text:
THE VILLAGE SCHOOL OF DANCE CHRISTMAS SHOW 2017
Home Posts Tagged "dance wimbledon"
Christmas show 2017!
To celebrate the growing success of The Village School of Dance since it opened in January 2008, the school will be holding its fourth biannual Christmas show this term.
Previous shows have been staged at The Village Hall, Lingfield Road, but due to the school being somewhat larger compared to 2 years ago, we are very excited to have secured the Collyer Theatre at Kings College School, Wimbledon. There will be 2 performances on Saturday 2nd December, one at 2:30pm and the other at 6:00pm.
We cannot wait to get on stage a rock Wimbledon village!
This year's theme is…….'Around the world!'
Okay January is over, but our New Year's Resolutions shouldn't fade with it!
DDMIX is a fun way to exercise while you're dancing. It raises your energy, increases your coordination and fitness levels, makes you feel better, burns fat and reduces stress levels.
Here are 10 reasons to join us in the next class!
[vc_custom_heading text="1. Tones up the body" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
Aerobic exercise will help strengthen your arms, legs, buttocks and abs.
[vc_custom_heading text="2. Connects your mind with your body" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
You have to coordinate more than one action with the corresponding movement. It makes your mind work in a different way and these connections will make you feel more active.
[vc_custom_heading text="3. You don't get bored" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
One of the benefits of DDMIX is that thanks to the music used in the sessions, you find a mix of a wide range of different dance styles such as Bollywood, Disco, Samba, Flamenco, African, Line Dancing, and much more. This way of doing exercise is more fun and helps you to learn different dance steps from around the world.
[vc_custom_heading text="4. Helps you unwind from the daily routine" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
Organising your schedule and making time for this activity will help you to cope with the rest of the week. You will feel you're doing your workout but you're having fun at the same time.
[vc_custom_heading text="5. You can come with your partner in crime" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
It's always much more easier when you do physical activity with someone who supports you. It's the perfect opportunity to share a moment with a friend. Maybe a coffee afterwards, to catch up and laugh about that step you can't get right?
[vc_custom_heading text="6. But you can also make new friends" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
Surrounding yourself with people who are enjoying the same as you, can create great bonds. You will improve together and it will be more satisfactory when you achieve your goals as part of the group.
[vc_custom_heading text="7. Boosts your mood" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
Dancing produces pleasure because it makes your body release endorphins and dopamine, the neurotransmitters involved in affection and love.
[vc_custom_heading text="8. Releases stress levels" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
Dancing helps you to combat stress. Being active can boost your feel-good endorphins and distract you from daily worries.
[vc_custom_heading text="9. Works for all ages" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
Children and adults are welcome. Regardless of age or physical condition, this is a great workout for everyone.
[vc_custom_heading text="10. Great results in no time" font_container="tag:h4|text_align:left"]
If you're persistent you'll see that you learn the steps without realising it! During the first class you may feel a bit lost but it will get easier week after week and you'll feel fabulous.
Now that you know more about this fantastic workout, feel free to contact us if you want to give it a go!
Trust me, if you try one of our sessions, you will come back for more!
We all know how dancing makes us feel when we hear our favourite song on the radio and we can't stop our moves.
Dancing is an exercise that helps us fight stress, anxiety and sadness. But as well as helping us on an emotional level, it also helps us to keep fit and healthy.
On top of all these benefits, it's even better if you practise this with your children because you will make a bond and a stronger relationship with them.
Here are five benefits of this fantastic activity for your kids!
Great cardiovascular exercise
To dance is a really good way to exercise. When we dance, we move all our body and we're exercising without realising. Because of this, it is the perfect activity to improve flexibility and keep fit. It's an excellent way to make our children do their daily exercise.
Source of happiness
It's an ideal exercise for letting go of tension. It helps them to relax and it helps us too if we practise with them. It also raises their self-esteem, they will feel more confident in themselves.
Helps to overcome shyness
Sometimes we worry too much when our children are not open and sociable. There are a lot of shy children and there is nothing wrong with this. But if you want to help them to overcome this, dancing is a fantastic way to start. They will meet other children doing the same activity. Being part of a group improves their communication skills.
Encourages creativity
Encouraging our children's creativity in their early years improves their intellectual capacity. Dancing can help them focus better, because their brains are making new structures that will be very useful in their self-development.
Physical bonus
Dance has numerous physical benefits.
First, it stimulates blood circulation and the respiratory system.
It also helps to correct bad posture and gain elasticity by supporting muscular development.
It helps for the development of psychomotricity because they have to learn the steps of the dances to coordinate their movements.
In this way, it improves coordination, balance and reflexes, as well as enhances the ability to express yourself with your body language.
Now you don't have any excuse!
Take a look at our classes and feel free to get in touch to tell us which class your children are going to join.
Or maybe a DDMIX class for you?
Anyway, we'll be more than happy to have you with us!
Hello, everyone!!
As promised, here we are with the second part of "Best Ballet Dancers"!
We hope you agree and enjoy learning a bit of these great professionals.
ALINA COJOCARU
Alina Cojocaru in "Gaynor Minden"
Alina Cojocaru is a Romanian ballet dancer born in 1981. She joined the Bucharest Ballet School when she was 9 years old. Among her numerous other awards are Best Female Dancer at the 2002 Critics' Circle Awards and the 2004 and 2012 Benois de la Danse awards. Since November 2013, she is a principal dancer with the English National Ballet.
'Alina Cojocaru's line, her beautiful extensions and airy jumps, her wraithlike, weightless quality are all gorgeous. This is technique rendered invisible by artistry'
Carlos Acosta in "No way home"
Carlos Yunior Acosta Quesada is a Cuban ballet dancer born in 1973. He has danced with many of the leading ballet companies including the English National Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba, Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. He also joined The Royal Ballet in 1998 and became a Principal Guest Artist in 2003.
Acosta has received many awards throughout his career, including an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance in 2007, a Prix Benois de la Danse in 2008 and an Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2014 Critics' Circle National Dance Awards. He was also appointed a CBE for services to ballet in 2014.
He celebrated his farewell after 17 years at The Royal Ballet, dancing his last performance in November 2015 in Carmen, which he both choreographed and starred in.
NATALIA OSIPOVA
Natalia Osipova in "Kitri in Siberia"
Natalia Osipova is a Russian dancer born in 1985. She started dancing at the age of five.
Osipova has appeared as a guest artist with companies around the world. In March 2012 she became a principal of American Ballet Theatre, where she created the title role in Alexei Ratmansky's The Firebird. Her awards include Golden Masks for her performances in In the Upper Room and La Sylphide, Critics' Circle National Dance Awards (Best Female Dancer, 2007, 2010 and 2014) and a Benois de la Danse Award (Best Female Dancer, 2008).
She is currently performing as a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London and the Mikhaylovsky Theatre Ballet in St Petersburg.
NICOLAS LE RICHE
Nicolas Le Riche in "La fille mal gardée"
Nicolas Le Riche is a French ballet dancer born in 1972. He entered the Paris Opera Ballet school when he was 10 years old and joined the corps de ballet at the age of sixteen.
Le Riche was promoted to the Paris Opera Ballet's highest rank, after his debut in the role of Albrecht in the traditional version of Giselle. He performed A Suite of Dances as guest artist at New York City Ballet's Jerome Robbins celebration in June 2008.
Nicolas Le Riche retired from the Paris Opera Ballet following a gala performance on 9 July 2014.
HERMAN CORNEJO
Herman Cornejo in "Diana and Acteon"
Herman Cornejo is an Argentinian ballet dancer born in 1981. He has had leading roles created for him by Alexei Ratmansky and Twyla Tharp; his signature roles include Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and the leading male role in Ratmansky's Symphony No. 9.
He won a Bessie Award in 2013, and the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2014. In 2004, Joan Acocella called Cornejo "the most technically accomplished male ballet dancer in the United States".
He is now a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre.
This is all for now, it has been hard to choose only ten but we hope you enjoyed reading all the hard work of these amazing dancers!
On Friday some of our students are going to be doing their ballet exam.
To give them some positive vibes we've collected in two posts some of the best ballet professionals, so they can see what they might become one day with a lot of hard work.
It has been so difficult choosing only ten!
SYLVIE GUILLEM
Sylvie Guillem in 1998 performing in "Romeo and Juliet"
Sylvie Guillem is a French ballet dancer born in 1965. She was the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London.
She has also performed contemporary dance as an Associate Artist of London's Sadler's Wells Theatre.
Her most notable performances have included those in Giselle and in Rudolf Nureyev's stagings of Swan Lake and Don Quixote.
In November 2014, she announced her retirement from the stage in 2015.
Mikhail Baryshnikov in "Sex and the City"
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov nicknamed "Misha" is a dancer, choreographer, and actor born in 1948. He is often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers in history.
After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974 for more opportunities in western dance. He joined the New York City Ballet as a principal dancer to learn George Balanchine's style of movement. After that, he danced with the American Ballet Theatre, where he later became artistic director.
Baryshnikov has spearheaded many of his own artistic projects and has been associated in particular with promoting modern dance. His success as a dramatic actor on stage, cinema and television has helped him become probably the most widely recognised contemporary ballet dancer.
In 1977, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for his work as "Yuri Kopeikine" in the film The Turning Point. He also had a significant role in the last season of the television series Sex and the City.
Tamara Rojo in "La Bayadere"
Tamara Rojo is a Spanish dancer and director of English National Ballet born in 1974. She has gained international recognition for her unique technique, passion and acting skills; and for her outstanding performance both in classical and contemporary roles.
Rojo often participates on the juries of all the major international dance competitions, including Beijing, Lausanne and Benois. She is a Master of Theatrical Arts and a Bachelor of Dance and Choreography Honours Graduate from University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid.
She was made a CBE in 2016.
Edward Watson in "The Winter's Tale"
Edward Watson is a British ballet dancer born in 1976. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and graduated into The Royal Ballet in 1994. He was promoted to Principal in 2005.
As of 2004, he is a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet in London. His repertory with the Company includes major roles in works by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan, and numerous role creations for choreographers including Wayne McGregor, Christopher Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky.
His numerous awards include the 2012 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, the 2015 Benois de la danse and Critics' Circle Awards in 2001 and 2008. He was awarded an MBE in 2015.
