commercial school in the iron city of Essen and a bank clerk's training. Then World War I shoved him into the Dye Trust Badische nitrogen affairs as a staff member of the Kaiser's war machine. Entering the Badische management in 1919 Dr. Schmitz was an Executive Committee Managing Director of Farben from its beginning in 1926—became chairman in 1938, and also was Farben's director on the board of Fritz Thyssen's Vereinigte Stahlwerke from the time the Steel Trust was tied in with Farben in 1926. Active in politics from the early days of the Weimar Republic, Schmitz made personal contributions to the Nazis, was a member of Hitler's puppet Reichstag, and War Economy Chief before and during World War II. This elder statesman of the Schmitz family did not emigrate to America to become a citizen but be commuted regularly during the years when, as shown elsewhere, he personally directed Farben's American subsidiaries and consummated many of Farben's most important partnerships and illegal tie-ups in this country. He enjoyed intimate friendships with top men in American industry and finance. Dr. Schmitz created the Swiss I. G. Chemie as a hideout for Farben's false fronts abroad and installed his brother-in-law, Albert Gadow, as its resident manager, with instructions to acquire Swiss citizenship. Dr. Schmitz was also a Director of the great Deutsche Reichsbank and of the Bank of International Settlements, that financial catch-all for cartel members at war, with its headquarters in Switzerland where Schmitz throughout the war was able to maintain direct contact with its American president, Thomas H. McKittrick, and with various cartel associates, to put out peace feelers after his criminal gang finally decided that Farben should call for an intermission before another war. In his various capacities in finance, industry and government, corruptionist in each, and as chairman of the American I. G., the Swiss I. G., and the German I. G., Schmitz appears as a triple threat one of the most vicious and dangerous of Germany's war criminals. Frequently addressed as Geheimrat (Privy-Councillor), the doctor was also entitled to be called Justizrat as a doctor of laws (honoris causa). On his many visits to this country Dr. Schmitz personally took an active part in, directing Farben's American -subsidiaries-as a result of which activities he won top honors in having been indicted on three separate occasions as Farben leader and organizer or head of General Aniline. The Justizrat was also named as coconspirator in two other criminal cases. His three indictments remain untried as this is written, also one of those in which he was called a co-conspirator, and the other was abandoned by a complacent Attorney General. In July 1945, while being examined at Frankfurt by the United States Army, Schmitz admitted that he had tried to persuade Hitler to use a new and very deadly Farben war gas on the Allied Armies. Then, a few weeks later, the good doctor publicly proclaimed his ambition to become Germany's representative on the Security Council of the United Nations. This from the man who is credited with having developed the plan of making I. G. Farben a vast international espionage machine cloaked under cover of industrial and commercial activities-and the most important part of this vicious design was the Schmitz proposal that trustworthy members of the Farben families. emigrate to other countries, especially to the United States, to serve the Fatherland's Farben in peace and in war. Dr. Karl Duisberg, who died in 1935, was known, and deservedly, as the father of German industrial chemistry. Holding high office in the first World War, it was he, as founder of the American Bayer Company, who sent Hugo Schweitzer to this country to become Bayer's chief chemist in public, and Germany's espionageand pay-off man in private. Dr. Duisberg was also leader of the I. G. Dyes plan of postwar strategy, and personally negotiated the first of its new tie-ups with Sterling by which control over American Bayer was reasserted. His secretary, one H. Gattineau, like his son-in-law, Max Ilgner, is said to have been a main Farben connecting link with the Hitler Government after the Nazis came to full power in 1933. Duisberg probably more than any of his colleagues epitomizes the vicious union of applied science and industrial productive brains-which in itself is the core of Farben's potential for world conquest. A young relative of Karl Duisberg (through his wife, who was Johanna Seebohm) appears in the notorious Hermann C. A. Seebohm, who had come to America before World War I and gotten kicked out. He was a director and Secretary of the American Bayer Company, involved in the World War I espionage and crooked business of this Dye Trust false front by which sabotage in North and South America was financed and the company was milked of its assets. So Mr. Seebohm. was arrested and interned in 1918, later to be shipped back where be came from, to turn up as a Managing Director of Farben, and after the rape of Austria, as chairman of one of the Farben subsidiaries