61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Industrie- und Verwaltungs AG had been founded in 1930, and was originally
wholly owned by Theodor Kaiser, a former confectioner in Waiblingen near
Stuttgart, whose discoveries in the field of caramel production and the elimination
of insects had made him wealthy, enabling him to build up an international
business with branches in Europe and overseas.
Kaiser sold «Orion» in 1939, which by then controlled branches in France,
Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, to a Swiss consortium which paid much
less than its true value. This decision was made under pressure from the Reich
authorities, who were pressing for the liquidation of these foreign holdings
so that the currency proceeds could be returned to Germany, but it was also
linked to the political situation of the time. The statement from the
Waiblingen owners’ appointed lawyer quoted above represented a flagrant
untruth: apart from the fact that no special understanding of the situation
would have been needed in May 1939 to realise that a European war was
imminent, the sale did not take place in May, as stated in the predated
document, but shortly after the beginning of war. Spahn still had to pay back
the capital lent on an interest-free basis. According to a receipt produced after
the end of the war, he did not pay the outstanding 320,000 francs until
December 1941. The Clearing Office investigating the case at the time was,
however, able to establish that this document too had been predated: the
transaction had not taken place until March 1945, in other words after
German assets were frozen on 16 February. The transactions should be
considered as camouflage, and «Orion» subjected to the freeze, especially as
the former owner Theodor Kaiser declared that there had been a verbal
agreement between himself and Spahn that the shares would be returned after
the end of the war, or that a further payment would be made to represent the
balance of the purchase price which had been far too low. Spahn, a notorious
friend of the Germans, regularly did favours of this type: 13 of the 23
companies on whose Boards he sat were added to the Allies’ blacklists during
the war, and eight were blocked after the end of the war because of covert
German involvement.
How could the matter be resolved? Strictly speaking, the purchase price of
320,000 francs paid by Spahn should have been paid back, whereupon «Orion»
would have been declared a German company, and its holdings in various
countries confiscated. On the other hand, if the sale of 1939/45 was deemed
legally valid, «Orion», along with its foreign holdings, would be a Swiss
company. But in this case Spahn would have to make a considerable additional
payment to the former German owner. The sum in question would not be given
to Kaiser himself, but would be allocated to the pool of German assets in
Switzerland waiting to be liquidated. And this is what happened – in the
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