ULIANA LOPATKINA
Uliana Lopatkina in "Swan Lake"
Ulyana Vyacheslavovna Lopatkina is a Russian ballet dancer born in 1973. She is currently employed as Prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Ballet in St Petersburg, Russia.
Upon graduation, Lopatkina joined the Kirov/Mariinsky Theatre Ballet in 1991, and was promoted to principal dancer in 1995.
Lopatkina stands out in classic and dramatic roles. She is a perfect example of the Russian (Kirov) school with long limbs, great strength and a classical purity of line, as well as noted musicality.
We hope you enjoyed it, we will tell you the other five dancers in our next post!
Welcome, everyone!
We're excited to announce that…. HABEMUS BLOG!
This is The Village School of Dance blog and we will be posting one post per week to keep you informed about the school news and much more.
We're heading back to school and we've made this schedule for you all. Now, you can have a look and see what we offer for your children or which DDMIX class you are going to join next week.
DDMIX is a full body aerobic workout based on a range of different dance styles with easy to follow steps. This fun workout was created by Darcey Bussell and Nathan Clarke. It includes genres, eras and national dances from around world.
If you want to see it for yourself, contact us and give it a go with a free trial. You will love it!
We really hope you enjoy our new blog, as we're sure you and your children will enjoy our classes.


Like if there was not enough ice in Prague, Hotel Hilton Prague introduced their news in the form of specially illuminated Ice bar build from ice blocks on the roof of the building. The ice bar is going to be opened every Thursday, Friday and Saturday until 7th February. The bar opens at 22, closes at midnight.
Tickets to the bar cost 590 czk for 15 minutes and include welcoming drink of Taittinger champagne, company of hostess "ice girls" oyster bas and unlimited capacity of ice drinks made with vodka.
Hilton Prague is a luxurious hotel, the biggest in the Czech Republic. If offers also other past-times like Fitness club Cybex health club & spa, Casino Atrium or shops and boutiques offering various possibilities of free time use. Travel Trade Gazette magazine World Travel Awards gave Hilton the 2008 prize for the best Czech hotel.


Doing it by the numbers?
A couple of days ago I talked to a friend who some years ago sold around 100 000 albums in Japan. He said that it was rather difficult to relate to that number. Sounds like a lot of albums of course, and a lot of yen, but emotionally it was hard, and much easier for him to connect to a letter he got from a fan in Portugal, the fan writing that he'd listened to the music for years and so on.
And it's rather obvious when you think about it; you create your art and ship it with the intention to touch a person, an individual, and in that context masses of people in numbers, loose meaning.
Numbers can be fun, and quite useful sometimes, but for the creation of art they're pretty much useless. I think the day that an artist start relating to numbers and not people it becomes a different game; then it's not art anymore then it's fabrication.
Does it matter? Yes, it does matter, a lot. The reason for doing what we do, the intention, matters; not only for ourselves, but also for those we're doing it for. I think it shows through everything we do.
We've just had our songs aired on a radio, Butterflies radio in Florida and I have no idea how many listeners they have, and i don't care. We're happy that they like our music so much they want to put it on rotation, and that some more people will get to hear it, people we can connect with.
Well I do care if they are doing fine or not, and I hope that they get loads of listeners so that they kan keep doing their dedicated work they're doing. And it's good stuff, much better than most radio channels we have here in Sweden, and with a large influence from the listeners who can ask for songs to play and communicate directly with the radio. Impressive. They send from both Florida in the US and from Australia. You can find them on Facebook and Twitter too.
We've also had the honour of being played on some podshows lately. We have Indie Music Sampler where "The Big One" was aired in the latest show. Well, Indie Music Sampler is not only a podcast it's an Internet radio too, sending live 24/7!
Bugcast is a podshow where each episode is recorded live in Butterflies radio. Each time they record they have a live chatroom where you can discuss the show and the music with the hosts and other guests. Great stuff.
John Reade from The Johnnyrockin' Music Show had us wake up happy on Sunday with his latest show where he played "The Big One". It was even more pleasing when we discovered that a friend of ours, Asatron, happened to be played in the same show! Good company indeed, also considering all the other great music on the Johnny's show.
Finally, tonight My Pocket Player played "The Big One" on the show. It's a show in Polish, and it gives me this magic feeling again I talked about the other day.


We thinks what clients think, the urgency of urgency to act inside the interests of a customer position of basic principle, allowing for much better high quality, reduce processing costs, charges are additional reasonable, won the new and previous customers the support and affirmation for Shoulder Beach Bags , Clear Beach Bags , Shoulder Tote Bag , Brazil and some other regions of the world. We are working hard to be one of the best global suppliers.
"Innovation, excellent and reliability are the core values of our organization. These principles today extra than ever form the basis of our success as an internationally active mid-size corporation for Shoulder Beach Bags , Clear Beach Bags , Shoulder Tote Bag , We have more than 8 years of experience in this industry and have a good reputation in this field. Our products have won praise from customers worldwide. Our aim is to help customers realize their goals. We are making great efforts to achieve this win-win situation and sincerely welcome you to join us.


text:
Flourishing with Controversy: How Philosophy of Race Does It
One of the popular narratives about higher education is that the discussion of and disagreement over controversial ideas is imperiled, owing to the dominance of political correctness on college campuses. (more…)
UGA Philosophy Grad Student Cleared of Misconduct Charges
The University of Georgia (UGA) has determined that Irami Osei-Frimpong, a philosophy graduate student and teaching assistant at the school, did not violate the school's code of conduct.
DePaul Students Ask University to Censure Philosophy Professor for Writings on Palestinians
Jason D. Hill, professor of philosophy at DePaul University, recently wrote an article for The Federalist about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has prompted students at his university to launch a petition calling for his censure. (more…)
April 24, 2019 31 1
Epistemology and Free Speech
"When we have good reason to think that the position advocated by a potential speaker is wrong, we have an epistemic reason in favour of no-platforming: we can be confident that providing her with a platform will produce evidence in favour of her views that it is very difficult to rebut (and which can't be rebutted by argument)." (more…)
March 4, 2019 148 4
Curry from Texas A&M to Edinburgh
Tommy Curry, currently professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, has accepted a position as professor of Africana philosophy and black-male studies at the University of Edinburgh. (more…)
March 1, 2019 41 12
Wollongong Receives AU$50 Million for Philosophy-Based Degree Program
The University of Wollongong is creating a philosophy-based bachelor of arts degree program in "Western Civilization", to be based in a new School of Liberal Arts, with the help of a AU$50 million (approximately $35.6 million) gift from the Ramsay Centre. (more…)
February 13, 2019 36 3
UGA "Vigorously Exploring All Available Legal Options" It Can Take Against Philosophy Grad Student
A University of Georgia (UGA) alumnus's expression of bafflement at his alma mater's failure to condemn remarks made by a philosophy graduate student at the school and his call for other alumni to withhold donations has apparently prompted the university to consider action against the graduate student. (more…)
January 30, 2019 77 3
Why I Don't Usually Respond to Professor Leiter: An Example
In my recent post, "It's Complicated," I responded to a criticism of me published by Brian Leiter at his blog, Leiter Reports.
In my post, I wrote that "I usually don't respond to Professor Leiter's remarks about me," though I did not say why. One reason is that to respond adequately to them here would divert Daily Nous away from its purpose. DN is supposed to be..
January 11, 2019 53 72
I've been criticized for saying that the issue behind the attempt of some students at Oxford to stop having John Finnis teach required courses* is "morally and practically complicated." How strong a criticism is this? (more…)
Oxford Students Launch Petition to Have John Finnis "Removed" (Updated)
Over 350 people have added their names to a petition calling for John Finnis, emeritus professor of law and philosophy at the University of Oxford, to be removed from his position teaching compulsory seminars in the law curricula at the university. (more…)
January 8, 2019 157 6
Philosopher Involved in Hoax Investigated by University
An institutional review board (IRB) at Portland State University has found that Peter Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy at the school, ought to have obtained IRB approval before conducting a project of submitting hoax articles to academic journals. (more…)
January 8, 2019 12 5
"Journal of Controversial Ideas" with Pseudonymous Authors to Launch Next Year
A new interdisciplinary journal in the works will publish pseudonymously-authored peer-reviewed articles in an attempt to protect its contributors from the negative repercussions of arguing for or discussing controversial ideas. (more…)
November 12, 2018 198 7
Faculty Job Security & Academic Freedom
Seventy-three percent of faculty at institutions of higher education in the United States are neither tenured nor on the tenure-track, according to a new report from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). (more…)
The Difference Between Snowflakes and Champions of Free Speech
What is the difference between those accused of being whiny, coddled, politically correct snowflakes and those who are considered brave champions of free speech? (more…)
September 21, 2018 90 7
Universities as a Bulwark Against (and Target of) Fascism
"Fascist politics seeks to undermine the credibility of institutions that harbor independent voices of dissent," says Jason Stanley (Yale), and chief among such institutions are universities, which for the past 50 years have been "the epicenter of protest against injustice and authoritarian overreach." (more…)
September 5, 2018 97 2
Wisconsin Supreme Court Sides With Professor Who Smeared Philosophy Grad Student
The Wisconsin Supreme court ruled today that it was impermissible for Marquette University to fire John McAdams, an associate professor or political science, for his hostile and misleading online writings about a philosophy graduate student at the school. (more…)
July 6, 2018 83 0
The "Moral Panic" of Campus Free Speech
People get awfully solemn in the United States about the civic function of our institutions of higher education. They talk about college as the nursery of democracy and the care that we must take with our young people. As educators, the future is in our hands. I believe it is worth puncturing this solemnity with some awkward questions. (more…)
AAUP and AAC&U Issue Statement in Defense of Liberal Arts Education
"We believe that institutions of higher education, if they are truly to serve as institutions of higher education, should provide more than narrow vocational training and should seek to enhance students' capacities for lifelong learning" (more…)
Untangling the Strings: The Limits of Acceptable Donor Influence in Academia (guest post by Chris Surprenant)
"Our donors are supporting our projects, not the other way around."