in that unhappy country. Dr. Duisberg had two sons, Karl Ludwig and Walter H. He kept Karl at home to serve on the Farben boards, and Walter H. was sent overseas to join the Farben colony in America. Another Duisberg, of uncertain relationship, turned up in Frankfurt in 1945 after the American Army seized Farben's headquarters there, and was quoted in news dispatches as saying that "German industry can make a quick recovery after the war if the Allies will be so kind as to permit it so to do." Dr. Karl Bosch, winner of the Nobel Prize, with Fritz Haber, for invention of the first synthetic ammonia nitrogen process by which Badische made it possible for the Kaiser to launch his war; and inventor of war gases introduced by the Kaiser's armies, became the first chairman of Farben's board of managing directors. After the death of Duisberg, Dr. Bosch shifted to chairman of its supervising board until he died in 1940. Bosch, like Duisberg, sought only one thing-world conquest through perverting science. This criminal-of two world wars had a son, Dr. Karl Bosch, Jr., whom he trained with great care and affection to carry on for Farben. He also had a brother, Robert, of Bosch Magneto fame-who also appears elsewhere in this story and whose American subsidiary, like several of those of brother Karl, ba d the dubious distinction of being seized by the Alien Property Custodian, during both world wars. This criminal of two World Wars had a magnificent estate near Heidelberg, where be royally entertained his American partners on their frequent visits to Germany. In his gentler moments of relaxation when not planning treachery, aggressive war, or mass murder, Dr. Bosch enjoyed displaying his collections of crystal and of beetles and butterfies, said to be the best in Germany. Another royal family of Farben, from the earlier days of the I. G. Dyes cartel, was headed by two Frankfurt aristocrats and Junkers, Dr. Walther vom Rath and Dr. Wilhelm von Meister, who prior to the formation of Farben in 1926, had been controlling and interrelated figures in Farbwerke vorm. Meister Lucius & Bruning, the great Hoechst firm in which members of the Meister family, from its foundation, had played important parts. So they sent their sons to America. The senior vom Rath had a nephew, Georg von Schnitzler, who stayed at the royal court -to rise high in the Farben dynasty. Von Schnitzler was a brother-in-law of the famous, or notorious, General Fedor von Bock who led the Nazi armies to defeat in Russia, got back with a whole skin, to be shot down by the British near Hamburg as the war was ending in 1945. Georg von Schnitzler, as a managing director of Farben, became one of its most powerful rulers, he was a heavy financial contributor to Hitler's rise from the gutter, and in his handling of Farben's foreign tie-ups, camouflage and espionage, he appears as among a half dozen of the most dangerous of Germany's war criminals. In 1943 von Schnitzler, knowing the war was lost, established a residence in Madrid—a veritable castle in Spain—where he could keep and renew his close friendships and carry over alliances with leading American cartelists, to begin the repair of Farben's war-damaged foreign empire and preparations for World War 111. So in 1945 this Farben Junker was back in Germany for the finish, and became the most notable and possibly the most informative of the Farben family in giving up secrets and conclusions about Farben's war activities. Among the statements in his voluminous "true confessions" one ended with: "Thus I conclude that I. G. Farben is largely responsible for Hitler's policy." Georg von Schnitzler's daughter Lilo, celebrated as a beauty and an early friend of Adolf Hitler when the latter was emerging, was married to one Herbert Scholz, an erstwhile friend of the lamented Ernst Rohm before that degenerate pal of Hitler was bumped off by his ungrateful boss. So Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Scholz, as an effective team were shipped off to American to help along Farben's cause of world conquest. Not to a Farben hideout, but to Washington came Georg von Schnitzler's Lilo and her Albert; sinister beauty teamed with vicious brain, that historic combination for diplomatic intrigue. Mr. Scholz, as secretary to the German Ambassador, dominated his official master, while Lilo played her dazzling part among influential members of high society in the nation's capital. As she had charmed and helped to train to Farben's social graces the unspeakable Adolf, so were those charms displayed and used to beguile democracy's chosen rulers to do those things that Farben's royalty desired. Lilo and Albert then moved on to conquer Boston, Massachusetts, where that precious scion of Farben, officially the German Consul, carried on in secret as a No. I Gestapo pay-off man, until June 1941, when he was grabbed by the F.B.I., to be kicked out of the country with the rest of the official Nazi brood. The full story of what Lilo and her Albert did in Washington and in Boston in the period after the war had begun in Europe must remain