Kurt Weigelt (5 June 1884 – 5 August 1968) was a German business manager of

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

and

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

, and a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

war criminal sentenced to two years in prison for being a supporting member of the SS. From after World War I, Weigelt was in Deutsche Bank management becoming a deputy director in 1922. He was also involved in commercial aviation, he was instrumental in the founding of

Deutsche Luft Hansa ''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and th ...

by the merger of several existing German airlines. Weigelt was a

Förderndes Mitglied der SS A Förderndes Mitglied der SS (SS-FM; SS Patron Members) was a member of the Allgemeine SS (General SS) who did not take part in active duty, but instead contributed financially to the SS. The SS-FM was organised by the SS Main Economic and Admin ...

from 1934, financially supporting the SS. He led the Nazi ''Reichsgruppe Deutscher Kolonialwirtschaftlicher Unternehmungen'' (Reich Group of German Colonial Economic Enterprises) from its establishment in 1936. From 1937 he was a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

. Weigelt officially was the head of the economic department of

NSDAP Office of Colonial Policy The NSDAP Office of Colonial Policy (German: ''Kolonialpolitisches Amt der NSDAP'', ''K.P.A.'' or ''KPA'') was a Nazi Party office formed in 1934. Its stated objective was to formulate plans for the re-taking of the former German colonies. The of ...

. Unofficially, Weigelt was regarded as "secret minister of Colonies". He prepared the ''Wirtschaftspolitische Denkschrift des Kolonialpolitischen Amtes der NSDAP'' (Economic policy memorandum of the Colonial Political Office of the NSDAP) memorandum with plans on how to plunder Africa. Scholar Werner Ustorf describes Weigelt's colonial plans as amounting to compulsory labour and camp settlements. After the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was placed on a list of 42 people from industry who were wanted as war criminals. He was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 50,000

Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...

. Due to his role in the Nazi administration and war crimes, Deutsche Bank was unable to employ him directly after the war, however he was given a key role in the reestablishment of Lufthansa, with which the bank had a close business relationship, becoming chairman. Weigelt was chairman of Lufthansa's supervisory board from its reestablishment in 1953 (as Luftag, renamed Lufthansa in 1954) and until 1960, and served as honorary president of Lufthansa until his death in 1968.

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weigelt, Kurt 1884 births 1968 deaths German airline chief executives Lufthansa people Nazis convicted of war crimes Förderndes Mitglied der SS German bankers Deutsche Bank people 20th-century German businesspeople