The following is a guest post* by Chris Surprenant, associate professor of philosophy at the University of New Orleans, on the role that those who fund academic programs may have in determining program goals, methods, materials, and staff. (more…)
May 9, 2018 18 5
Philosophy PhD Student Fired for Tweet Critical of Seminary President
A PhD student in the philosophy program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was fired from a $40,000/year food service job and had his $7,000/year tuition benefits taken from him after he endorsed, on Twitter, an article critical of the Seminary's president. (more…)
Professors Favor Free Speech
93 percent of faculty agree with the statement that, "niversity life requires that people with diverse viewpoints and perspectives encounter each other in an environment where they feel free to speak up and challenge each other." There is almost universal support for the exchange of ideas and open discourse. (more…)
April 25, 2018 115 3
Symposium on Tuvel's Transracialism Article
Philosophy Today has just published a special symposium, "Rebecca Tuvel and her Interlocutors," which includes articles that examine the methodology and arguments in her paper, "In Defense of Transracialism," that caused such a controversy last year. (more…)
Philosophy Professor Suspended for Anti-Gay Facebook Post (updated)
Jean Laberge, a professor of philosophy at Cégep du Vieux-Montréal since 1994, was suspended from his position at the end of January, reportedly for writing about his "disgust for homosexuals" on Facebook. (more…)
February 15, 2018 110 0
"Credible Threats Of Personal Violence" Lead To Retraction of Colonialism Paper (updated)
The controversy over the decision of Third World Quarterly to publish "The Case for Colonialism" by Bruce Gilley (discussed here) has escalated. Now, "credible threats of personal violence" against the editor of the journal, Shahid Qadir, have led the journal's publisher, Taylor & Francis, to withdraw the article. (more…)
Is Academic Freedom in Israel Threatened by a Philosopher-Authored Ethics Code? (Updated with English Translation of Proposed Code)
Israel's Minister of Education has proposed the adoption of a code of ethics for academics that some worry poses a threat to the academic freedom of professors there. The code was authored by Asa Kasher, the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair in Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice at Tel Aviv University. (more…)
"People were absolutely vicious toward me"
The latest interview at What Is It Like To Be A Philosopher? is with Rebecca Tuvel, assistant professor of philosophy at Rhodes College. Clifford Sosis (Coastal Carolina) asks Professor Tuvel a range of questions, including several about her article in Hypatia, "In Defense of Transracialism," and the controversy surrounding it. (more…)
NJIT and Rutgers Newark Faculty Demand Alt-Right Colleague Be Fired
Members of the faculty and staff of the Federated History Department at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Rutgers University, Newark have called for Jason Jorjani, a humanities lecturer at NJIT with a PhD in philosophy from SUNY Stony Brook, to be fired. (more…)
October 25, 2017 54 1
How Academia Handles Objectionable Ideas: The Case of Jongen at the Hannah Arendt Center
Earlier this month, the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College hosted a conference, "Crises of Democracy: Thinking in Dark Times," on the various questions posed by the current "worldwide rebellion against liberal democracy." Among those invited to speak at the conference was Marc Jongen, who has a PhD in philosophy and is known as the "par..

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Posts Tagged 'Family. Enterprises. Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century'
Simone Derix Shrouds Thyssen Guilt – Rechnitz Revisited II
Thursday, August 17th, 2017
The Thyssens have always avoided revealing the details of their Nazi past, relying on a mixture of denial, obfuscation and bribery. But with the publication of our book 'The Thyssen Art Macabre' in 2007 and revelations concerning the appalling Rechnitz massacre, this philosophy was becoming increasingly difficult to uphold. Finally they decided to recruit ten academics, via the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, to rewrite their personal, social, political and industrial past (a series called 'Family – Enterprises – Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century') in an attempt to burnish their reputation.
Sometimes this has been successful and sometimes not, as, despite their best laid plans, the books have often revealed more than the Thyssens might have liked, either directly or through the exposure of contradictions.
As the Thyssen-sponsored treatises have been published, we have reviewed each one in turn, in some considerable detail, and intend to do the same with their latest offering, 'The Thyssens. Family and Fortune' by Simone Derix. First, though, we want to examine the book's one unique feature as, a whole decade after our revelations, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation has finally helped issue the first official Thyssen publication that contains a description of the dynasty's involvement in Rechnitz life and in the 'Rechnitz massacre' of 24/25 March 1945 in particular – because this is a subject which we feel particularly passionate about.
Unfortunately, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation has chosen to allow Simone Derix to include the mere seven pages (of a 500-page book, derived from her habilitation thesis) in a manifesto that is as much a work of public relations on behalf of the Thyssens, as of Derix's ambitious self-promotion within the 'new' field of 'research into the wealthy'; the bottom line being that the Thyssens should be celebrated for their outstanding wealth, while they must be pitied for their victimisation at the hands of journalists, advisors, authorities, relatives, Bolshevists, National Socialists, etc., etc.
This makes Derix the kind of apologist of whom Ralph Giordano said that they will not tire of 'turning victims into perpetrators and perpetrators into victims'. The fact that the Association of German Historians has seen fit to award Derix's work the Carl-Erdmann-Prize (named after a genuine victim of Nazi persecution) is furthermore troubling.
Germany was a late developer in both its industrialisation and nationhood and emerged onto the international stage with an explosive energy that was to become catastrophic. While the extraordinarily hard-working, middle-class brothers August and Josef Thyssen created their family's vast, late 19th century industrial fortune, August's sons Fritz Thyssen and Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, influenced by their socially ambitious mother, turned their backs on bourgeois life and used their inherited wealth to ascend into a new-style, deeply reactionary landed gentry.
Derix describes how, in the early 20th century, far away from the original Thyssen base in the Ruhr, Fritz leased Rittergut Gleina near Naumburg/Saale, bought and sold Rittergut Götschendorf in Uckermark and bought Rittergut Neu Schlagsdorf near Schwerin, as well as Schloss Puchhof in Bavaria. Of course we already knew that Heinrich acquired, amongst others, the Landswerth horse racing stables near Vienna, the Erlenhof stud farm near Bad Homburg, with racing stables in Hoppegarten near Berlin, and the Rechnitz estate in Burgenland/Austria (formerly in Hungary).
Our research has shown that the brothers hunted at each other's estates which discredits the spurious allegation repeated again and again by this academic series, including Derix, that Fritz and Heinrich Thyssen did not get on. A claim which is designed to obfuscate the synergies in the two men's business dealings and particularly those benefitting the Nazi regime.
Both men adopted the behaviour of feudal overlords, enjoying the supplies of cheap and forced labour afforded their enterprises by the suppression of labour movements as well as armed international conflicts, which they fuelled with their factories' weapons and munitions. The Thyssen brothers self-servingly meddled in politics, overtly (Fritz) or behind the scenes, through discrete diplomatic and society channels (Heinrich) – though the latter is denied vehemently by Derix and her academic associates.
Both Thyssen brothers helped bring about the eventual enthronement of the Nazis in 1933. Yet Simone Derix tries to reinvent them as the guiltlessly entrapped, illustrious captains of industry they never were in the first place.
By 1933 Heinrich's daughter Margit (who had been born and had grown up at Rechnitz castle), corrupted by her ambitious father and anti-semitic mother, as well as her pseudo-pious Sacré Coeur education, had managed to elevate the family by marrying into Hungarian aristocracy (Ivan Batthyany) – as had Fritz Thyssen's daughter Anita (Gabor Zichy).
On 8th April 1938, one week after the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza gave his Rechnitz estate, which had once been in the Batthyany family for centuries from 1527 to 1871, to Margit, according to our research apparently so that he, ensconced in his Swiss hide-away on the shores of Lake Lugano, would not be seen to own any property in the German Reich.
Simone Derix alleges this was instead done for tax reasons.
All his Ruhr factories being owned by Dutch financial instruments, the Swiss authorities, who until the turning point of the war in 1943 were pro-German but whose ultimate stance was one of political neutrality, were satisfied that Heinrich would not become a political problem to them.
Through his company Thyssensche Gas- und Wasserwerke (later Thyssengas), Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza discreetly continued to fund both Rechnitz castle and the Batthyany matrimony. During WWII, the Walsum coal mine belonging to Thyssengas in the Ruhr used forced labour to the tune of two thirds of its labour force; a record in German industry. In the Rechnitz area, some mining interests were being exploited by the Thyssengas company.
For centuries the huge Rechnitz castle, in whose courtyard, it was said, an entire husars regiment could perform its drill, had been the power centre of Rechnitz. How exactly did this situation develop after the Nazis took charge of the country? Where in Rechnitz did the party and its organisations install themselves?
Simone Derix does not furnish any answers to these important questions, despite pretending to do so, by help of much verbose flourish. Instead, she writes in a vague, evasive manner: 'The Batthyanys got along by mutual agreement (they found a consensual livelihood) at Rechnitz Castle during World War Two with representatives of the Nazi party and the Nazi regime'.
In 1934, 170 Jews lived in Rechnitz. On 1st November 1938, a week before Reichs Crystal Night, Rechnitz was declared 'free of Jews', a situation that members of the Thyssen family would have welcomed (see here). But Simone Derix pointedly refuses to acknowledge the anti-semitism of key Thyssens and instead reserves this characteristic for marginal characters.
In the spring of 1939, according to Derix, Hans-Joachim Oldenburg, whose father was a senior engineer at Thyssen and who himself had worked on agricultural estates owned by the Thyssen family, was sent to Rechnitz Castle to take charge of its estate management, which was soon relying on forced labourers from all over Nazi-occupied Europe.
That summer, Franz Podezin arrived in Rechnitz as a civil servant of the Gestapo border post. He had been an SA-member since 1931 and later became SS-Hauptscharführer. He also became the leader of the Nazi party in Rechnitz.
Simone Derix comments that "both posts of Podezin were in different locations", but fails to pinpoint them. Stefan Klemp of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has written that the Rechnitz Gestapo was headquartered in Rechnitz castle all along. Either his statement is correct or Derix is right when she alleges that Podezin only came to take up offices in the castle in the autum of 1944 when he became Nazi party head of subsection I of section VI (Rechnitz) of the South-East Earth Wall building works.
By avoiding clarity on these points, Derix fudges the issue and contributes to the vindication of culprits – particularly of the Thyssens as owners, funders and residents of the castle.