untold, still concealed in official files-for some strange reason. So now we come to a few highlights in the activities of some of the younger members of the Farben dynasty-relatives who were sent over here, not as visitors but as permanent residents. Usually they became American citizens without delay, they married, established homes in suburban districts where social ties could readily be formed, and they made the right kind of professional and political contacts. As reputable, well-to-do business men these Teutonic termites added strength and respectability to Farben's new American fronts, and, in anticipation of the war that was to come, their cloak of citizenship was designed to prevent such unhappy incidents of the past as internment and property seizure. They composed the field staff of Farben's industrial pincers in America; they received and carried out orders from headquarters, and directed the accumulation of funds and information, much of which somehow found its way back to Germany. Among the Farben delegates to this country were William H. vom Rath and F. Wil helm von Meister. Here they held important positions in Farben's American subsidiary, General Aniline & Film Corporation. William H. vom. Rath, son of Walther, and cousin of Georg von Schnitzler, was also a cousin of Ernst vom. Rath, Secretary of the Germany Embassy in Paris, who was assassinated in 1938 by the young Pole, Herschel Grynszpan. During World War I, Wilhelm was involved in the direction of the German Secret Service at Geneva, Switzerland. Wilhelm came to the United States in the early 20s and after a few years was naturalized as William H. vom Rath. The "Wilhelm" was no more. In 1929, he received his first real Farben responsibility, he was elected Secretary and made a director of the newly organized American I. G. Chemical Corp. Young vom Rath bought a fine home at Glen Cove, Long Island, and made many influential friends. Some of his activities in Farben's interest will be mentioned later on in this story. It is sufficient here to relate that in December 1941, William H. vom Rath, was indicted for conspiracy to violate the anti-trust-laws, along with other Farben agents and corporate subsidiaries. As this is written the indictment has not been tried, nor is there apparently any prospect of its being tried. Until Germany threw up the sponge the official excuse Was given that to try Mr. vom Rath (and some of his royal pals) would interfere with our prosecution of the war. F. Wilhelm von Meister, son of Wilhelm, Sr., and also cousin of Georg von Schnitzler, came to this country to become vicepresident of Farben's photo paper subsidiary, Ozalid Corporation, when it was ostensibly owned by Chemnyco. In 1940, when Ozalid became a part of General Aniline, von Meister was made manager, where be remained until kicked out by the Treasury Department after being indicted in December 1941 along with vom Rath and other members of the royal family. American citizen von Meister is as yet among those sons and brothers of Farben accused of criminal acts who remain untried. Dietrich A. Schmitz, brother of the regal Hermann, did many odd jobs for Farben in this country and in Latin America, but two incidents stand out. One occurred when Dietrich, as president of American I. G. Chemical Corporation, brazenly and falsely denied under oath before the Securities and Exchange Commission that he had any knowledge of who was the beneficial owner of the controlling shares of that company. Nothing being done to him for this offense, he may have felt immune, but three years later was indicted in three separate (and still untried) conspiracy actions. Then in 1945 Dietrich was summoned before a Federal Grand jury and questioned without waiving immunity; as result of which a Federal judge, with consent and approval of United States Attorney General Francis Biddle promptly dismissed all three indictments against this brother of war criminal Hermann Schmitz. It is perhaps needless to say that efforts to induce the Department of justice to explain this chain of events have been unavailing. Neither has elucidation been forthcoming as to why the inidictments against Hermann Schmitz himself-which were not tried during the war because we couldn't catch him-have not now been tried; nor has this distinguished gentleman paid us a courtesy visit to plead not guilty and have the indictments dismissed. Geheimrat Hermann Schmitz also has two promising nephews, Max and Rudolph W. Ilgner; Rudolph was shipped off to America in the 1920's. Max, the more brilliant, remained with Uncle Hermann, married Karl Duisberg's daughter, and rose to high rank as a Managing Director and head of Farben's Central Finance Bureau, which polite name cloaked Mai's activities as chief of espionage, sabotage, and propaganda. In that capacity, Max was directly responsible for carrying out the financial details of Farbees cartel and patent agreements and for placing and using secret funds and secret agents in foreign countries. Max Ilgner has admitted that these activities were tremendous in scope and