September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

does not mean that they had a single point of view concerning Hitler, either before or after the Nazis
climb to power in 1930-33. Contrary to the popular myths concerning the Dulles brothers, for example,
Allen Dulles was a relatively early advocate of U.S. backing for the British in their showdown with
Germany, while John Foster Dulles remained considerably more tolerant of Nazism. Others were
prominent Jews who were destined to be dispossessed by the Nazis. Banker Eric Warburg was forced
to sell off most of his German properties in the early 1930s, but he returned for the reconstruction after
1945. Some members of the elite did become creatures of Hitler, however, such as Dresdner Bank's
Karl Lindemann, who was characterized as a "rabid Nazi" by one of the bank's senior executives.
Despite their differences, these U.S.-German "reference groups" or "linkage groups," as they became
known to sociologists, shared common convictions that were to them far more fundamental: the central
importance of maintaining the viability of capitalism as a national and world economic system, and the
key role of U.S. and German productive capacity and markets within that effort. Measured against
these more basic values, the Nazis and their whole brutal apparatus were seen by much of the elite as
transitory, at least during the 1920s and 1930s. From the standpoint of corporate ideology, this elite
saw itself as a new generation of the so-called managerial revolution; they considered themselves to be
"forward thinking" and unencumbered by the stuffy formalism of earlier times." [Christopher Simpson,
The Splendid Blond Beast, Common Courage Press, 1995]
"Right from the start, the NSDAP ideology was hostile to the financial sector. Financial capital,
according to Nazi ideology, was more profit-earning than working capital, was disembedded from its
national context and was in the service of Jewish interests. In his 1925 published pamphlet "Mein
Kampf", Hitler (1925/1999: 213) wrote, "the hardest battle would have to be fought, not against hostile
nations, but against international capital" which was "robbing the enterprises" (ibid: 314). Thus the
strong continuity of the bank's entanglement with industrial corporations over the Nazi period and
beyond was not a forgone conclusion. The relationship between different groups of industry and the
NSDAP is the subject of numerous controversial debates… but there seems to be a consensus that
"Hitler's assistants" were located more in the heavy-industry sector – the political commitment of Fritz
Thyssen is a well-known example of this – than in the financial sector …..Nazi elite failed to make an
extensive reform of the banking sector their top priority. The cartel-like banking system and the banks'
ties with industrial corporations were not dissolved….the "Schutzstaffel" (SS) agitated against banks as
rent seekers of the war and demanded the nationalization of the large banks. Again, the banks’
influence over industrial companies was a main point of criticism (James 1995: 390-395). Hitler
refused such demands, arguing that National Socialists should not assume any responsibility towards
banks……By and large, the company network remained stable in the years of the Nazi dictatorship."
[Martin Höpner and Lothar Krempel, MPIfG Working Paper 03/9, The Politics of the German
Company Network, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, September 2003]
The three largest German banks of Deutsche Bank, Dresdner and Commerzbank did
indeed control most of industrial Germany, but that did not by default make their
management Nazis. Sparing them the indignity of that accusation however, should not be
construed as exoneration. These banks – especially the Deutsche Bank – seem to have a
consistent reputation for being involved with organized crime, and they seem to deal with
virtually any organized criminal element one can name. Moreover, it is fair to observe
that more than one of these gentlemen has the potential to be linked to a German version
of ‘Manifest Destiny’. Some of these gentlemen have lineages that are hundreds of years
old, with a familial legacy of conquest and imperialism to live up to. Such men might
easily subscribe to a German version of the New World Order.
Accountability for corporate institutions can best be attributed to the Board of Directors.
That being said, it would be inappropriate to claim that every – or even the majority of -
Board member of Dresdner, Deutsche Bank and Allianz is responsible for the actions of a
few rogue executives. The key issue is going to be: how few and how powerful are these
THE SEPTEMBER 11 COMMISSION REPORT Page 284