The activities on this reinforced defense system designed to hold up the Red Army were coordinated by the organisation Todt (run by Armaments Minister Albert Speer), by the Wehrmacht major-general Wilhelm Weiss and, in the section in question, by the Gauleiter of Styria, to which Burgenland then belonged, Sigfried Uiberreither.
Locals as well as forced labourers from different nations were employed, whose treatment depended on their position within the racial hierarchies proclaimed by Nazi ideology. Bottom of the heap and therefore having to endure the worst conditions and abuses, were Slavs, Russians and nationals of the states of the Soviet Union. But none of them were as badly treated as the Jews.
How exactly did Margit Batthyany-Thyssen spend these 12 years of Nazi tyranny?
The Countess took on the mantle of her grand-mother and mother as 'Queen of Rechnitz', while continuing to travel widely within the Reich. Having inherited her father's interest in horses, she monitored Thyssen horse breeding and racing in Bad Homburg near Frankfurt, Hoppegarten/Berlin and Vienna, frequented races in various European cities and collected trophies on behalf of her father, who no longer wished to be seen to be leaving his Ticino safehaven.
In 1942, their Erlenhof stud Ticino won the Austrian Derby in Vienna-Friedenau and the German Derby in Hamburg. In 1944, their Erlenhof stud Nordlicht achieved the same feats, though the German Derby was held in Berlin that year due to the allied bombing damage on Hamburg.
At these public gatherings, Margit Batthyany mixed with and was feted by Nazi officials, who looked up to her as a member of the highest-level Nazi-state elite. It is clear that for her the war presented no change in her privileged lifestyle.
Each such event would have been a very public expression of support and legitimisation of the Nazi regime on behalf of the Thyssen and Batthyany families, but any reference to this function is absent from Derix's treatise.
Margit also travelled regularly to Switzerland during the war, where she met her brother Heini and her father Heinrich in either Lugano, Zurich, Davos or Flims. They clearly sanctioned her life-style. Again, this is not mentioned by Derix.
During her war-time life in Rechnitz, Margit Batthyany apparently had affairs with both Hans Joachim Oldenburg (confirmed by the Batthyany family) and Franz Podezin (as stated by a castle staff member and mentioned by Simone Derix) – thereby confirming details relayed to us by Heini Thyssen's Hungarian lawyer, Josi Groh, many years ago. Members of the Thyssens' staff would have been in an ideal position to witness such things, as they cleaned rooms, served breakfast in bed or procured items of daily life of a private nature.
Strangely, Simone Derix still feels the need to proclaim such details as being mere "speculations", thereby intimating that they are applied artificially to shed an undeservedly bad light on a Thyssen.
The only reason why we highlighted Margit Batthyany's particular sexual penchant, was because it symbolises so powerfully the Thyssens' intimate relationship with the Nazi regime, which will take on a particularly poignant dimension in terms of the post-war Aufarbeitung of the Rechnitz war crimes.
Academics such as Simone Derix and Walter Manoschek in particular, as well as members of the Refugius commemoration association have been at great pains to exclaim that we have somehow damaged the historiography of this chapter by "decontextualising" it into a tabloid "sex & crime" saga. The only thing that is achieved by these misguided accusations is that once again the Thyssens and Batthyanys are shielded from having to accept their responsibilities which they have so far, apart from Sacha Batthyany, shirked.
By 1944, the Nazi dream was turning sour. In March, the German army occupied Hungary and installed a Sondereinsatzkommando under Adolf Eichmann who organised the deportation of its 825,000 Jews. By July, some 320,000 had been exterminated in the gas chambers at Auschwitz concentration camp and ca. 60,000 became forced labourers in Austria. In October, when the Hungarian fascists took over from the authoritarian Miklos Horthy, the 200,000 Budapest Jews were targeted.
According to Eva Schwarzmayer, ca. 35,000 Hungarian Jews were used for wood and trench works on building the South-East Earth Wall. Of these up to 6,000 would come to work on the Rechnitz section and be housed in four different camps: the castle cellars and store rooms, the so-called Schweizermeierhof near Kreuzstadl, a baracks camp named 'Woodland' or 'South', and the former synagogue. Meanwhile, the Nazi Volkssturm (last ditch territorial army) had been constituted of which Hans Joachim Oldenburg became a member.
None of this is mentioned by Simone Derix.
In early 1945, with the Western and Soviet armies closing in on Hitler's Germany, so-called 'end-phase crimes' were committed as part of the Nazi policy of 'scorched earth'. This involved both getting rid of any incriminating evidence, including camp inmates, and to strike equally at any members of the home-grown population expressing doubts that Germany could still win the war.
This attitude lasted beyond Germany's capitulation when witnesses willing to destify against Nazi war criminals were silenced through political, conspiratorial murders, as would happen repeatedly in Rechnitz.
Now began the so-called 'death marches' evacuating Nazi victims from their prisons ahead of the advancing Allies, only to see many of them die or be killed en route by members of the SA, SS, Volkssturm, Hitler Youth, local police forces etc. guarding them, in the open, under the eyes of the general public.
All in all, at least 800 Jews seem to have been killed in Rechnitz in this last phase of the war. The so-called 'Rechnitz Massacre' of some 180 Jews during the night of 24/25 March is in fact only one of several murderous events. Simone Derix mentions briefly that 'shootings on the castle estate were already evidenced before 24 March 1945', but she does not give any details of those other Rechnitz massacres.
Annemarie Vitzthum of Rechnitz gave evidence, during the 1946/8 People's Court proceeding, that in February 1945 eight hundred Jews had arrived in Rechnitz on foot and that Franz Podezin 'welcomed' the exhausted people by trampling around on them on his horse.
According to Austrian investigators, 220 Hungarian Jews were shot in Rechnitz at the beginning of March.
Franz Cserer of Rechnitz stated that around mid-March eight sick Jews had been brought from Schachendorf to Rechnitz and that Franz Podezin shot them dead near the Jewish cemetery.
Josef Mandel of Rechnitz gave evidence that on 17 or 19 March a transport of 800 Jews arrived in Rechnitz from Bozsok (Poschendorf). The survivor Paul Szomogyi gave evidence that on 26 March, 400 Jews from his group of forced labourers had been killed in Rechnitz.
But not a single mention is made by Derix of the sheer scale of these additional crimes.
Eleonore Lappin-Eppel writes: 'Paul Karl Szomogyi was transferred from Köszeg to the Rechnitz section on 22 or 23 March together with 3-5,000 co-prisoners'. Otto Ickowitz reported that sick prisoners from a group coming from the Bucsu camp were murdered in a wood near Rechnitz.
Unbelievably, Simone Derix deals with this accelerating horror by using the following technocratic language: 'During the last months of the war very different types of camp communities with their own specific experiences collided and amalgamated with the local structure of domination'.
It almost sounds like a line from the pen of Adolf Eichmann himself.
On the night of 24/25 March 1945, the people involved in the massacre and/or the party seem to have included: the Nazi party leader of the Oberwart district Eduard Nicka and other functionaries from the same party HQ, various Styrian SA-men, Franz Podezin, his secretary Hildegard Stadler, Hans-Joachim Oldenburg, the SS-member Ludwig Groll, the leader of subsection II of section VI of the South-East Earth Wall building works Josef Muralter, Stefan Beigelböck, Johann Paal (Transport), Franz Ostermann (Transport) and Hermann Schwarz (Transport).
Derix adds: 'The alleged perpetrators were recruited from the circle of this party society, which Margit and Ivan Batthyany also formed part of'.
Margit Batthyany would later help the two main alleged perpetrators, Podezin and Oldenburg, flee and avoid prosecution. If she had had nothing to do with the Rechnitz massacre and had found the actions reprehensible, it seems logical that she would have helped bring about the just punishment of the people involved rather than help them evade justice.
Simone Derix seems intent on absolving the Thyssens, even going as far as conjuring up the possibility that Margit might have helped victims – withouth, however, furnishing any evidence.
During the post-war proceedings Josef Muralter was said to have organised the 'comradeship evening' of 24 March 1945 at Rechnitz castle. Various academics have placed great emphasis on this fact in order to show that Margit Batthyany was not in fact the hostess of the event, as we had stated.
But as long as there are no documents forthcoming proving that any Nazi Party organisation paid for the festivities (and Derix does not furnish any), the fact remains that it was Margit Batthyany who was the overall hostess, as it was her family who paid for the castle and anything happening within its walls and grounds, for which documentary evidence is available (see here).
Simone Derix acknowledges the central role played by the conglomerate of people based at the Batthyany-Thyssen castle in the terrible abuses taking place in Rechnitz during WWII. She even acknowledges that some people might feel that there is room for directing questions of moral and legal responsibility at its owners. But she never implicates the Thyssens and Batthyanys in any responsibility or guilt and instead intimates that they probably did not 'see anything'.
It is the same kind of defence as used by Albert Speer, when he lied to Hugh Trevor-Roper saying that he did not know about the programme of the final solution, because it was 'so difficult to know this secret, even if you were in the government'. It is a tactic designed to shield powerful individuals and blame the general public.
As in previous volumes of this series, it is the Thyssen managers that get apportioned the full responsibility and in this case this falls on Hans-Joachim Oldenburg. He is said to have 'extended his authority to exert power vis-a-vis his employers', to have 'taken an active part in producing a national socialist Volksgemeinschaft' and to have 'acted in a racist and anti-Semitic manner', though Derix once again produces not a single piece of evidence to prove any of her allegations.
If Margit Batthyany had had a problem with this kind of behaviour, it would have been easy for her to leave the location and settle in any European hotel for the duration of the war. But she did not. So one must assume that she agreed with the racial and political victimisations that took place. Derix, however, fails to draw this obvious conclusion.
Margit chose to be part of the Rechnitz regime of terror. Derix chooses to use the less negative sounding description of "Volksgemeinschaft" instead.
Only when the Russians finally drew close to Rechnitz did Margit Batthyany, together with Hans Joachim Oldenburg and some of her staff, flee the scene in private cars, thereby leaving everyone else in the lurch; as did Franz Podezin.
Emmerich Cserer of Rechnitz said that on 28 and 29 March big transports of several hundreds of forced labourers left Rechnitz. Josef Muralter stated that he left the castle on 29 March with 400 castle cellar inmates.