corrupt in character in the United States. Strongly attracted to the vicious doctrines of Nazism as offering the appropriate vehicle for Farben's pattern of world conquest, Max Ilgner was Farben's main representative in the inner councils of the Nazi party. Nephew Rudolph won the undying gratitude of his kinfolk, in Germany and in this country, by destroying by fire not long before Hitler invaded Poland certain secret files which a Grand jury had demanded. These were the files of Chemnyco, Inc., the New York firm through which Rudolph had been publicly arranging patent licenses, and secretly directing espionage, propaganda, and other subversive activities. Instead of being jailed and heavily fined for conspiracy and arson, Mr. Ilgner, on a change of plea to guilty, was let off with a thousand dollar fine and precisely no years in jail. Whereupon he left the country club pleasures and social contacts of Greenwich, for a rural chicken farm in Connecticut, where he is today. Among Rudolph's many propaganda jobs was running the German American Board of Trade, and his best known feat was the grand banquet he threw in New York in March 1939 to welcome Fritz Wiedemann, Hitler's old commanding officer, who after successfully conducting Herbert Hoover about Europe on an educational tour, had arrived in this country to take up his duties as a Farben gumshoe in the Consul General's office at San Francisco. Walter H. Duisberg, son of Karl, arrived in the promised land in 1927; settled first at Quogue, Long Island, and later in a fine home in Englewood, New Jersey; registered as a consultant on United States patents; and within the next decade engaged himself in multitudinous activities both here and in South America. He was a stockholder, director or executive of every one of Farben's important corporate hideouts in this country and several in Latin America as well. This son of America's vindictive enemy won honors approximating those of Hermann Schmitz in the various conspiracy indictments which broke out like a rash after the war began; Mr. Duisberg was named by various Grand juries in no less than five different criminal cases involving charges of restricting the production of nitrogen and ammonia, fertilizer materials, magnesium alloys, dyes, chemicals, and photo materials. Only the magnesium cases have ever come to issue in court, but Walter Duisberg had no cause to worry about any of them because, strangely enough, he was named merely as co-conspirator. (A co-conspirator designation in a criminal indictment is like a mild case of chickenpox—a little rash, but no possibility of serious consequences, provided the patient has competent doctors.) In such a favorable atmosphere it may not appear strange that Mr. Walter Duisberg should have decided to press his luck and try to regain possession of a large block of stock in the Farbenowned General Dyestuff Corporation, of which he was registered as the owner when the United States Government rudely seized it as enemy-owned after we entered the war. At any rate, Mr. Duisberg brazenly went into court with a complaint that the Alien Property Custodian had stolen his property, and would the judge please make the thief give it back to him. The Court, to its credit, threw out this complaint. Later, however, an appeal was filed on this decision and lost, so it appears that the Duisberg claim is no go; in which respect, as will be seen later, he has not been as fortunate as some of his pals. Brief pictures belong here of other men of Farben, not rulers nor kin of rulers, who also came inside our lines in the prewar invasion. Also of some who, although born in America, appeared to regard this great privilege as a grant of right to serve the German Dye Trust first and always. A Farben employe in South America who proved most useful in softening up that continent for the recent war was Kurt Wojahn, brother of Max Wojahn, manager of Sterling's Export Department. It was Kurt's duty to place Farben's patent-medicine advertising in those Latin American newspapers which published news and editorials friendly to the Nazi government. Max seems to have had similar duties with regard to Sterling's advertising and, as will be shown later, this brotherly relation was of considerable value in harmonizing the advertising policy of Sterling, with that of Farben. Another close relationship in Farben's American family was the Hutz father-and-son combination. Rudolph Hutz, the father, was head of General Aniline Works and vice-president and director of General Aniline & Film on that day in January 1942 when the Treasury Department requested him and a number of his colleagues to take their hats and go. His son, W. H. Hutz, was a member of Farben's New York patent law firm of Hutz & Joslin, until some time in 1942, when he also received his marching orders from the United States Government. The story of Rudolph Hutz goes back far into the history of the Big Six. Born in Germany he was employed as a chemist by the German Bayer Company at Elberfeld from 1902 to 1909. He was then transferred to the American