Well, I am not going to go digging through my old library sources on this, and I am not in my usual location where I have some stuff handy. So, I can't give you a complete response. However, let me note that just because somebody "met with" Hitler does not mean that they therefore became his supporter or preferred him to more traditional conservative formations. Indeed, one of the anti-Hitler Big Business martyrs was Thyssen who was on your list there.
There is no doubt that Hitler had a segment of BB before he came to power and certainly as 1932 moved along more moved into his camp. But your list of names by no means proves either that they were responsible for putting him in power (although they certainly helped) or that a majority of them favored him prior to his actual coming to power. Barkley Rosser On Wed, 17 Jun 1998 19:36:39 +0100 Jim heartfield <Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> In message <SIMEON.9806171146.G at germanium.primo.ssc.wisc.edu>, Rosser
> Jr, John Barkley <rosserjb at jmu.edu> writes
> >it is a myth that Big Business was "behind
> >Hitler." There was a small group of leading Big
> >Businessmen who supported Hitler early on. But most
> >preferred more traditional conservative formations and only
> >got on after Hitler came to power. Of course then most of
> >them supported him quite fully, with a few notable
> >exceptions, some of whom ended up in camps and/or dead.
>
> Not so. It was the defection of business from the Conservative Parties
> to the NSDAP that finally sunk them and made Hitler, by default,
> business' only bulwark against rising working class militancy.
>
> I must say I was unaware of the heroic martyrs of business in the Third
> Reich, but I daresay there must have been some. But that was the
> exception not the rule, and business was the chief benefactor of Nazi
> rule. Elmar Altvater and others estimated that the rate of exploitation
> was raised 300 per cent above that of the Weimar Republic ('On the
> analysis of Imperialism in the Metropolitan countries: The West German
> Example, Conference of Socialist Economists Bulletin c 1972).
>
> Walther Funk, editor of the Berliner Boersen Zeitung's evidence to the
> De-Nazification committee:
>
> "I joined the party in 1931 ... I took over as Party press chief.
> Q. who you asked to become liason [with the Nazis]?
> A. A wide circle of industries, mainly coal and mining people, and
> especially certain organisations called Bergbauverein in Essen.
> Q. What were the names of the people who asked you?
> A. Albert Voegler [of] Vereinigte Stahlwerke, Kneppler [of]
> Gelsenkircher Bergwerksverein.
> Q. Was IG Farben [chemical works] on your list?
> A. All mining industries [IG had coal mining interests in the Flick
> trust]
> Q. Name the individuals with whom you had contacts
> A. Thyssen ... Peter Klockner, had old mining industry. Diehn [of the]
> Kalisyndicat [Potash syndicate], Rosterg [of] Wintershalls [Funk also
> named Krupps]. They approached me. When I was editor in chief of the
> Berlin paper, people approached me saying they wanted influence in the
> new party which they assumed would eventually gain power in Germany ...
> ...
>
> "August Heirichbauer in Essen, who I had known as editor of an economic
> publication introduced me to [SS] Oberlieutenant Schatz [who had been
> PRESIDENT OF THE REICHSBANK, during the Weimar government] who played a
> role in th party as closest helper of Gregor Strasser to whom he
> introduced me personally. Strasser, Schatz and Heinrichsbauer and his
> friends in industry, especially the leading personalities of the
> Association for mining interests in Rhineland and Westphalia
> strengthened me in my decision to enter the NSDAP in order to persuade
> the party to follow the cause of private enterprise.
>
> ....
>
> "At that time (early 1931) I learned of the eixstence of friendly
> relations between Dr Emil Kirdorf [an early Nazi enthusiaist], the
> leading personality of the Ruhr Coal industry, and the Fuhrer ...
> Through Kirdorf and Later Fritz Thyssen the Fuhrer was introduced to
> influential Rheinish-Westphalian Industrial Circles who supprted teh
> party financially. ... definitely in favour of national socialism [t
> this time] were besides Kirdorf, his nephew Kauert, Thyssen, Tengelmann,
> Springorum, Voegler, Knepper, Winkhaus, Buskuhl, Kellermann ... In the
> IG Farbenindustrie, the following were liason men to the party: Director
> von Schnitzler and Dr Gattineau who was phe private secretary of
> Geheimrat Duisberg. Director Von Winterfeld tried to obtain an
> understanding for the party at Siemens [electrical combine].