The people of Rechnitz had to endure the final confrontation with the Red Army, the burning down as part of the Nazi scorched-earth policy of their central, 600-year-old castle, the post-war criminal justice investigations and the stigmatisation of the town that continues to this day. A stigmatisation which is not, however, due to the case having been 'scandalised' by media reports including ours, but which developed because, based on the deviousness of the escapees, the crime(s) could never be properly investigated and punished.
The people of Rechnitz did their duty by giving much evidence to judge the perpetrators. Nonetheless they were later accused by academics and some media outlets of maintaining a silence on the issue. When we went to Rechnitz as english-speaking outsiders, people talked to us unprompted and freely about the matter. Especially the town historian, Josef Hotwagner, who was recommended to us by townspeople as their spokesman. They did not hide what had happened in any way.
Having fled Rechnitz, Simone Derix explains, Margit Batthyany installed herself in April 1945 in a house in Düns in Vorarlberg/Austria. During the summer she went 'travelling'. What Derix does not say is that Margit Batthyany entered Switzerland for the first time after the war, without any apparent difficulties in July 1945. It is inconceivable that Swiss authorities would not have been aware of what had happened in Burgenland only a few months earlier.
According to Derix, from November onwards Batthyany was working for the French military government in Feldkirch/Austria, in other words, she managed to access the western allies' administrative set-up, likely because of her family's overall high-level contacts and because she could offer intelligence on a region which was now under Soviet occupation. Derix, however, does not give any explanations for this sudden 'assignment'.
A year later, in July 1946, Margit is said to have visited her brother Stephan Thyssen-Bornemisza in Hanover. This was a man who had been a financially contributing member of the SS and involved in various industrial activities using forced labour for the German war effort throughout WWII, though he subsequently flatly denied this. Derix does not mention Stephan Thyssen's pro-Nazi activities at this stage.
According to Derix, Margit Batthyany, financially dependent on her father as she was, moved into his Villa Favorita in Lugano in August 1946.
Our research revealed that in November 1946, Margit wrote to her sister Gaby Bentinck: 'So as not to be obvious, I have agreed with O.(ldenburg), that he will first of all go to South America on his own for two years. I am expecting to receive visa for him, what do you say?'. This evidence was provided by us to Sacha Batthyany and used in his newspaper article (but not his book!). But Simone Derix ignores it and writes simply that Margit had 'plans, in November 1946, to leave Europe'.
The fact that Margit Batthyany could at this point in time envisage a transfer of assets between countries and even continents shows again how privileged her situation was in comparison to that of the vast majority. She could certainly also rely on investments that the family had already made in South America before the war.
Meanwhile, in Burgenland in 1946 eighteen people were accused of having committed war crimes in Rechnitz, seven of whom were indicted in a Peoples' Court, including, in absentia, Franz Podezin and Hans Joachim Oldenburg. But only two would receive sentences, which were eventually quashed in early 1950s Austrian amnesties. The proceedings took two whole years and in fact were only finally closed 20 years later in 1965 in Germany.
On 7 January 1947 Margit Batthyany was questioned for the first and last time in the matter by the Swiss cantonal police in Buchs (Swiss State Security File, entry C.2.16505). She never had to appear as a witness at the Austrian court, a fact that has been denounced on the information plaques of the Rechnitz memorial unveiled in 2012 (in the smaller English and Hungarian version only, not, for some reason, in the main German version).
Was Margit Batthyany-Thyssen ever summoned to appear in court? If not, why not? Did the neutrality of her host country Switzerland play a role in this failure? Or was the protection afforded her simply down to her highly advantageous social position?
Simone Derix alleges that the Countess 'tried' to give Oldenburg an alibi during her questioning. In reality she did give him an alibi by saying that he had not left the party at any time of the night. Sacha Batthyany's conclusion in both his article and his subsequent book is more forceful: 'She protects him, her lover, because Oldenburg has been seen by witnesses at the massacre'.
In the summer of 1948, as per our research, Margit wrote another letter to her sister Gaby Bentinck: 'O.(ldenburg) has a fantastic offer to go to Argentina and join the biggest dairy farm. He will be there by August'. This evidence was once again provided by us and published by Sacha Batthyany, but is not mentioned by Simone Derix, who also failed to consult certain family archives in London.
On 13 August 1948, the court noted that according to a verbal message from the constabulary in Oberwart, both Franz Podezin and Hans-Joachim Oldenburg were living in Switzerland and intended to emigrate with Margit Batthyany to South America, thereby following her husband, who had already gone there. On 30 August 1948, Interpol Vienna informed the Lugano authorities by telegram:
'There is the danger that (Podezin and Oldenburg) will flee to South America. Please arrest them'. The arrest warrants against the two evaders were published in the Swiss Police Gazette of 30.08.48, page 1643, art. 16965. But no arrests took place. All this has been investigated and published by Sacha Batthyany. Simone Derix fails to mention it.
Eleonore Lappin-Eppel summarises the 1946/8 proceedings thus: 'Because of the flight of the two alleged ringleaders Podezin and Oldenburg the court had considerable difficulties in establishing the truth'.
Sacha Batthyany comments: '(Margit) helped the alleged mass murderer (Oldenburg), flee'.
But the line taken by Simone Derix is once again one of protecting Margit Batthyany-Thyssen when she says: 'It remained unclear what role Margit had played when two main perpetrators were able to avoid an interrogation by the Austrian authorities and thus a possible punishment.'
Simone Derix also alleges that Franz Podezin was questioned in the matter. But this is untrue. Podezin was never once questioned about his alleged involvement in the Rechnitz massacre.
Thus Derix is not only clearly engaged in practices of exoneration on behalf of the Thyssen family, her publication is also lagging 'behind' in terms of the stage of advancement of research on this subject, as well as grossly inaccurate on a crucial point.
Margit Batthyany-Thyssen and her husband Ivan Batthyany did come to live between 1948 and 1954 on a farm they had bought in Uruguay. What became of Podezin's and Oldenburg's travel plans is less clear.
Simone Derix explains that by 1950 Hans Joachim Oldenburg was working on the Obringhoven agricultural estate, which was owned by Thyssengas, a fact that has never before been revealed. It is a rare, valuable new contribution to the Rechnitz case made by Derix.
This shows that the Thyssen family was happy to continue employing this farm manager, who had been indicted for war crimes in an Austrian court. The Thyssens thus provided Hans Joachim Oldenburg not only with a livelihood but as well, it seems, with protection from further investigation.
Yet Derix fails to comment critically on this important issue.
As far as Franz Podezin is concerned, according to Stefan Klemp of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, he had gone underground as an agent for the Western allies in East Germany. Apparently, he was arrested in the Soviet zone of occupation because of his activities for allied intelligence services and condemned to 25 years in prison, but released after 11 years and sent to Western Germany, where he came to live as an insurance salesman in Kiel.
In 1958, the Central Office of the County Judicial Administrations for the Clearing up of Nazi Crimes was instituted in Ludwigsburg. In 1963, it filed murder investigation proceedings against Franz Podezin and Hans Joachim Oldenburg. A letter dated 18.02.1963 makes clear that the prosecutor was aware that Podezin was so heavily incriminated that he needed to be arrested, yet he delayed proceedings. Oldenburg was questioned by the Central Office in Dortmund on 26.03.1963.
When police eventually moved in to arrest Podezin on 10 May, he had fled to Denmark. Kurt Griese, an ex SS-Hauptscharführer and now governmental criminal investigator, further blocked proceedings according to Klemp, making it possible for Podezin to travel to Switzerland, where he blackmailed Margit Batthyany-Thyssen into facilitating his flight to South Africa. There he worked for Hytec, a company associated with Thyssen AG, as Stefan Klemp established.
Sacha Batthyany writes: 'Did Aunt Margit, nee Thyssen, help (Podezin) flee in the sixties and then also procured him the job in South Africa?'. But the topic is ignored by Simone Derix.
As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported in addition to our 2007 article, although one of the German investigators reported to the Austrian Justice Ministry in 1963 that Margit Batthyany was suspected of having aided the two Rechnitz murderers flee, charges were never pressed against her. Why not? Derix does not mention this and thus furnishes no explanations.
According to Eva Holpfer, the proceedings against Hans Joachim Oldenburg were closed on the orders of the prosecutor on 21.09.1965 due to a lack of evidence.
By the 1960s Margit Batthyany was back at the Austrian Derby in Vienna collecting trophies on behalf of the winner Settebello whom she had bred. She also regularly returned to Rechnitz (where she died in 1989), especially for the hunting season, spreading largesse in the form of plots of land and other gifts to locals, as relayed to us by Rechnitz people and confirmed by Sacha Batthyany.
In 1970 Margit Batthyany-Thyssen was accorded the Swiss citizenship papers she had tried to obtain ever since the end of the war. The same year Horst Littmann of the German War Graves Commission began digs in Rechnitz but had to stop because permission from the Austrian Ministry of the Interior was not forthcoming.
In the 1980s, the anti-fascist Hans Anthofer initiated the first Rechnitz memorial for the Jewish victims. But in the early 1990s the Jewish cemetery in Rechnitz was still being defaced and according to Eva Schwarzmayer even during the memorial year of 2005 people in public positions still said that it was unsure whether the Kreuzstadl massacre had really happened.
Then, in 2012, the Rechnitz memorial became extended into a museum, which was opened by the Austrian President Heinz Fischer who assured the listeners that 'everything will still be undertaken to find the bodies of the victims'.
The Refugius commemorative association has spoken of a 'change of attitude' that has taken place in Rechnitz. At the same time, they disparage on one of the museum's information panels that 'the active remembrance and commemoration work still does not meet with a general popular consensus'.
What is noticeable is that, contrary to their avowed intentions of wanting to establish the truth and honour the victims (see footnote), none of the Thyssens have actually ever manifestly taken part in the annual commemorations of the Rechnitz massacre.
The Office of the Burgenland County Government has told us that 'The Thyssen respectively Batthyany Family do not play any role whatsoever in the remembrance culture and Aufarbeitung of the past of that area or of Austria as a whole'.
Why do they not?