Bayer Company as Boston manager, and was there when Bayer and the other Big Six houses got into a little jam for bribing boss dyers, salting dyes and faking brand names in 1913. Hutz remained with Bayer until 1918, when he had a misunderstanding with the United States Government about espionage, and was indicted and interned at Ellis Island. After the Armistice Rudolph was released and soon thereafter became an American citizen with the sanction of some federal court which was either grossly deceived or else had a strange concept of what kind of citizens this country has need of. Be that as it may, as a naturalized American, Mr. Hutz climbed high in the American front of Farben, his one other mishap of record being the mention of his name as a co-conspirator in one of those 1941 conspiracy indictments which are still on the stove-or rather in the icebox. Many others, not related to Farben's leaders but trained in the Farben pattern, came to America to enter Farben's subsidiaries. Hans Aichelin, a former Farben dyestuff expert came over in the late 20's, was put to work with General Aniline, and later became vice-president and director of General Aniline & Film. Mr. Aichelin, too, was among those indicted in December 1941 and was named again in a criminal complaint in 1942. Forced out of General Aniline's board, he was finally ousted as vice-president by the Treasury in January 1942. He, too, will never be tried. He died in 1944. Ernest Schwartz, himself a former official of Farben and one of its leading research men, transferred his domicile to this country and became a director and president of Agfa Ansco in 1934, later director and vice-president of American 1. G. when that company changed its name to General Aniline & Film. Mr. Schwartz, whose duties included experiments with photographic equipment for the United States Army and Navy, did not become naturalized until late in 1939, after the war started-but when he did so he wanted everyone to know that be was a changed man. "I am now an American citizen," he announced, "and have only sympathies with America." Two years later he, too, was indicted for conspiracy. And never tried. Leopold Eckler, another Farben-trained chemist, came to America, was naturalized, and took his place in the management of Agfa Ansco. There he stayed until ousted by the Treasury, in January 1942. J. Rudolph Worch was still another newcomer whose rose to be assistant vice-president of Agfa Ansco at Binghamton, N. Y., and at one time was president of the Chamber of Commerce of that city. He left Ansco at the request of the Treasury in March 1942. The plant manager of General Aniline Works at the former Bayer dye plant at Rensselaer, N. Y., was Harry W. Grimmel, who worked in a Farben dye plant prior to 1926, and was then transferred to its American operations. Another higher-up technician was William Henry Cotton, born in Russia, who was employed by the German Hoechst from 1905 to 1928, and then sent to General Dyestuff as chief chemist. Dr. William Hiemenz, a pharmaceutical chemist in I. C. Dyes, was sent to Rensselaer, N. Y., in the early 20s as Farben's director on the Winthrop board, and factory manager of the Winthrop Bayer manufacturing plant. The Treasury kicked him out of Winthrop in December 1941. Another pharmaceutical expert came to the United States from Farbenland in the early 30s, and wound up in an important position in the Winthrop plant. His name is Wolfgang Schnellbach and some of the things he took part in require special mention elsewhere in the story. However, it should be related here that something actually did happen to Mr. Schnellbach. Not having been naturalized, and appearing to be somewhat objectionable, he was interned at Ellis Island where, at last accounts, he was waiting for his family to join him through some sort of special dispensation. Dr. Bruno Puetzer was another Farben chemist who came to this country and became a Winthrop chemist. Winthrop also inherited one of the first World War technicians of the Metz Laboratories in the person of the Swedish-born A. E. Sherndal, who later became a Bayer-Winthrop expert at the Rensselaer, N. Y., plant. Alba Pharmaceutical, after it was organized in 1935, was assisted in its cooperative relations with Farben by the election of a German national, H. Vogel, as secretary, treasurer and director. Dr. Karl Hochswender came to the United States and served in Chemnyco as an expert on Farben patent licenses and the collection of royalties. In 1941, at a critical time for Farben, the doctor was twice indicted as president of Magnesium Development Corp., and denied knowing his master's voice with somewhat unhappy results, when Attorney-General Robert H. Jackson impounded Farben's bank account in 1941. There are many others who might be added to this dubious honor roll. Some are important and would be described except for the official hush-hush policy behind which, unhappily, so many of these imported Americans still remain hidden. One more sketch belongs here. In December 1941, shortly after Germany declared war on the United