Rating: 
Summary: Superb Biography of Europe's Premier Armaments Family!
Review: "The Arms Of Krupp" is the incredible biography of a powerful and incredibly rich and powerful family that was central in the advent and progress of European history for the more than four hundred years they presided as an almost imperial force within the boundaries of what is present-ay Germany. Certainly no other non-royal dynasty engenders such controversy and hotly expressed differences in opinion than does the multiple generations of this critically based family so critical to the development and technological capabilities of the German war machine. Of course, no one could do a better job at providing a definitive historical biography of the Krupp family than William Manchester. This is truly a magnificent book, a spellbinding story splendidly told by a master of English prose, rendered in a flawless, comprehensive, and objective treatment of this fascinating, often outrageous, and sometime imperious string of Krupp family member who ignited the wars raging in Europe in terms of their ability to provide the motherland with such complex, ingenious, and technically superior weapons of war. This is, in fact, considered a masterwork of history, an eminently readable and elegantly stylish work by Manchester, a master of the trade. Manchester, a retired history professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, is widely regarded as one of this country's preeminent biographers and historian. The Krupp dynasty was extinguished in 1967, when the last surviving family member passed away. With his death the legacy of a four hundred year span of contribution to the European armaments industry came to an end, and so brought to a conclusion a tradition spanning wars and quite profoundly influencing outcomes of European history for centuries. The Krupp Arms conglomerate was technologically innovative, devising new weapons such as a superior cannon to an anti-air vehicle weapon designed to counter the reconnaissance capabilities of aerial observation balloons to exotic and much more capable submarines, which they then built for over four decades. In so doing, they became fabulously rich, and rose to become extremely influential and exceedingly conservative voices within the realm of German political circles. No German leader could hope to marshal the resources or the weapons of war necessary to mount a military campaign without first gaining the trust, confidence and support of the Krupp family, which then cleverly and cynically manipulated this influence to vastly enrich themselves. During World War One, their cannons helped to flatten the French city of Verdun, and at one point succeeded in lobbing projectiles into Paris from as distant a location as some eighty miles away, an unheard-of innovation at the time. Aiding the Third Reich in its secret rearmament effort after the end of the First Word War, they provided a much advanced tank design that eventuated in the Panzer tank, used subsequently so successfully in Hitler's blitzkrieg through France in the summer of 1940. They were quite influential within the German society as well, having armed the forces of Kaiser Wilhelm for battle before World War One, and then surreptitiously backed Hitler financially in the so-called terror-campaign" of 1933. Incredibly, the Krupps participated in the war crimes of the Third Reich, even controlling and operating more than 130 concentration camps during the war. Afterwards, they help to rebuild Europe in the eventual development of the European Common Market. This is a truly fascinating book written with all of the usual style and substance one come s to expect of William Manchester, and it is certainly a book I can highly recommend to anyone with an interest in European history. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A rockin book
Review: Fantastic book. I am reading this for the second time. It is very dense, and really informative, yet also an interesting read. This family was so incredibly sick and ghoulish, it is almost hard to believe. There is actually one part of the book where Hitler requestes that Krupp treat his Russian slaves better.
That is amazingly sick when Hitler has more of a conscience than Krupp does. This author is just amazing, and it is clear that he is one of the great history writers ever. I highly recommend this book for history buffs especially. It is as good as "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer.
Rating:
Summary: A rockin book
Review: Manchester illustrates what one family can do to change the course of history if they're in the right place at the right time. Eventually the Krupp family business, and their dynasty, had the German goverment behind them, protecting them with their own laws and their own train spur to Der Hugel, the family estate. The rise of the Krupp's, what they did with their power, and the eventual dying off of the family, is the study of The Arms of Krupp. It's a powerful and profoundly moving story, given the lead role the family and its business played in arming the Germans for both World Wars and the enslavement and starvation of many prisoners. Krupp was one of a few private companies in Germany to have its own concentration camp for Jews. I was deeply shocked that the Krupp family was cleared of war crimes in Nuremburg. But it's a fascinating family history, and I found it gripping from beginning to end. The family is full of interesting and lively characters. Someday, when I have the stomach for the gruesome parts again, I will reread it.
Rating:
Summary: Profoundly moving
Review: Manchester illustrates what one family can do to change the course of history if they're in the right place at the right time. Eventually the Krupp family business, and their dynasty, had the German goverment behind them, protecting them with their own laws and their own train spur to Der Hugel, the family estate. The rise of the Krupp's, what they did with their power, and the eventual dying off of the family, is the study of The Arms of Krupp. It's a powerful and profoundly moving story, given the lead role the family and its business played in arming the Germans for both World Wars and the enslavement and starvation of many prisoners. Krupp was one of a few private companies in Germany to have its own concentration camp for Jews. I was deeply shocked that the Krupp family was cleared of war crimes in Nuremburg. But it's a fascinating family history, and I found it gripping from beginning to end. The family is full of interesting and lively characters. Someday, when I have the stomach for the gruesome parts again, I will reread it.
