100 Heroes: Friedrich Alfred Krupp
The gay man who built the German war machine.
Friedrich Alfred Krupp was a German steel manufacturer.
Biography
Krupp was born in Essen, Germany in 1854. His father was Alfred Krupp, who turned the small local ironworks of Krupp into one of the most powerful companies in the world. In 1887, Friedrich took over the leadership of his father’s company. He married Baroness Margarethe von Ende. They had two daughters: Bertha and Barbara.
Whereas his father had largely supplied iron and steel for railroads in America, with the rise of Carnegie Steel, Friedrich shifted his company’s production back to arms manufacturing.
During his time he greatly expanded Krupp, acquiring Germaniawerf in 1896 which gave him control of warship manufacturing in Germany. He oversaw the development of nickel steel, U-boats, the diesel engine, and much more. Krupp increased and diversified the output of the Krupp Works.
A member of the House of Lords of Prussia and Council of State, he also sat in Germany’s Reichstag from 1893 to 1898.
For four years, beginning in 1898, Krupp spent several months of the year on the Italian island of Capri, staying at the hotel Quisisana. He kept two yachts there.
Scandal and death
On 15 November 1902 the Social Democratic magazine, Vorwärts, claimed that Friedrich Alfred Krupp was homosexual, that he had sexual encounters with men, and that he was regularly seeing Adolfo Schiano - an 18-year-old barber.
This report appeared in the German press months after stories of a unnamed foreign businessman’s homosexual orgies were printed in local and Neapolitan papers demanding an inquest.
It appears that - prior to the press reports emerging - Capri locals had been well aware of Krupp's gay orgies but Krupp's money had bought the silence of the hotel where he stayed and local officials.
The Neopolitan paper, Il Mattino, first published the story but didn't name Krupp.
Krupp returned to Germany, waiting for the scandal to pass. But Italian newspapers continued to run with the story of a gay orgy scandal without naming Krupp. German newspapers began to pick up the story, centring the scandal on a German industrialist who had been spending considerable time in Capri.
In October 1902, Krupp’s wife received anonymous letters and, according to some reports, compromising photos of her husband’s gay orgies. She asked Kaiser Wilhelm II, a family friend, to take action against her husband for the sake of the reputation of the firm. The Kaiser, alarmed by her boldness and determined to protect the reputation of the country's crucial armaments manufacturer, had her locked in an insane asylum.
The following month, press reports began to name Krupp as the man at the centre of the Capri scandal.
Krupp tried to retaliate by suing for defamation but the scandal was too big to contain and his wealth and connections could no longer protect his reputation.
A week after he was publicly named in the press, Krupp was dead - he had killed himself.