Sacha Batthyany has reported that he got threatened by members of his family because of his attempts to clarify their history during the Nazi era.
As far as the people of Rechnitz are concerned, they are understandably fragmented on the issue and it would be very odd were it otherwise.
But with the Thyssens there is no such fragmentation. They seem unitedly unapologetic and non-participating. This is now presumably reinforced by their belief that the academics they commissioned have come to the conclusion that they are blameless.
The truth, however, is that they are not blameless and it is now high time for the Thyssens to express clearly which side of the fascist / anti-fascist dividing line they stand on.
Only if the Thyssens (and the Batthyanys as their local 'representatives') assume their position as role models can the commemoration culture of the Rechnitz massacre become consensual for the rest of the population.
By attending the next commemorative event in Rechnitz in late March 2018 – and being reported in the media to have done so – members of the Thyssen dynasty can make a truly public statement in this regard and meet their historical responsibility transparently and effectively.
After all the prevarications of the past, the informed public now expects these families finally to do their fair share in the matter of the Rechnitz Massacre and show REAL solidarity in the honouring of the dead and maimed of those catastrophic events.
Footnote: The following statements were made in the past:
1) Francesca Habsburg, nee Thyssen-Bornemisza on the German Television programme 'Titel, Thesen, Temperamente' in October 2007: 'I support the idea that the family itself should work through those past events. The results of this research shall be accessible in a transparent and public manner'.
2) Batthyany Family official website: 'Since learning about said events in the past few years we are deeply upset and moved…….Many questions have arisen for us. We do not know the answers……
….We hope that the memory of the victims will be cultivated more and more and their graves, which have remained undiscovered to this day, will one day be found.'
Margit Batthyany-Thyssen, daughter of Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, collecting prizes from National Socialist officials for the Thyssens' winning horse at the Austrian Derby held in Vienna in 1942, thus legitimising the Nazi regime on behalf of both families (photo Menzendorf, Berlin; copyright Archive of David R L Litchfield)
Excerpt from the minutes of the board meetings of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Group held (1939-1944) in Lugano, Flims, Davos and Zurich in the presence of Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Wilhelm Roelen, General Manager, and Heinrich Lübke, Manager of the August Thyssen Bank in Berlin. This page shows that the company belonging to Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, the father of Margit Batthyany-Thyssen, Thyssensche Gas- und Wasserwerke (Thyssengas) exploited mining interests near the seat of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Family Castle in Rechnitz / Burgenland (Austria) during the Second World War. (photo copyright Archiv David R L Litchfield)
All in all, at least 800 Jews seem to have been killed in Rechnitz (Austria), seat of the Thyssen-Bornemiszas' castle and home to Margit Batthyany-Thyssen, in the last phase of the Second World War. The so-called "Rechnitz Massacre" during the night of 24/25 March 1945 is in fact only one of several such murderous events at this location at that time.
'The Thyssens. Family and Fortune' is volume 4 of the series 'Family – Enterprises – Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century' sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation of Cologne and published by Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn, Germany. Seven pages of the 500-page book are devoted to the Batthyany-Thyssens' life in Rechnitz during World War Two and in particular their implication in the so-called "Rechnitz Massacre" (photo copyright Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn). This book is a short version of Derix's habilitation thesis and will thus be accepted as fact by German academics, a qualification that we strongly object to.
Simone Derix, author of 'The Thyssens. Family and Fortune', one of ten German academics commissioned by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation with the rewriting of the Thyssens' history, continues what appears to be a white-wash and extenuation (photo copyright Historisches Kolleg, Munich). The Historisches Kolleg, where Simone Derix presented her book, is also, by the way, an institution that is itself partly funded by…..the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (!)
The Kreuzstadl Memorial in Rechnitz to the Jewish victims of the second world war was extended and opened by the Austrian president in 2012. Large information panels include the information that Margit Batthyany never had to give evidence in court on the Rechnitz massacre of 24/25 March 1945. This was despite the fact that German investigators in 1963 reported to the Austrian Ministry of Justice that Margit Batthyany was suspected of having aided and abetted the flight of the two main alleged perpetrators of the crime, Franz Podezin and Joachim Oldenburg (photo copyright übersmeer blog)
The Austrian head of state who opened the Rechnitz memorial in 2012, Heinz Fischer, assured the public that the Republic of Austria continues in its attempts to locate the graves of the Jews murdered in Rechnitz in 1945. But various Austrian authorities and commemoration associations have also remarked that the commemoration process still does not enjoy a general consensus amongst the population and that the Thyssen and Batthyany families in particular seem to refrain from any kind of positive, pro-active participation in this process of Aufarbeitung and healing (photo copyright Infotronik Austria)
Each year at the end of March, a remembrance event takes place at the Rechnitz Kreuzstadl Memorial Museum, organised by the Refugius commemoration association. While the commemoration event was particularly welcomed and supported by the former Rechnitz mayor, Engelbert Kenyeri, and more and more inhabitants of Rechnitz attend the event, so far, not a single member of either the Thyssen or Batthyany families have participated publicly, despite their fervent statements of intentions made following our publication and the ensuing staging in various European cities of Elfriede Jelinek's play 'Rechnitz. The Exterminating Angel' (photo copyright Infotronik Austria)
Tags: 'Gaby' Bentinck, active remembrance, Adolf Eichmann, agent, agricultural estates, Albert Speer, alibi, allied intelligence services, anti-fascist, anti-semitic, Armaments Minister, armed international conflicts, Association of German Historians, Aufarbeitung, Auschwitz, Austria, Austrian amnesties, Austrian authorities, Austrian Derby, Austrian Justice Ministry, Austrian President, Bad Homburg, Batthyany-Thyssen castle, Bavaria, Berlin, Bolshevists, Bozsok, Buchs, Bucsu camp, Budapest Jews, Burgenland, business dealings, Carl-Erdmann-Prize, castle cellar inmates, Central Office of the County Judicial Administrations for the Clearing up of Nazi Crimes, commemoration work, comradeship evening, concentration camp, conspiratorial murders, criminal justice investigations, Davos, death marches, Denmark, Dortmund, Düns, Dutch financial instruments, Eduard Nicka, Eleonore Lappin-Eppel, Emmerich Cserer, end-phase crimes, Erlenhof stud farm, Eva Holpfer, Eva Schwarzmayer, family archives, Family. Enterprises. Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century, fascist, Feldkirch, feudal overlords, final solution, financially contributing member of the SS, Flims, Forced Labour, Franz Cserer, Franz Ostermann, Franz Podezin, French military government, Fritz Thyssen, Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Gabor Zichy, gas chambers, Gauleiter of Styria, German Derby, German war effort, German War Graves Commission, Germany, Gestapo, guilt, Hamburg, Hanover, Hans Anthofer, Hans-Joachim Oldenburg, Heini Thyssen, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Heinz Fischer, Hermann Schwarz, high-level contacts, Hildegard Stadler, Hitler Youth, Hoppegarten, Horst Littmann, host country, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Hungarian aristocracy, Hungarian fascists, Hungary, hunting season, Hytec, industrialisation, intelligence, Interpol, investments, Ivan Batthyany, Jewish cemetery, Jews, Johann Paal, Josef Hotwagner, Josef Mandel, Josef Muralter, Josef Thyssen, Josi Groh, Kiel, Köszeg, Kreuzstadl, Kurt Griese, Lake Lugano, Landswerth horse racing stables, legitimisation of the Nazi regime, London, Ludwig Groll, Ludwigsburg, Lugano, Miklos Horthy, mining interests, moral and legal responsibility, munitions, murder investigation, museum, National Socialists, nationhood, Naumburg/Saale, Nazi Germany, Nazi ideology, Nazi Party, Nazi regime, Nazi-occupied Europe, Nazi-state elite, neutrality, Nordlicht, Oberwart, Obringhoven agricultural estate, Office of the Burgenland County Government, organisation Todt, Otto Ickowitz, Paul Szomogyi, people of Rechnitz, People's Court, popular consensus, Poschendorf, privileged lifestyle, prosecution, prosecutor, punishment, racing stables, racist, Ralph Giordano, reactionary landed gentry, Rechnitz, Rechnitz Castle, Rechnitz estate, Rechnitz Massacre, Rechnitz Memorial, Rechnitz war crimes, Red Army, Refugius commemoration association, regime of terror, Reichs Crystal Night, reinforced defense system, remembrance culture, research into the wealthy, Rittergut Gleina, Rittergut Götschendorf, Rittergut Neu Schlagsdorf, role models, Ruhr, Ruhr factories, Russians, SA-member, Sacha Batthyany, Sacre Coeur, Schachendorf, Schloss Puchhof, Schweizermeierhof, Schwerin, scorched earth, Settebello, sexual penchant, Sigfried Uiberreither, Simon Wiesenthal, Simone Derix, Slavs, social position, solidarity, Sondereinsatzkommando, South Africa, South America, South-East Earth Wall, Soviet occupation, Soviet Union, SS, SS-Hauptscharführer, Stefan Beigelböck, Stefan Klemp, Stephan Thyssen-Bornemisza, stigmatisation, suppression of labour movements, Swiss authorities, Swiss cantonal police, Swiss citizenship, Swiss Police Gazette, Swiss State Security File, Switzerland, synergies, tax reasons, The Thyssen Art Macabre, The Thyssens. Family and Fortune, Thyssen AG, Thyssen managers, Thyssengas, Thyssensche Gas- und Wasserwerke, Ticino safehaven, transfer of assets, truth, Uckermark, Uruguay, victimisation, Vienna, Villa Favorita, vindication of culprits, Volksgemeinschaft, Volkssturm, Vorarlberg, Walsum coal mine, Walter Manoschek, weapons, Wehrmacht, Wilhelm Weiss, witness, World War Two, Zurich
Posted in The Thyssen Art Macabre, Thyssen Corporate, Thyssen Family No Comments »
The indispensability of "impertinence" or An explanation to a Berlin book blogger concerning Sacha Batthyany and the Thyssen-Bornemiszas (by Caroline D Schmitz)
The aggressiveness of the reaction of many German-speaking commentators following our article in the Feuilleton of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2007, "The Hostess from Hell" (previously published in Britain in The Independent under the title "The Killer Countess"), has always shocked me deeply. Here was the powerful Thyssen dynasty, who not just kept quiet about their overwhelming participation in the National Socialist regime, but who had their role pro-actively denied through the propagation of misleading reports. And there were we, an English author and a German researcher, who chance had brought together in England in 1995 and who, through a very small number of outstanding personalities, namely Steven Bentinck, Heini Thyssen, Naim Attallah, George Weidenfeld, Frank Schirrmacher and Ernst Gerlach, were put into the lucky position of being able to pierce the narrative of the corporate-academic-media establishment on the subject of Thyssen and save the truth from being entombed.
