Internal Leadership

KARLSRUHE/HAMBURG (Own report) - A new scholarly study has provoked discussion about the network of former Nazi war criminals, which was formed after 1945 by the Hamburg-based Toepfer Foundation. The network included the agricultural expert Hans-Joachim Riecke, according to historian Wigbert Benz in Karlsruhe. Riecke had organized the large-scale theft of food from the territory of the Soviet Union under Wehrmacht occupation in WW II, to deliberately starve millions of people to death. In 1951, the agronomist Riecke became head of the economic department of Alfred C. Toepfer's agricultural trade company and a few years later rose to become a board member of the Alfred C. Toepfer Foundation, which exists still today. In this function, Riecke also accorded the 25,000 DM-doted "Freiherr vom Stein Foundation Award" to the Bundeswehr generals Wolf Graf von Baudissin, Ulrich de Maizière and Johann Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg, who, during WW II, had been members of the Nazi Wehrmacht's general staff. Kielmansegg prided himself with having marched "forward over graves" in France and Poland.

"Losers"

In his recently published scholarly study, historian Wigbert Benz, from Karlsruhe, writes that Alfred C. Toepfer, an agricultural businessman and founder of the still existing "Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S.," has been promoting the formation of a network of Nazi war criminals since 1945. Benz names the former SS General and state secretary in the Nazi Agricultural Ministry Hans-Joachim Riecke, as his key witness. According to Riecke, in the 1950s, Toepfer preferred to employ "fellow WW I soldiers," former members of right-wing "Freikorps" and "Third Reich losers," who had not been treated "sufficiently well" in the Federal Republic of Germany. Without demanding to see his denazification certificate, Toepfer recruited also Riecke into his company's management. In his unpublished memoirs, the former Nazi state secretary wrote that his future boss hat told him in 1950 that "I could start working at any time, regardless of the verdict of the proceedings of the denazification tribunal."[1]

Rieckes's Starvation Plan

In 1951, the agronomist Riecke was named head of the economic department of Alfred C. Toepfer's grain trade company, the largest German company of its kind, at the time. It is yet unclear, whether Riecke and Toepfer - who both had had a close relationship with the political elite of the "Third Reich," with the SS, in particular[2] had known each other already from the Nazi period. In any case, both had had "contact with each other because of their functions," writes Wigbert Benz. During WW II, Toepfer was seeking to expand his company to the territory of the Soviet Union under the occupation of German troops, to ensure - according to his company - a good position "in the Russian grain trade, after the war." To accomplish this, he dispatched his General Manager Wilhelm Hochgrassl to the semi-governmental Central Trading Company East (ZHO). Acting on the orders of Hermann Göring, the ZHO set out to "ensure a central registration of all agricultural products in the occupied eastern territories" and to ensure that these products be used exclusively in the service of German interests. The ZHO, in turn, had to comply with Riecke's instructions. Riecke was in charge of the Department of Food and Agriculture in the Wehrmacht's "Economic Staff East" (Wi Stab Ost) and in the "Reich's Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories" (RMfdbO), headed by the NSDAP's chief ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. In this function, Riecke pursued a full-fledged plan to starve Soviet citizens, living under German occupation. The "Guidelines of Economic Policy" issued by his apparatus to plunder the Soviet Union, state verbatim: "Many tens of millions of people will become superfluous in these territories and will have to die or emigrate to Siberia. Attempts to save this population from death by starvation could only be made at the expense of Europe's supply. They would undermine Germany's perseverance in the war, as well as Germany and Europe's blockade strength."