States, The New York Times published a statement by Ernest K. Halbach in which he denied that General Dyestuff Corp. was foreign owned. The Times, a few days earlier had referred to an action of the United States Treasury Department in freezing the assets of General Aniline & Film Corp. and of General Dyestuff "due to foreign ownership." Mr. Halbach, as president of General Dyestuff, thereupon wrote The Times that his company, "is a New York corporation; that all of its stock is owned by American citizens; and that all of its officers and directors are American citizens." "The ownership and management of General Dyestuff Corporation is exclusively in the hands of American citizens," continued Mr. Halbach, "therefore there cannot be any possible justification for your statement." Mr. Halbach, in his dissertation on American ownership was adhering strictly to the Farben pattern, and repeating the exact words used back in 1917 by Kuttroff, Pickhardt & Co., and the New York Badische, both of which had employed Mr. Halbach, and were predecessors of General Dyestuff. The occasion in 1917, as in 1941, was the declaration of war between Germany and the United States, and the imminence of the seizure of enemy-owned property in this country. In 1941 these protestations were of no avail. The Treasury Department disregarded them. The Department of justice indicted both General Dyestuff and Mr. Halbach for conspiracy, and six months later they both were again indicted and the new Alien Property Custodian seized General Dyestuff as a German- or Farben-owned concern. Now going back for a moment to the 1917 incident, a newly formed corporation called Kuttroff, Pickhardt & Co., of which Halbach was an important employe, had just become the ostensible owner of the assets of the New York Badische, the American branch of the largest of the Big Six, which it was claimed, went through voluntary liquidation. However, World War I had started a few months previously, the Trading with the Enemy Act had been passed, and the Alien Property Custodian was threatening to seize both Kuttroff, Pickhardt & Co., and Badische. "You can't do that to us," protested Mr. Halbach's employers. "All the officers, directors and stockholders of this company are citizens of the United States." That time the American-citizen stuff partially worked. The new Kuttroff, Pickhardt concern escaped but the custodian did seize about half a million dollars which was in a New York bank. The Custodian's investigation uncovered the fact that various records and account books had mysteriously disappeared and certain entries in those available appeared unexplainable. For example, in the early years of its existence all importations from the German house were entered on its books on a consignment basis. Then, the year before the war began, they appeared as purchases; yet during the war the bulk of its profits, amounting to more than $1,500,000 were transferred to Germany. When New York Badische secured German dyes from the two submarine cargoes in 1916, they were entered on its books as purchases. Later, when a profit of $400,000 was made on these dyes, the book entries were charged to a consignment, and the funds sent to the parent company. Finally, an agreement was turned up by the Custodian which showed that an option was outstanding by which Messrs. Kuttroff and Pickhardt were obligated to turn back their 'shares in the New York Badische at par value to the Big Six house on its demand. So it was evident that this company, like all the other Farben fronts, had a string tied to it—a German string to be pulled at the proper moment in Farben's perpetual "All-American Puppet Show." In 1919 we find the patriotic Mr. Halbach, in the interest of imported German dyes, canvassing for signatures to a petition which protested the efforts of the American Government to protect the infant domestic coal-tar dye industry then struggling to survive. When Halbach in 1941 was proclaiming the American ownership of General Dyestuff, successor to the Kuttroff, Pickhardt dye interests, he was referring to his own alleged majority control of its stock. This alleged Halbach stock control dated back to 1939 when the company transferred to his name shares formerly held by that other American patriot, Herman Metz. Metz became majority stockholder in General Dyestuff through his holdings as an organizer of the company, plus the shares he acquired when duPont turned over to him, as Farben's agent, the Grasselli interest in General Dyestuff. These many transfers of stock may appear complex and bewildering, but the pattern is plainly discernible—the objective always the same. The truth is that in 1941 Halbach held majority stock control of General Dyestuff, and with W. H. Duisberg, held title to nearly all of the shares. However, an option on all of the Halbach-Duisberg stock was held by Chemnyco, Inc. The latter's stock was owned nominally by American citizens, but these were also Farben agents, and Chemnyco was incorporated and functioned exclusively as a Farben agency. Kuttroff, Pickhardt & Co., as