From the beginning, we were "impertinent" in the original sense of the word which is "not being part of (the establishment)", and our research always took place at the original locations. We did not learn of the Rechnitz massacre on the Internet, but in Rechnitz itself and from Rechnitz people. At the time our article was published in FAZ, we knew nothing of Eduard Erne, who had made a documentary film on the event entitled "Totschweigen" (i.e. "Silencing to Death") as far back as 1994 (and who currently works for Swiss television), or of Paul Gulda, who in 1991 founded the Rechnitz Refugee and Commemoration Initiative (Refugius). When we met them both at the Rechnitz-symposium at the Burgenland County Museum in Eisenstadt (Austria) in 2008, they too treated us in an unfriendly manner, which we thought could only be because they felt we had ignored their work on purpose. This was not the case and moreover, because of us, their work was now much more prominent than before. So why were they attacking us and protecting the Thyssens and the Batthyanys who had obviously rejected or ignored their work in the past?
Now, a decade later, a sizeable statement by a member of the dynasty, Sacha Batthyany, has been published in Germany in the form of the book "What's that to do with me?", and is due to be released in Great Britain by Quercus in March 2017 (translator: Anthea Bell) under the title "A Crime in the Family", (a line remarkably similar to the cover headline "Shame and scandal in the family" we used on our book "The Thyssen Art Macabre", and which was a statement originally made to us by Heini Thyssen himself). Great efforts of promotion are being lavished on Mr Batthyany's book, which is to be distributed as widely as Israel and the USA.
In his press work, Sacha Batthyany tirelessly pretends that it was "chance" that he came across the negative sides of his family history and in particular the Rechnitz massacre. He says it was all "unknown" until one day he started investigating things of which he knew absolutely nothing before, which he says is because he grew up in the "padded" country of Switzerland, where one knows nothing, for instance, about the Second World War… This from a journalist, whose family was financially supported by the Thyssens' wartime profiteering organised from Switzerland, who is a member of one of the most influential European (originally Austro-Hungarian) dynasties, has studied in Madrid, has worked for various big international newspapers (e.g. Neue Zürcher Zeitung) and spent a big part of his youth not in Zurich, but in Salzburg (although he admits the latter very exclusively only when he happens to be speaking in the major Austrian towns of Salzburg or Vienna – his press work does not seem to have led him to the Burgenland provinces of Eisenstadt or Rechnitz so far, whose mayor Engelbert Kenyeri, poignantly, does not seem to be too impressed by Batthyany's book).
Even FAZ (Sandra Kegel), which during its original coverage of our story had to fend off huge ill will from Neue Zürcher Zeitung and others and without whom the German-speaking version of our book would not be available, now withheld mention of our impulse and, as so many others showered by the promotion of the Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing house, praised Batthyany's work as a heroic act of self-motivated honesty. And this despite the fact that his book would not exist if FAZ, ten years ago, had not had the courage to allow our "impertinence", thereby exposing itself to the risk of serious reputational attack at the hands of their rivals in the media.
At the end of May, the Berlin book blogger "Devona" (www.buchimpressionen.de), having reviewed 75 works of fiction, decided to review a non-fiction audio book for the first time in her life and chose "What's that to do with me?" to do so. In her review, she made statements about the role of Margit Batthyany nee Thyssen-Bornemisza in the Rechnitz massacre, which, according to the rudimentary state of her knowledge about the case, were not hers to make. For instance, she described the fact that Margit covered up for two main perpetrators of the crime after the war as mere "conjecture". So we wrote a comment to her, pointing out the inaccuracy and coarse fatality of her statement. Even the statement concerning the Rechnitz massacre on the official website of the Batthyany family, which is still far from extensive enough, has been admitting for a few years now that this cover-up did happen. So why should an anonymous person, who is obviously not part of the family, disseminate contradictory information?
Devona reacted at great speed and very angrily to the content of our critical analysis. Then she revised her reaction. Now, it was no longer so much the content of our criticism that angered her, as our manner of expressing it, which she alleged to be "impertinent". And then the author of "Buchimpressionen" did something truly astonishing. She first took off the name of the German version of our Thyssen book ("Die Thyssen-Dynastie. Die Wahrheit hinter dem Mythos") from her platform, which had been part of our statement. She then accused us of not having provided the German public with a German-speaking version of our work. When she subsequently found out that a German version of our book has existed since 2008, she refused to recognise this fact, because, as she said, "to this day Wikipedia does not refer to a German version".
The blogger now added that she would "not research to the ends of the Internet after every commentator". But in truth she had not researched anywhere near the ends of the Internet, she had come to rest at its very first stop. Our book on the Thyssens exists in German, but for Devona it did not exist in German, because on Wikipedia it did not say that it exists in German. This was so indicative of German-speakers' refusal to engage with the factual content of our book. Was this information handler just too lazy or did she not want to know about the correction? Devona's statements, in their unfiltered emotionality, were highly revelatory. She had now also stopped addressing me and directed herself exclusively to "Mr Litchfield", as if the book were the product of an Englishman only and not an English-German co-production.
Wikipedia as a reference point is problematic to us, particularly because FAZ in 2007, during the translation of our article from English to German, carried out several changes to our text, after, amongst other things, conversations with the presumptious head of the ThyssenKrupp archives, Professor Manfred Rasch, and after checking various Wikipedia-pages. The most important one of these changes is this: Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza did not settle permanently in Switzerland in 1932, i.e. one year before Adolf Hitler came to power, but only in 1938, as we found out during our research. The Independent article said 1938, but the FAZ article says 1932. People with adequate historical knowledge know what that means and the roles of Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and of Switzerland during the Second World War have been explained at length in our book. To the less experienced we say simply this: it is a swap that might appear tiny, and which yet has a meaning that is both fundamental and monumental.
Devona thought of our comments to her as being "impertinent", although they were merely strict. And she refused emphatically to look into the matter in a way that was befitting its gravity. The "impertinence" of the matter, however, does not lie with us. The outrageousness and the aberration lies with the crimes that were committed in the name of the German people during the Second World War. The impertinence lies with the fact that the Thyssens (who had married into and financed parts of the Batthyany family) gave aid to the anti-democratic, grievously inhumane Nazi-regime, that they set the parameters in which the monstrous crimes against above all the Jews, but also against other people, including the crimes against the German people and their honour, could be carried out. It is impertinent that they have remained silent about it for 70 years, have denied their role and glorified their deeds. It is impertinent that they, in short, have misled the general public and that in large parts they continue to do so. It is only because of their behaviour that this book blogger at this time was still able to express her assumption of Margit Batthyany-Thyssen's guiltlessness.
The families in question enjoy a comfortable supremacy in society, within the public discourse and in the "regard" of people, based on their membership of both the world of the financially privileged and of the aristocracy. (NB: the latter is strictly long since defunct both in Germany and in Austria and can be accepted in a democracy only if it does behave in an impeccably democratic manner). Furthermore their status is due to the fact that ThyssenKrupp is still one of the major German employers and that the coal and steel industries, which the Thyssens were unfortunately allowed to continue to control after 1945, helped prevent a total collapse of the country following the Second World War (as Herbert Grönemeyer sings in his song "Bochum": "your pit gold lifted us up again").
In arch-conservative Austria, the Batthyanys (who Sacha Batthyany obviously considers himself part of and vice-a-versa, as he lets himself be and is pictured in their midst on their homepage – last row, second from right in the big group picture of the younger generation) continue to have a special status which derives from their long feudal history (the current head of the clan, Count Ladislaus Pascal Batthyany-Strattmann, is a Gentleman of the Papal Household!…).
In view of this, the general public continues "pertinently" to content itself with its submissive role of being recipients of Thyssen and Batthyany misinformation. One member of the dynasty, Sacha Batthyany, has now written a book, which purports to be an honest examination of the past. But not everyone remains convinced (see in particular Thomas Hummitzsch in "Der Freitag", but also Michael André on Getidan, and even Luzia Braun, Blue Sofa, Leipzig Book Fair).
Most of the commentators of the Rechnitz massacre say they agree that the graves of the victims have to be found. But while local people have claimed they know where the graves are and the original Russian investigations certainly located them, not everyone amongst the more powerful members of the community, both past and present, seem to be equally willing to contribute to such transparency.
While it appears to be utopic to hope that this might change, times have moved on rapidly since 2007, when our book first appeared. Thyssenkrupp is now an ailing colossus, whose name quite possibly might not exist in its present form in the foreseeable future, following a sale or take-over of all or parts. And German legislation concerning the prosecution of Nazi crimes no longer assumes automatic guiltlessness if a direct participation in acts of killing cannot be proven. A presence and role in the overall crime suffices, and an administrative office some distance away from a gas chamber is close enough for its essential contribution to the effectiveness of the killing machine to be proven. The same goes in the case of Rechnitz for the castle (which was requisitioned by the SS but continued to be financed by the Thyssens) and the Rechnitz murder pit of the night of 24/25 March 1945.
Today it is still mainly the small fish that get dragged before the courts, people such as John Demjanjuk, Oskar Gröning and Reinhold Hanning. But the clock of historical honesty is ticking relentlessly for the big fish too, who still are not working through their past voluntarily and comprehensively. Those Thyssens and Batthyanys, who played unsavoury roles during the Second World War, are dead. It is the democratic duty of their descendants finally to cut through the web of misinformation and stick by not only the positive sides of their history but the negative sides too. Only through their confession can the general public learn the last serious lessons from this history. Only then can permanent healing and reconciliation happen.
