29 - Krupp Steel pt. 12, Alfried and Arndt Krupp, or, Failson Supremacy

Programmed to Chill

We're at the end of the series. We talk about the sudden collapse of Krupp Steel. First, we discuss Krupp's Holocaust reparations fund, and how they somehow managed to make even that anti-Semitic. Then we talk about Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach, the useless playboy son of Alfried Krupp. He hung out with some really interesting failsons and faildaughters and got up to some hijinks, none of which even approach the horrors of his father. In discussing the collapse, we use the 'business school' approach and the 'parapolitical' approach to understanding what was going on, and hopefully tried to synthesize the two. Illiquidity and Krupp not cutting in the right people, basically, were the two root causes, possibly paired with a controlled demolition. There's also the almost unparalleled lines of credit Krupp was giving to the Eastern bloc which can't really be explained through a straight 'business school' understanding of events. Tax law is discussed, also. Krupp Steel became a foundation, and we discuss the fates of Alfried and Arndt.

To finish, I created the Programmed To Chill Matrix of Business Success to quantify Krupp's many, many moral, legal, and dare I say religious failings.