Krupp - 1887-1902 - Friedrich
Alfred Krupp died at Essen, July 14, 1887, leaving the vast establishment, which his untiring inventive genius had built up, to his only son. Friedrich Alfred Krupp, born February 17, 1854, continued the business in his father's spirit ; he added some new departments, and enlarged the works further by acquiring additional plants. He paid the highest income tax of any person in Germany, and was therefore presumably the richest man of the empire. His social and political position was almost that of a prince.
The builder of the enormous steel foundry at Essen, Alfred Krupp, was an engineer, and an autocrat. Neither of these gifts was inherited without change by the son, Friedrich Krupp. A new era had begun, of endless social strife, with demands and duties of special character in its wake. When, in 1887, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, the German "Cannon King" of that wonderful industrial empire succeeded his father, he had at his command enough able and experienced workmen to manage and administrate the affairs of the works. Necessity had not compelled him to become an engineer, like his father, nor did the growing extension of his domain favor autocratic administration. Perhaps his personality is best defined by naming him a philanthropist of distinctly artistic inclinations, for whatever Herr Krupp touched there was the hall-mark of art, combined with utility and practicality of idea.
He was a bitter foe of Socialism. During one of his few Reichstag speeches he fiercely attacked that party, saying among other things: "It is the business of the Socialists to stir up strife between employers and employees-right or wrong, with or without reason. The Socialist leaders and agitators hate no one so much as the large employer who tries, so far as in him lies, to be just, kind and sympathetic to his men, for that robs their arguments of power and relegates them where they belong-to oblivion." The Socialists never forgave him this. Indeed, there was war to the knife between him and them from the time he succeeded his father, and he would tolerate no Socialists, especially no Sociafist agitation or literature, in his wide domain.
He made it the interest of able men to serve him well, for, like Mr. Carnegie, he paid them not only large and increasing salaries, but admitted them to a share of the profits in those particular enterprises over which they exerted control. It was largely owing to this farsighted and shrewd policy that the firm prospered after 1887 at an even more rapid rate than during his father's long management. Within the fifteen years of Friedrich Krupp's control the business of the firm was more than doubled, its capacity was trebled, its enterprises were multiplied, and its profits accumulated so that the total property now owned by the firm of Friedrich Krupp is valued at twice as much as at his father's death. More than 150,000 persons were dependent upon the Krupp enterprises for their bread, and of these 43,083 are men.
Since the father's death the son introduced smokeless powder, and ordnance for the same; began the manufacture of armor-plate (now one of the most important branches of the firm's work); he purchased the gigantic Gruson Works near Magdeburg, the specialty of which is the manufacture of turrets; he purchased and immensely enlarged the Germania Shipyards in Kiel and elsewhere; and he made practicable a number of the most important inventions in the making of steel tools, implements, ships, guns, etc.
Without being an enthusiast as a manufacturer, as his father had been, the son's wider horizon had doubtless much to do with the phenomenal growth of the firm under his leadership. He had some peculiarities. For one thing, he hated to be spoken of as the " Gun King." Small wonder, for whatever the firm may have been in his father's time, it now owns a series of great enterprises of which more than seventy per cent, of the total values produced are other things than guns and ammunition- things like railroad and ship implements that work for peaceful ends. He was a foe to war, a thorough man of peace. He led a spotless and tender family life, and was a most devoted and indulgent husband and father.
Although these were years of peace, Krupp continued to devote great emphasis to the armament business. Questions of design and scientific research were given great attention and fostered by capital investment. Krupp's own firing ranges for the testing of its guns and projectiles were greatly expanded. And, through the Germania shipyards, Krupp became a vital figure in the German Government's policy of naval expansion, which came into full flower after the dismissal of Bismarck by Wilhelm II shortly before the turn of the century.
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