Money and power in the Third Reich by David de Jong

Money and power in the Third Reich: The hidden history of Germany’s richest dynasties
by David de Jong

The dark Nazi past of large German companies. In 1946, Günther Quandt, the patriarch of one of Germany’s most iconic industrial empires and the dynasty that today controls BMW, was arrested for collaborating with the Nazis. Quandt alleged that he had been forced to join the party by his rival, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and the courts acquitted him. But Quandt lied. His heirs, and those of other Nazi billionaires, instead of settling accounts with their dark pasts, have continued to get richer. The brutal Nazi past of the dynasties that dominated Daimler-Benz, that co-founded Allianz and that still control Porsche, Volkswagen, Dr. Oetker and BMW has remained hidden… until now. In Money and Power in the Third Reich, investigative journalist David de Jong reveals the true story of how Germany’s richest industrial dynasties amassed money and power by collaborating with the Third Reich. De Jong demonstrates how these magnates took over Jewish businesses, acquired slave labor, and manufactured weapons for Hitler’s army. De Jong also exposes how the political interests of other countries helped these millionaires go unpunished for their crimes and hide a bloody past that continues to stain the German and world economy with blood to this day.

David de Jong He is a journalist and writer. Money and Power in the Third Reich is his first book, for the research and writing of which he moved to Berlin for four years, from where he continued his journalistic work. Previously, he covered news related to the European banking and financial world from Amsterdam, as well as various investigations into hidden wealth and multi-million dollar fortunes for Bloomberg News. His work has also appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal and the Dutch Financial Daily. Although he was born in the Netherlands, he currently resides in Tel Aviv.