"EEC or Kolkhoz"

In the 1950s, Riecke, parallel to his leadership function in Toepfer's agricultural business company, began to also appear as a publicist and a lecturer on agricultural issues. For example, in 1953, he wrote a paper for inclusion in the "Appraisal of the Second World War" anthology, to which numerous other members of the "Third Reich's" military and political elite had contributed texts. In his article, Riecke explains that "although the removal of food from the occupied countries" created "great hardships" for local populations, however, that was "tolerable," since at least a portion of that food would be used in Germany for "alien laborers and prisoners of war." A year later, Riecke provided the preface to the German translation of a book written by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and General Director of the United Nations' FAO, John Boyd Orr. Reflecting Orr's own viewpoint, Riecke expressed the opinion that the "countries of the White race" should "use a portion of their financial and material means," that, "today, is flowing into armaments" to enhance agricultural production. The objective must be to "win" the countries of the southern hemisphere as "markets" for agricultural over-production of the western metropolitan nations. Riecke continued by saying that such an economic political strategy would be of practical advantage to Germany, given the fact that "we no longer have colonies or large property holdings in underdeveloped countries that could be lost." Then, 1958, in Hamburg at the Regional Association of Agronomists and Agricultural Journalists, Riecke declared that the reinforcement of the European Economic Community (EEC) was a "necessity." If the "integration of the western agricultural economy" does not succeed, there is "only the kolkhoz" as an alternative.

In the Company's Interests

For the grain dealer, Toepfer, his manager, Riecke's public appearances and publicist activities must have been of inestimable value as company PR. In his study, Wigbert Benz goes straight to the heart of this context: "The main thing is that the agricultural policy serves to nourish the German population and the European Community, provided that [Germany] is the core nation and tacitly, the leading power of that community. If that is possible without occupying other countries, freed of a colonial past and if it can be coupled with and ultimately serve the interests of the multi-billion grain business company, whose management board one is a member, then all the better."

"Forward Over Graves"

Toward the end of the 1950s, in addition to his managerial post, Riecke was named to the board of the "Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S." This institution, founded by Toepfer back in 1931, functioned, according to Benz, as the "essential investor" of Toepfer's enterprises. Still today, it bestows numerous "Euro-Political" scholarships and cultural awards. In 1964, the "Freiherr vom Stein Award" was accorded three Bundeswehr Generals Wolf Graf von Baudissin, Ulrich de Maizière and Johan Adolf Graf von Kielmansegg, all had served on the General Staff of the Nazi Wehrmacht during the Second World War. In February 1945, de Maizière was summoned back to Berlin to the bunker of the Fuhrer, to organize the work of the command post beleaguered by the Red Army.[3] His comrade, Kielmannsegg prided himself with having marched "forward over graves" in France and Poland. He had written the numerous reports stamped "Secret Command Document" of the Wehrmacht's human rights violations committed against the civilian populations of the occupied countries under guise of the "anti-partisan counterinsurgency."[4]

"Internal Leadership" in Freikorps

The Toepfer Foundation's "Freiherr vom Stein Award" was accorded the three generals for having developed the concept of "internal leadership," which Riecke considered a "timely social program." As he confided in his memoires - which Wigbert Benz was the first to analyze - he first encountered "internal leadership" as a member of the rightwing extremist "Freikorps," which, after World War I, was hunting down communists in the Baltic. His division commander, at the time, had implemented so-called company courts to judge misconduct, which no longer were comprised solely of officers, but included also men from the ranks. This method "forged tighter unity." Those networks, which had been created back then, like the ideology on which they are based, evidently show proof of decades of perseverance - not least of all, thanks also to their promotion by Afred Toepfer and his foundation.

Other reports and background information on the Toepfer Foundation can be found here: European Values and Greywashed.

[1] Siehe dazu und im Folgenden, soweit nicht anders angegeben: Wigbert Benz: Hans-Joachim Riecke, NS-Staatssekretär. Vom Hungerplaner vor, zum "Welternährer" nach 1945. Berlin 2014.
[2] See Weiß gewaschen, Nicht philanthropisch and Bedingungslos zur Verfügung.
[3] See 50 Jahre Deutsches Heer.
[4] Nationalrat der Nationalen Front des demokratischen Deutschland/Dokumentationszentrum der Staatlichen Archivverwaltung der DDR (Hg.): Braunbuch. Kriegs- und Naziverbrecher in der Bundesrepublik, Berlin (DDR) 1965.


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