Thread by @RTSG_Main

Who funded the Nazis? All the most influential financial backers of the Nazi Party compiled into one thread 🧵

1. The Thule Society

The Thule Society was an offshoot of the Germananorden, a theosophic/ariosophic organization heavily influenced by the Freemasons with many ties to European noble aristocracy. How much exactly they gave is unknown, but they are the ones responsible for creating the original German Workers Party, the predecessor of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

2. Governor of the Bank of England, Montagu Norman

Montagu Norman was the governor of the Bank of England, at one time the largest financial institution in the world. He was a friend of Alfred Rosenberg and Hjamlar Schacht, and donated money to the Nazis through a third-party bank. He was also pro-Germany in foreign policy, anti-France, anti-Russia, and most importantly, anti-Semitic. Rosenberg met with Norman to secure loans not from the Bank of England directly, but rather from the Stein Bank, which had connections to the Schroder Bank, and finally to the Bank of England. This meeting would lay the groundwork for the British-Nazi relationship that would eventually result in Montagu Norman giving secret loans to the Nazi government in 1934.

3. Ernst Röhm and the Iron Fist

Ernst Röhm was the de-facto leader of a secret paramilitary organization called the Eiserne Faust which controlled Germany’s Freikorps units. He was also responsible for funding, arming, and training the Nazi’s SA brigades. Kurt Lüdecke, who would later become a pivotal member of the Nazi Party, wrote that “Röhm was of decisive importance to the Party, finding money, arms, and men at the most critical times.” Röhm secretly funneled money and equipment to the Nazi party using two top-secret shell companies called the Feldzeugmeisterei, and a dependent corporation called Faber Motor Vehicle Rental service.

4. Colonel Franz Xaver Ritter von Epp

Ritter von Epp was also a part of the same Freikorps paramilitary group as Röhm, but directly financed half of the Nazi purchase of the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi newspaper that would be the primary method of propaganda of the party for the next decade. The other half of the expenses, meanwhile, would be supplemented by Dr. Gottfried Grandel, an industrialist that Hitler had made a personal appeal to. Grandel worked with an official of the Hansa Bank, Simon Eckart, to advance one part of the funds required and provided the rest with credit. From that point on, the Nazi party was in debt to German banks.

5. Kurt Lüdecke

Kurt Lüdecke was the son of a wealthy chemical factory owner in Oranienburg. Lüdecke built one of the first SA battalions out of his own pocket, and was instrumental in introducing Hitler to various members of the German aristocracy and wealthy industrialists. He was able to come in contact with many of Germany’s aristocracy, including the Duke of Anhalt and Count Fugger. However, what fruits this meeting provided for the Nazis is still to this day a closely guarded secret.

6. Emil Kirdorf

Emil Kirdorf was one of the Ruhr Valley’s first and most prominent industrialists. He was also a founding member of the Free Ukraine association. He funded the NSDAP directly and even joined the party in 1927. It has been said that his purpose for supporting the Nazis was to “divert the working class away from Marxism-Leninism.” He was also responsible for advising Hitler to write “The Road to Recovery”, a pamphlet targeted towards advertising the party to industrialists.

7. The Ruhrlade

An association of Germany’s biggest industrialists and Junker land-owners, the Ruhrlade funded the Nazi party directly with hundreds of thousands of Reichsmarks during the early years. In particular, Alfred Hugenburg, while not a direct sympathizer of the Nazis, headed the board of trustees of the Krupp firm which participated in the Ruhrlade and directly policy towards supporting the NSDAP. In 1933, when the Nazis were essentially bankrupt from their spending in the previous election, the entirety of German finance, including all of its domestic and international banks, bailed out the Nazi party to prevent the Communist Party of Germany from winning in the elections. Industrialists like Krupp and IG Farben were also party to this bailout and spent millions to do so.

8. Sir Henri Deterding

Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Tycoon of the Royal British-Dutch Oil company and a fervent anti-Communist, Deterding was a massively rich man who frequently made overtures towards supporting an anti-bolshevik movement within Germany and Eastern Europe, and in fact did so in the Ukraine. He was a backer of a multitude of White Russian emigres who aided and funded the Nazis, and directly financed the NSDAP. In 1939, after his death, Hitler hosted his funeral as he was one of the Nazi’s greatest backers and most ardent supporters.

9. Fritz Thyssen

Thyssen was possibly the richest man in Germany in the 1920s, and believed strongly that the Bolsheviks (who were, according to him, “Jewish agents”) were a threat to German finance-capitalism. He personally funded various Freikorps elements and even the Nazis directly. With Kirdorf’s help, Thyssen managed to raise a loan of hundreds of thousands of Reichsmarks through a Dutch bank in Rotterdam to help the Nazis and continued to support them for years afterwards.

10. The Bank for International Settlements

Also known as BIS, the Bank of International Settlements was the main organization by which the Allied governments of the West, namely the UK and the USA, talked directly with their enemies of Japan and Germany about the future of finance capital throughout the entirety of World War 2. When the Nazis looted a new country, they sent the gold to pay off their debts to banks in London. Additionally, when the war was nearing its end, the Nazi government were in talks with the West to restructure the future post-war German economy.

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