Rating:
Summary: If only this was available at Nuremburg.
Review: Manchester's epic should appeal to readers of politics, economics, and military history as he skillfully intertwines the Krupp family business with multiple generations of political leaders of Europe. While 400 years is a bit of a misnomer - the Krupps weren't the Rothschilds and only truly affected the world scene from 1870 onwards - the author does a magnificent job of immersing the reader in a fascinating top down look at the political and military climate of pre-Great War Europe from their most important arms supplier - the Cannon Kings Alfred, Fritz, and Gustav Krupp. Underlying this is a well-proven thesis that Germany's military prowess relied heavily on Krupp technological innovations, and Manchester is to be commended for making this understandable to the layman. The second half of the narrative is far darker but equally as important as he essentially reconstructs the Allied case against Krupp in greater detail than publicly available at Nuremburg for their crimes in World War II. Beyond any doubt, Alfried Krupp and the firm did monstrous things - at times far worse than the SS - to slave laborers that other German manufacturers refused. Starving to death thousands, torturing more, and outright looting conquered territory were good business for Krupp. Manchester's reconstruction bogs the pace of the book but is an overwhelmingly effective refutation of Krupp as victim. Had this been available at Nuremburg Krupp would clearly have hanged. One finishes the book hoping that some effort was made to memorialize the slave camp babies murdered by 'die Firma'. The age of the 1968 publishing only shows up in some of the economic analysis, but even then students of economics can glean a couple of lessons about what happens when you overlever and overexpand. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Worth Reading, It Took Me Awhile to Finish
Review: No kidding, it took me seven years to read this book.
I am a slow reader and I like to digest the content and think about things.
I liked about 98% of it.
It describes the 1800s to mid 1900s Industrial Germany in detail.
Lots of technical detail about metal and its fabrication into steel.
If you are interested in machinery I figure you will like it.
The worker/owner relationship illustrates how different a world it was in 19th and 20th centuries.
Rating:
Summary: Mountains of steel
Review: The Arms of Krupp is a brilliantly written book detailing the rise and fall of one of the most powerful families in history. The family of Krupp was the armorer of the first, second and third German Reichs. The origins of the family's wealth begin with Arndt Krupp surviving the Black Plague and purchasing land that just happened to contain the richest coal deposits in Europe. The firm or die Firma was built on 3 basic principles, innovation (many new alloys, metals, methods and weapons are attributable to the Krupp firm), political leverage, and absolute suzerainty of a single head of the family. Indeed the head of the Krupp family ruled a state with in a state.
Unlike most industrial families, the Krupps appear to understand very early on that the health and welfare of the workers is a necessity of the survival and prosperity of die Firma itself. That fact makes Krupp's treatment of the slave labor (Jewish and Eastern "stucke") even more appalling. Indeed, Krupp violated even the pathetic SS prisoner treatment rules, formed an internal Gestapo, and tortured workers accused of ridiculous crimes (stealing food) considering the treatment they were given.
William Manchester spends a great deal of time on the Holocaust and Krupp's involvement in it. Indeed, Krupp raided captured factories across Europe and enslaved tens of thousands. In my opinion, this period represents the heights of wealth and the depths of morality for the firm and the family. Krupp sold his Reich marks to get real capital and at the same time employed the Nazi slave labor program to maintain production. Wealth generated on the backs of the conquered territories and enslaved peoples.
But the single most damning legacy of the Krupp dynasty is Bushmannhof ? a concentration camp for children of Krupp's slave labor program. Not even children really but infants. No fence was erected around this camp as its prisoners couldn't have escaped even if they were big enough to walk. Witnesses at Nuremburg stated that infants lay naked on rubber sheets too weak to do anything until death came to claim them. In theory, mothers could come visit once per week, but this was impossible and no alternative was ever even considered. In total war, innocence is no protection. While Gustav and Alfried Krupp ate with solid gold place ware in a bombproof bunker. Children of workers forced to keep the rolling presses moving were dying of starvation and preventable diseases.
They were buried in the earth beneath small numbered plaques. Never to laugh, never to play, they were born but to die under the suzerainty of Krupp.
But memories are short, Alfried was released to help forge the swords of the cold war and indeed, at his death in 1968, the Krupp firm was turned into a publicly held company and the only Krupp Heir - his son Arndt - continues to prosper due in a large part to the Lex Krupp, a law issued by Adolph Hilter.
And the little numbered plaques have probably crumbled to nothing by now.
Rating: 
Summary: Good. But Manchester could do better.