a name, disappeared from the scene in 1931 when its various Farben interests in the United States were segregated into new companies. This name had served its purpose long and well, the original members of the firm were gone and Farben was now entrenched in several brand-new American subsidiaries. However, William Paul Pickhardt, American-born son of one of the early partners, along with Halbach, continued to play an important part for Farben. Mr. Pickhardt during the next ten years held many offices in Farben subsidiaries, including chairman of the board of Synthetic Nitrogen Products, and of Agfa Ansco; president of Chemnyco; vice-president of General Aniline & Film; and director of American Magnesium; General Dyestuff; Ozalid Corp.; Jasco; and Plaskon Co. The latter was a manufacturer of waterproof glue and plastics, seldom recognized as a Farben subsidiary. William Paul Pickhardt was indicted on Sept. 1, 1939, along with Synthetic Nitrogen Products and others in the synthetic nitrogen-ammonia conspiracy. He died in January, 1941, while the indictment was still pending. Now let us go back for another moment—a long way back-to 1871 when Adolph Kuttroff and William Pickhardt, two young German nationals, organized a firm called William Pickhardt & Kuttroff to import coal-tar dyes and chemicals from the Fatherland. In 1906 this firm changed its name to Continental Color and Chemical Co. Then, in 1917, the good old American names of Kuttroff and Pickhardt again appeared on its letterheads. Ernest K. Halbach entered the employ of Pickhardt & Kuttroff in 1899 and from that day on, for more than half a century, this native-born American was to shuttle back and forth in the long razzle-dazzle of changes of name and concealment of ownership through which first Badische, and then Farben as the actual employers of Mr. Halbach, attempted to hide their identity. By 1920 Halbach had risen to be a director of Kuttroff, Pickhardt and was directly involved in the firm's efforts to bamboozle the State Department into turning over to it the importation of German dyes. In 1926, when Kuttroff, Pickhardt transferred its dye business to General Dyestuff, Mr. Halbach went along with the business. And in 1942 Mr. Halbach, living luxuriously in ultra-fashionable Short Hills, New Jersey, environment with a summer home at Nantucket, was presumably unhappy because be, an Americanborn citizen whose country was at war, had two criminal indictments chalked up against him which involved him with the enemy; also because the 4,725 shares of stock registered in his name or that of his wife and trustees, which carried alleged ownership control of General Dyestuff Corporation, were now locked up in the strongbox of the Alien Property Custodian. So, Mr. Halbach consulted counsel-and it will appear that he chose his legal advisers wisely, in that old and well-known Wall Street law firm which is still addressed as Sullivan & Cromwell (although its founders of those names have long since been gathered to their fathers). Ornamenting this law firm is that celebrated attorney, public spirited citizen, religious leader and adviser on affairs of state, John Foster Dulles. It was perhaps a coincidence that Mr. Halbach should have selected as his counsel the law firm of Mr. Dulles during the period when the latter, in addition to his many other commendable public activities, was the chief adviser of Republican Governor and candidate for President Thomas E. Dewey; was about to become adviser to our Secretaries of State on problems of war and peace; and was a member of the consulting committee established by the Alien Property Custodian to assist in formulating the basic policies of that office on the methods of controlling foreign property. As a sidelight on such activities it might be appropriate to mention here that Mr. Dulles is also listed, as recently as 1945, as one of the directors of the International Nickel Co., of Canada, which company, and several of its officers also have been among the unfortunate corporations and individuals like Mr. Halbach, to be accused of conspiracy with I. G. Farben and others. As to the two indictments in which Mr. Halbach was so unhappily accused, one, that of December, 1941, was postponed as has been mentioned before; and the other, of May, 1942, after a long succession of legal technicalities and behind-the-scenes wire pulling came finally to an issue in 1946, when eight of the corporate defendants, including General Dyestuff, and General Aniline & Film, along with seven of the individuals named, were found guilty on pleas of nolo contendere, and fined from $2,000 to $15,000 each. Mr. Halbach, along with twelve of the other individuals indicted, was cleared of all culpability by having the charges dismissed. So the Halbach indictment score now stands at one down and one to go. Meanwhile the new management of General Dyestuff appointed by Mr. Leo T. Crowley, as Alien Property Custodian, decided that it would be sadly handicapped in its efforts to drive the Farben dyestuffs—and the Gestapo secret agents who distributed them