John Liddell
John’s first subject was Julius Forstmann, born at Werden-an-der-Ruhr in 1871 and 6th generation of a woollen textile manufacturing family. He entered the family firm of Forstmann and Huffmann Co. as a director, in 1897, aged 26. In 1902 he married, and in 1904 they emigrated and settled in Passaic, New Jersey. After nearly a year working for Botany Worsted Mills, he left Botany and founded the Forstmann and Huffmann Co. in Passaic. Forstmann and Huffmann became first US Company to compete successfully with Europe in the manufacture of fine dress goods. By 1914, he was able to buy a large country property at Claryville in the corner of the Catskills, where he built a family summer home and year-round dairy farm. During WW1 he served as assistant to Gen. W Goethals, the quartermaster general of the U.S. army. During this time he was asked for and provided specifications for improved uniform materials. His company received the Certificate of Distinguished Service from the war department for the excellence of its service.
After the war Forstmann became incredibly wealthy. In 1923, he built a luxury New York town house in Manhattan. By 1928, he was worth about US$50 million and ordered a custom-built yacht, the 333-foot 3,097-ton Orion, from the Krupp Industries in Germany. It was the world’s largest private yacht in its day. The following year Julius and his family made a 33,741 mile trip round the world. One of Forstmann’s sons, Julius George, published an account of their trip and a copy was sent to Gustav Krupp. Forstmann died in 1939. The Orion was bought by the navy, converted to a gunboat and renamed the USS Vixen. She served under four admirals and was used as base for operations against the German U-boats, many built by the same shipyard as the Vixen! John then focussed on the Krupp family, a 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen famous for their steel empire in Germany. He sketched the Krupp history from 1800 when Widow Krupp put grandson Friedrich in charge of a small iron forge she owned and ran as part of her real estate portfolio, to the 2nd World War, when Alfried Krupp became the world’s most powerful industrialist.In 1868 Alfred Krupp, son of the founder, built the Villa Hügel south of Essen, as a family home. It was to be the home of three generations of the Krupp family.
The Krupp business spread across the globe and focused on arms manufacturing. In 1914 Krupp AG was the major arms supplier for Germany but after 1918, forbidden to make weapons by the terms of Versailles Treaty, Gustav ensured the survival of the company by diversifying. With the secret assistance of the government and the army Krupp got around the terms of the treaty and ensured they never lost the technology of armament manufacturing. By the late 1920s it was safe for the design teams to return. During depression Krupp made steel, trains and trucks, but after the accession of Hitler in 1933, Krupp was back building guns.
During WW2 Krupp was the main supplier of heavy weaponry to the army and navy, using up to 100,000 slave labourers. Gustav Krupp had a stroke in 1941, so in 1943, he handed control to his eldest son Alfried and by the early 1940s, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was the world’s greatest industrialist. However, not all things happen as planned. In April 1945, the advancing American troops arrested Alfried Krupp at Villa Hügel. On 3rd May, the Germans surrendered to the British at Lüneburg Heath. At that time Montgomery’s main headquarters was at Bad Oeynhausen, about 100 miles south west of Lüneburg Heath. Bad Oeynhausen was in turn about 100 miles from the Krupp mansion at Essen. One day a young army captain at Bad Oeynhausen took a trip to Villa Hügel and decided to keep a souvenir of the event, so he “borrowed” a book from the library. And the book was, of course, “The World Cruise ofthe Orion.”
John happens to have the book because that young army captain was his father.