Review: This book is very much a family portrait, going through the generations of Krupps (focusing especially on the last three). Very biographical approach; not so much historiographical analysis. The first and last chapters are very moving. Many side-stories which are funny or horrifying. All German quotes are conveniently translated. Still, I was slightly disappointed by the length and the density of the book, and considering the author, it could have been more gripping throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Worth Reading, It Took Me Awhile to Finish
Review: This has got to be one of the greatest history books that I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them. While the story is centered around the development of the Steel industry in the Ruhr Gebiet in Germany, it is also about German history - from its beginnings with the "forest mythology" of the Roman era - all the way up to the 1960s. Unusual for historians, Manchester also has a wonderful grasp of character, which the Krupp family supplied in many, many bizarre variations over several generations. The result is a read of the greatest quality. Most important, there is the empire of Krupp, as built up by Alfred. At 14, he inherited a steel company that had dwindled under his father's inept management to 5 employees. By sheer grit and a genius for profitable technical innovation, he built it into a vast conglomerate so powerful that it could literally make empires fall. In particular, the company specialised in the development of weapons, from breach-loading cannons to early prototypes for tanks. He even created a cannon (the Big Bertha for his wife), braced along the side of an entire mountain, that could hurl projectiles deep into France from German soil. The details are fascinating, with graceful descriptions that translate their engineering details for laymen. Alfred controlled everything, from scribbling rules to govern the work force with a pencil nub to relationships with the various ministers of war throughout Europe. There are hilarious scenes where he dines once a year with Bismarck, a great personal friend, and their hysterical laughter at the latter's remark about Napoleon III of France ("Eigentlich ist er dumm"). His drive was so unrelenting that his many failures, such as an early insult to a crucially important aristocrat in the defense ministry (creating a problem for himself that lasted 30 years), took an enormous personal toll - he spent days in bed, depressed and immobile after a failed sale, and his family was a horrible mess. A large part of the book is about his search for an heir who can run the family business. Here too, the characters are remarkable and often as hilarious or pathetic as their continuing genius for business. One of them was a notorious homosexual, who created an entire bacchanal in a Southern Italian castle for young boys, shooting fireworks for every climax, and when it was discovered - it was illegal in Germany - he committed suicide. You also witness the family energy dissipating until the last generation, when it became a public company with the appointment of Berthold Beitz. (Here there is some personal pique in the author, who writes that the last son, also gay, was "an indolent fool.") The tableau is so rich that it covers the many moral ambiguities of the times, such as supplying rival powers who would turn Krupp weapons on eachother, including enemies of Germany, and of course the Nazi period is examined. Through all of this, the Krupp do not come off well, even using slave labor by Hitler's victims. (The only criticism I have of the book is the excessive coverage of the Holocaust, which occupies several chapters of personal stories, indicting the last Krupp who was briefly imprisoned and then released to run the company in the 1950s.) As a business writer, it was a great pleasure to read such a rivetting business story. This book is the fullest of meals. Warmly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely first-rate popular history with a grand sweep
Review: This has got to be one of the greatest history books that I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them. While the story is centered around the development of the Steel industry in the Ruhr Gebiet in Germany, it is also about German history - from its beginnings with the "forest mythology" of the Roman era - all the way up to the 1960s. Unusual for historians, Manchester also has a wonderful grasp of character, which the Krupp family supplied in many, many bizarre variations over several generations. The result is a read of the greatest quality. Most important, there is the empire of Krupp, as built up by Alfred. At 14, he inherited a steel company that had dwindled under his father's inept management to 5 employees. By sheer grit and a genius for profitable technical innovation, he built it into a vast conglomerate so powerful that it could literally make empires fall. In particular, the company specialised in the development of weapons, from breach-loading cannons to early prototypes for tanks. He even created a cannon (the Big Bertha for his wife), braced along the side of an entire mountain, that could hurl projectiles deep into France from German soil. The details are fascinating, with graceful descriptions that translate their engineering details for laymen. Alfred controlled everything, from scribbling rules to govern the work force with a pencil nub to relationships with the various ministers of war throughout Europe. There are hilarious scenes where he dines once a year with Bismarck, a great personal friend, and their hysterical laughter at the latter's remark about Napoleon III of France ("Eigentlich ist er dumm"). His drive was so unrelenting that his many failures, such as an early insult to a crucially important aristocrat in the defense ministry (creating a problem for himself that lasted 30 years), took an enormous personal toll - he spent days in bed, depressed and immobile after a failed sale, and his family was a horrible mess. A large part of the book is about his search for an heir who can run the family business. Here too, the characters are remarkable and often as hilarious or pathetic as their continuing genius for business. One of them was a notorious homosexual, who created an entire bacchanal in a Southern Italian castle for young boys, shooting fireworks for every climax, and when it was discovered - it was illegal in Germany - he committed suicide. You also witness the family energy dissipating until the last generation, when it became a public company with the appointment of Berthold Beitz. (Here there is some personal pique in the author, who writes that the last son, also gay, was "an indolent fool.") The tableau is so rich that it covers the many moral ambiguities of the times, such as supplying rival powers who would turn Krupp weapons on eachother, including enemies of Germany, and of course the Nazi period is examined. Through all of this, the Krupp do not come off well, even using slave labor by Hitler's victims. (The only criticism I have of the book is the excessive coverage of the Holocaust, which occupies several chapters of personal stories, indicting the last Krupp who was briefly imprisoned and then released to run the company in the 1950s.) As a business writer, it was a great pleasure to read such a rivetting business story. This book is the fullest of meals. Warmly recommended.
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