But the Thyssen-Bornemiszas and Batthyanys, it seems, do not wish this to happen, possibly because a free, enlightened, democratic public can be better controlled through unsettling, divisive manipulation. The history of the Holocaust could be comprehensively settled by now, if these families had not shirked their responsibilities. The German people could finally be released from a continuation of the drip-drip-drip of Aufarbeitung which is so bone-grinding and thereby effectively counter-productive, if these families did now come clean and accepted the fact that our book is an accurate, independent, historical record.
Deep in the souls of the German and Austrian people, the names Thyssen and Batthyany are inextricably linked to the feelings of honour and pride. However, these families (the Thyssen-Bornemiszas through their head Georg Thyssen, board member of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and backer of the series "Family – Enterprises – Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century" (which so far does not mention the Rechnitz massacre at all) and the Batthyanys through their head Count Ladislaus Batthyany-Strattmann, backer of the tomes "The Batthyany Family. An Austro-Hungarian Dynasty of Magnates from the End of the Middle Ages until Today", which rejects outright any involvement of Margit Batthyany-Thyssen in the Rechnitz massacre!) fail to act honourably by avoiding independent scrutiny and controlling their cooperation in authorised historical publications.
Their shielding leads to a situation where even Germans and Austrians who are anti-Nazi, or purport to be so, cannot recognise the full extent of the Holocaust and thus unwittingly help cover up the true nature of some Nazi crimes, such as the Rechnitz massacre, a process that can all too easily appear to be that of a silent approval.
In the case of Germans and Austrians this is of course particularly devastating. But this kind of dodging is also especially contraindicated for citizens of supposedly "neutral" countries such as Switzerland, and particularly for Sacha Batthyany. The number of statements he makes in his book and in his press work that are offensive, such as "Marga and Mirta had the Holocaust that they could hold on to. What did I have?", is also inacceptable.
As long as Sacha Batthyany will continue to claim sympathy rather than guilt for the questionable honesty of his revelations, we will be persistent in this matter. And that is not an "impertinence". It is our holy duty.
Tags: A Crime in the Family, Adolf Hitler, aggressiveness, Anthea Bell, anti-democratic, aristocracy, Aufarbeitung, Austria, authorised historical publications, Batthyany family, blogger, Blue Sofa, Bochum, book blogger, Buchimpressionen, Burgenland, Burgenland County Museum, castle, coal and steel industries, commentator, confession, Count Ladislaus Batthyany-Strattmann, Count Ladislaus Pascal Batthyany-Strattmann, democracy, Der Freitag, Devona, Die Thyssen-Dynastie. Die Wahrheit hinter dem Mythos, direct participation in acts of killing, documentary film, Eduard Erne, Eisenstadt, Engelbert Kenyeri, Ernst Gerlach, essential contribution to the effectiveness of the killing machine, family history, Family. Enterprises. Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century, feudal history, feuilleton, financed by the Thyssens, Frank Schirrmacher, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Gentleman of the Papal Household, Georg Thyssen, George Weidenfeld, German legislation, German people, German people and their honour, Germany, Getidan, graves of the victims, guilt, healing, Heini Thyssen, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Herbert Grönemeyer, historical honesty, history of the Holocaust, holy duty, honesty, honour, impertinence, Internet, Israel, John Demjanjuk, Kiepenheuer & Witsch publishing house, Leipzig Book Fair, Luzia Braun, Madrid, Margit Batthyany nee Thyssen-Bornemisza, Margit Batthyany-Thyssen, media, Michael Andre, misinformation, Naim Attallah, National Socialist regime, Nazi regime, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, non-fiction, official website of the Batthyany family, Oskar Gröning, Paul Gulda, pride, Professor Manfred Rasch, prosecution of Nazi crimes, public discourse, Quercus, questionable honesty, Rechnitz, Rechnitz Massacre, Rechnitz people, Rechnitz Refugee and Commemoration Initiative, Rechnitz-Symposium, reconciliation, Refugius, Reinhold Hanning, research, Russian investigations, Sacha Batthyany, Salzburg, Sandra Kegel, Second World War, Shame and Scandal in the Family, Silencing to Death, silent approval, SS, Steven Bentinck, supremacy, Swiss television, Switzerland, The Batthyany Family. An Austro-Hungarian Dynasty of Magnates from the End of the Middle Ages until Today, The Hostess from Hell, The Independent, The Killer Countess, The Thyssen Art Macabre, Thomas Hummitzsch, Thyssen Dynasty, Thyssen-Bornemisza, ThyssenKrupp, ThyssenKrupp archives, Thyssens' wartime profiteering organised through Switzerland, Totschweigen, translator, transparency, USA, Vienna, What's That To Do With Me, Wikipedia, Zurich
Is there really a new Thyssen humility on the horizon?
Nearly a decade has passed since the publication of our controversial, 500-page book on Thyssen ("The Thyssen Art Macabre"), following which a large official response was set in motion, the logic for which is sometimes difficult to understand, except perhaps to reaffirm the academic credibility of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and assuage the Thyssen family's guilt.
Two years ago, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, with the consent of its board member Georg Thyssen-Bornemisza and the support of the ThyssenKrupp company archives, finally started releasing a series of ten books (anything around 5000 pages in total!) entitled "Family – Enterprises – Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century". So far, three books have appeared (two of which were doctoral thesis) and were reviewed by us: Donges on the United Steelworks, Urban on Forced Labour and Gramlich on Art.
Then, in November 2015, somewhat at odds with the chronology, volume five, "Thyssen in the Adenauer Period. Concern Formation and Family Capitalism" by Professor Johannes Bähr was issued. The author's status, track record and purported commitment to transparency in company-commissioned research gave rise to hopes for a genuine, critical analysis of the regaining of power, after World War Two, in Germany, of a family who had been major war profiteers and Hitler supporters.
Unfortunately, the book's almost Disney-style, yet haughty superficiality once again displayed all too obviously the hallmarks of a Thyssen-authorised work. We will thus be postponing our review until the end of the series, not least because another tome, out sometime around 2017 (?), is set to deal with the "confiscation" of Fritz Thyssen's assets during, and their restitution after World War Two, a topic without which volume 5 cannot really be fully appreciated, assuming that anybody out there will have the stamina to actually get that far.
The remaining books of the series to be published are on the one hand: Simone Derix, "The Thyssens. Family and Fortune" and Felix de Taillez, "Fritz and Heinrich Thyssen. Two Bourgeois Lives for the Public" (both due out in June 2016), whereby the latter title represents an unbelievable turn-around for an organisation which in the past has denied any serious representation of Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, the darkest character of the family, who had the closest bonds – not least through banking – with the evil Nazi regime.
And finally, four books, whose publication dates remain so far undisclosed: Jan Schleusener on the "confiscation" and restitution of Fritz Thyssen's fortune; Harald Wixforth on the Thyssen-Bornemisza Group 1919-1932; Boris Gehlen on the Thyssen-Bornemisza Group 1932-1947; and Hans Günter Hockerts on the history of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.
Almost in parallel, ThyssenKrupp (or thyssenkrupp as it is now known, with its new, filigree logo) has seen a major image change campaign taking hold under Heinrich Hiesinger who, since taking over as chief executive in 2011, has been fighting on several fronts against huge deficits from past mismanagement and corruption scandals, as well as the rapid decline of the European steel-making sector.
Hiesinger's programme of streamlining and transparency has been described by Martin Wocher in Handelsblatt as "the end of the era of the self-aggrandising Ruhr barons" (of which, of course, there have not really been any left for quite some time) and by Bernd Ziesemer in Capital as a "change in culture and mentality" that is allowing thyssenkrupp to distance itself from the "tradition of corruption" within the steel industry.
But how believable and successful can this fight for the polishing of thyssenkrupp's tarnished image really be against a background of persistent opacity in the company's historiography?
As if to illustrate the contradictions involved in the situation, Francesca Habsburg, nee Thyssen-Bornemisza, grand-daughter of Heinrich, this month on German TV's "ZDF Hallo Deutschland Mondän: Wien" feature, having let herself be described as a "super-rich Thyssen heiress", who "has no need to mince her words", used the programme to attack the Austrian state as "hypocritical" for using the Habsburg name to help tourism while refusing to fund her art exhibition activities with tax payers' money. She then denigrated her husband's name by stating (in English rather than German throughout!):
"The name Habsburg did not dazzle me. I was not overwhelmed by it. I was overwhelmed by my father-in-law, and how he kept the family together. I think the family has come to understand that I have accepted the history of the family and that it has a comfortable [clearly meaning financially comfortable] future through me". (all quotes approximate from memory).
Of course, it is not the Habsburg family history that is difficult to accept. It is the history of her own, the Thyssen family and their industrial and banking endeavours from which her fortune came, that Francesca Thyssen should, in fact, start being sufficiently humble to concern herself with.
Thyssen without steel. A symbol of their fast disappearing corporate identity.
Tags: academic credibility, Adenauer, Art, art exhibition, Austrian state, banking, Bernd Ziesemer, Boris Gehlen, Capital, change in culture and mentality, company-commissioned research, corruption scandals, decline of European steel-making, Disney, Donges, Family capitalism, Family. Enterprises. Public. Thyssen in the 20th Century, Felix de Taillez, Forced Labour, Francesca Habsburg, Francesca Thyssen, Fritz and Heinrich Thyssen. Two Bourgeois Lives for the Public, Fritz Thyssen, Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Georg Thyssen-Bornemisza, Germany, Gramlich, Habsburg, Habsburg family history, Handelsblatt, Hans Günter Hockerts, Harald Wixforth, Heinrich Hiesinger, Heinrich Thyssen, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, history of the family, Hitler supporters, image change campaign, Jan Schleusener, Johannes Bähr, Logo, Martin Wocher, mismanagement, Nazi regime, opacity in the company's historiography, self-aggrandising Ruhr barons, Simone Derix, tax payers' money, The Thyssen Art Macabre, the Thyssen family's guilt, The Thyssens. Family and Fortune, Thyssen Bornemisza Group 1919-1932, Thyssen Bornemisza Group 1932-1947, Thyssen heiress, Thyssen humility, Thyssen in the Adenauer Period. Concern Formation and Family Capitalism, ThyssenKrupp, ThyssenKrupp company archives, tradition of corruption within the steel industry, transparency, United Steelworks, Urban, war profiteers, World War Two, ZDF Hallo Deutschland Mondän: Wien