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Historic Groups that Started Innocent then Took an Evil Turn

Khalid Elhassan November 8, 2020 32 min

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29. A Giant Conglomerate Falls on Hard Times, and is Saved by the Nazis

A Siemens truck being used as a Nazi public address system in 1932. Bundesarchiv Bild

After decades of a monumental success, Siemens hit a rough patch after WWI. Things did not get better for the industrial giant during the Great Depression. Then the company, whose corporate leadership supported the rise of Hitler, was saved by the Nazis.

Siemens factory during the Great Depression. Siemens

When Hitler rose to power in 1933, Siemens profited as the new regime started rearming, and the company experienced massive growth from armaments contracts. As the leader of Germany’s electrical industry, Siemens’ revenue increased continuously from 1934 onwards, reaching a peak during WWII. Of course, being an industrial giant in Nazi Germany meant that much of that revenue was not reaped through innocent means.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.