out of the Latin American countries unless they should retain the services of Mr. Halbach, who according to the indictments pending, had enjoyed such intimate conspiratorial relations with those very same agents of the German Dye Trust both before and after the war started, his company having been grabbed by Uncle Sam for trading with the enemy. So Mr. Halbach was re-engaged as an adviser to General Dyestuffs at an annual salary reported to have been $36,000 a year, plus bonuses which increased his annual take to some $82,000, quite a bit more than the president of the company received and, strictly speaking, this cash all came out of the United States Treasury via the office of the Alien Property Custodian and the staff appointed by the latter to run this enemy property. Then, on March 18, 1944, in the United States District Court at Newark, New Jersey, Elisabeth S. Halbach and Franklin H. Stafford, as Trustees for Ernest K. Halbach, followed the example set by Walter Duisberg in 1943, and filed suit against the Alien Property Custodian, demanding the return of the 4,725 shares of stock in General Dyestuff which had stood in Mr. Halbach's name. (Mrs. Halbach was not working for Uncle Sam or the Alien Property Custodian. Why shouldn't she sue them if she felt so inclined?) At the same time seven other stockholders, allegedly owners of a total of 1,178 more shares in this Farben subsidiary, also filed suits against Mr. Crowley in the New Jersey and New York courts. All of these gentry were American-born citizens who, while employed by General Dyestuff, had not only taken title to certain holdings in its stock by paying various sums in cash for same, but each had also signed an agreement which, among other things, gave the company an exclusive option to repurchase these holdings. Same old stuff of the first World War-American owned, with a Farben string attached. In these eight lawsuits, as in the Duisberg case, the Alien Property Custodian very properly began to defend the seizure of these holdings. In an affidavit filed in December, 1944, by James E. Markham, who had succeeded his friend Mr. Crowley as Alien Property Custodian, the seizure was justified by affirmations, in rather blunt language that General Dyestuff Corporation and the record owners of the stock were acting in behalf and for the benefit of I. G. Farbenindustrie, a national of an enemy country, Germany. and that the Government case would be proved by bringing together the complicated threads of a conspiracy extending over many years and involving persons in many different countries. (which was a pretty good brief description of I. G. Farben's worldwide conspiracy against peace). This Custodian affidavit contains some other good points touching on the activities of Mr. Halbach and these employes of General Dyestuffs and, in plain language, called the titles to the stock fraudulent and a camouflage to cloak Farben's actual ownership. For all of such reasons the Custodian demanded a trial in open court of the factual issues involved in these cases. The Halbach claim being by far the largest, it was decided that this case should be tried first, so- that decision on the others could be more readily adjudicated. Among the other claimants were one Rudolph Lenz who, prior to its seizure, had been a vice-president of General Dyestuff, H. W. Martin, and A. T. Wingender, also executives. All three were kept on the job under Mr. Crowley. Lenz was indicted along with Mr. Halbach, in the May, 1942 criminal action but unlike Halbach. his indictment was not dismissed when fifteen of the defendants were fined. Mr. Lenz was also fortunate in having Mr. John Foster Dulles' law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, represent him against the Alien Property Custodian; as did Mr. Percy Kuttroff another of the claimants, of the old family concern out of which General Dyestuff was created. What happened then may appear strange unless we could get behind the scenes and listen in at the secret agreement secretly arrived at-instead of the public trial in open court as demanded in the Custodian's affidavit. As of February 2, 1945, the settlement out of court was made public, eight separate settlements, by which the claimants were paid off in cash on condition that each should withdraw and forget their claims for the General Dyestuff stock, sums totaling some $696,554, out of the United States Treasury. The Halbach share of the booty was the tidy sum of $557,550. Attorney General Francis Biddle, and the Custodian, announced through the press that the settlement "cleared the way" for the sale of General Dyestuff to some one else. We may agree that this settlement might have cleared the way, but it hardly cleared the air. One characteristic may appear to stand out in these sketchesthe arrogant defiance of law, and the gentle treatment that has been accorded the royal family of Farben when these gentlemen have been caught with the goods. pps. 69-88 --[cont]-- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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