>
> ....
>
> "It was possible for the Fuehrer to win to his side parts of these
> [large industrial] circles with an address at a meeting leading
> personalities of the central brown coal industries (Deutsche Erdael,
> Brebag, Leopold, Anhalstche Kohlenwerke). The potassium industry under
> the leadership of Rosterg and Diehn already at that time had a positive
> attitude towards the Fuehrer and the party. Baron von Schroder (Cologne)
> had the closest relations with the Fuehrer in the Banking World. His
> senior chief Stein was a friend of Dr Schacht. I introduced Dr Otto
> Fischer (deutsche Kredit Gesellschaft) and Friedrich Reinhart (Commerz
> Bank) to the Fuehrer personally. Dr von Strauss of the Deutsche Bank had
> connections with the Fuehrer ... He again had contact with Dr Schmitt
> and Hilgard of Allianz Insurance Corporation and the Munich Corporation
> (insurance). Introduced Schmitt to Hilgard as well as Dr Kubbert of the
> Verkeherson AG and teh Baugesellschaft Lenz and Co, to the Fuhrer.
> Hamburg shipping lines under [former Chancellor] Cuno and commerical
> circles in Bremen under Roselius also had relations with the party. Otto
> Wolf [Flick steel trust] supported the paryt financially through Dr Ley.
> [Individual provincial party leaders had their own links:] ie Rust-
> Hanover -with Conti-Rubber; Murr-Stuttgart - with Kreh-Tossingern."
>
> Friedrich Flick steel magnate joined in 1932.
> Hitler met with business leaders throughout 1932. He met steel magnates
> Thyssen, Ponsgen and Vogler, addressed the Crefield Silk Magnates in
> Godesberg and later the National Club in Hamburg. Addressed the
> industrial club in Dusseldorf on 27 January 1932, Otto Dietrich records
> 'thundering applause'. Thyssen 'for long a National Socialist' was the
> second speaker.
>
> Industrialist W Keppler organised a business 'Circle of Friends' of the
> Nazis on 18 May 1932 - when their victory was far from assured. Keppler
> listed the following: Kranefuss, Voegler, Schroeder, Dr Karl Buetefisch
> (IG Farben), Karl Krogmann, Friedrich Olscher, Flick, Karl Lindemann,
> Wilhelm Borger, Karl Walz, Heinrich Schmidt, Hermann Waldhecker, Herbert
> Goering, Theodor Kaselowsky, August Rosterg (Potash syndicate), Rudolf
> Bringel (Siemens), Karl Blessing, Kurt Schmitt, Emil Meyer, Steinbrink,
> Hans Kehrl, Karl von Half, Emil Helfferich (Hamburg-American Line),
> Friedrich Reinhardt, Hans Fischbok, Otto Heuer (Heidelberger Portland
> Zement Werke AG), Ewald Hecker, Otto Ohlendorf, Oswald POhl, Graf von
> Bismark, Karl Wolff, Dr Woffram Sievers, Franz Hayler, Werner Naumann,
> Dr Herman Behrens, Dr Ernst Schafer, Dr Fritz Dermitzel, Erich
> Hilgenfeldt.
>
> Lindemann had many business interests, among them a Bremen-China trading
> firm, a Salzburg Cement Works, the Bremen Norddeutsche Kreditbank, the
> Wolkammerei, and the shipping line Norddeutsche Lloyd.
>
> > Despite his original base in Catholic Bavaria,
> >Hitler's strongest base of support during the crucial early
> >1930s was resolutely rural Protestant and petit bourgeois.
> certainly it was the case that the petit bourgeois were the social base
> of fascism, especially after they got stuffed in the growing crisis of
> 1928-31. But there is no doubt that Hitler's capitalist backers were
> considerable, and acted before Hitler came to power, because they
> identified with Hitler's anti-Marxist, anti-Labour politics.
>
> --
> Jim heartfield
-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu