Who is this EXPERT criticising the Sweden non lock down figures?
ha! gotcha!
Stephen J O'Brien emanates from the Renamed US Biological Research Centre institution, Cancer research institution (owner Bormann Capital network IF Farben spin off “Litton corporation”) Dave Emory Spitfire List FTR#1012.
Why Sweden may have lower infection rates.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtkojdUysyQ[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtkojdUysyQ
background
Spitfire List Web site and blog of anti-fascist researcher and radio personality Dave Emory.
FTR #1012 Food For Thought, Part 2
POSTED BY DAVE EMORY ⋅ JUNE 26, 2018
www.spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr ... ht-part-2/
Introduction: This program supplements and recapitulates both FTR #912 and AFA #39. In turn, several other, overlapping programs should be examined to flesh out one’s understanding of the phenomena discussed here, including: FTR #‘s 606, 682 and 686, as well as AFA #16.
Central to our analysis is a look at an excerpt from testimony before a House appropriations subcommittee that was drawing up the defense budget for the following year. (The hearings were in 1969.) The testimony discusses the possibility of using genetic engineering to produce a disease that would be “refractory” to the immune system. This is virtually the clinical definition of AIDS. It is worth noting that the project was funded, and just such a disease—AIDS—appeared in just the time frame posited. It is also worth noting that, in the 2002 edition of A Higher Form of Killing, this passage is omitted!!
. . . As long ago as 1962, forty scientists were employed at the U.S. Army biological warfare laboratories on full-time genetics research. ‘Many others,’ it was said, ‘appreciate the implications of genetics for their own work.’ The implications were made more specific that genetic engineering could solve one of the major disadvantages of biological warfare, that it is limited to diseases which occur naturally somewhere in the world. ‘Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective micro-organism which could differ in certain important respects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease.’ [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] The possibility that such a ‘super germ’ may have been successfully produced in a laboratory somewhere in the world in the years since that assessment was made is one which should not be too readily cast aside. . .
The corporate logo of I.G. Farben.
Purebred Northern Europeans possess a hereditary immunity to infection by HIV, a gene (CCR5Delta 32) that conferred immunity to the Black Death, long believed to have been bubonic plague. Bubonic plague was a major focal point of Third Reich biological weapons research, stemming from SS chief Heinrich Himmler’s interest in that disease.
Disguised as a cancer research program, Nazi Germany’s plague research was presided over by Kurt Blome, the deputy surgeon general of the Third Reich. Blome went to work for the U.S. under Project Paperclip (also known as Operation Paperclip.) We wonder if the Nazi research into bubonic plague and the emergence of an immune-destroying disease to which only pure-bred Northern Europeans–“Aryans”–were immune might have been the outgrowth of Nazi-inspired U.S. biological weapons research stemming from Paperclip?
Another development in that context is noteworthy:
When the U.S. officially “gave up” biological warfare research, Fort Detrick–the military’s top bw research facility, was officially turned over to the National Cancer Institute’s Viral Cancer Research Project. Featuring veterans of the U.S. biological warfare research program, the NCI’s VCP was implemented by Litton Bionetics, a biotechnology subsidiary of Litton Industries, a major defense contractor. The National Cancer Institute’s Viral Cancer Research Project was at the epicenter of U.S. research into AIDS. We strongly suspect that this was a recapitulation of the Third Reich’s use of “cancer research.”
In both FTR #912 and AFA #39, we highlighted Bayer’s projected purchase of Monsanto.
We engage in a line of inquiry that is speculative in nature, evaluating the possibility that companies descended from the I.G. Farben German chemical cartel may absorb Monsanto, the firm noted for its development of genetically modified organisms.
Specifically, Bayer and BASF figured in the reported maneuvering for Monsanto. The deal has passed American anti-trust regulators, with BASF purchasing some $9 billion in former Bayer assets to permit the deal to go forward.
Against the background of the remarkable Bormann capital network’s effective control of the firms that descended from I.G. Farben, we ruminate about the possibility of genetically engineered binary pathogens being included in the food supply available to much of the world’s population.
Available information highlights possible Underground Reich maneuvering to gain control of firms marketing foodstuffs to middle, lower middle and working class people. This speculation, in turn, is set against the background of information strongly suggesting that AIDS was deliberately developed.
In the context of the purchase of food-producing companies, we note J.A.B Holdings and it’s associated Reimann family.
They are owned by a secretive group of German billionaires, mostly related to each other. This group owns (outright or majority) a rather shocking number of major American brands, including Peets Coffee, Panera Bread, Jimmy Choo Shoes, Dougwe Eberts Coffee, and Krispy Kreme Donuts! They appear to be making a major move to dominate the U.S., and perhaps global, coffee industry.
They also own part of 3G, the massive Brazilian holding company (with one of the three heads having the last name Lemann, and the other having Hermann as a middle name). (This is a focal point of FTR #912.)
Jorge Paulo Lemann
3G owns Inbev (dominant player in the world’s liquor industry), Heinz, Kraft, and Burger King, who they quickly moved to Canada and merged with Tim Hortons, a massive Canadian restaurant chain, for tax breaks. They also own the largest logistics/railroad company in South America and its largest retail shopping company. So, between their interests in JAB and 3G, this one family has their tentacles into a ridiculous amount of commerce.
Like many German corporate citizens, they make their headquarters in Luxembourg.
Is this Bormann money “gulping up companies like a giant amoeba?”
Note how secretive the Reimann family and their operation is: ” . . . . The lack of involvement is allegedly part of the family policy, which also includes signing a codex on one’s 18th birthday pledging to stay out of the public as much as possible, thus making them one of the most private billionaire families. . . .”
Program Highlights Include:
JAB Holding’s apparent move to dominate the coffee market.
Review of the career of Franz Liesau Zacharias.
As discussed in AFA #39, the Nazis began researching toxic agents on apes and then moved on to humans—inmates in concentration camps. AIDS results from a monkey virus that eventually jumped to humans as well. Does the progression in the Nazi death camps of testing on apes to testing on humans have any relationship with the progression of a simian virus to infection of humans? Might the creation of AIDS have stemmed from Nazi research? Is it an accident that the hereditary immunity from HIV infection is only present in the white race, and [according to some sources] Northern Europeans in particular? Is it an accident that people of African extraction are particularly susceptible to HIV infection?
Dr. Franz Liesau Zaccharias was the Abwehr agent who obtained the apes for the Nazi medical experiments. He was badly wanted by Western intelligence after the war. Why?! Western intelligence agencies certainly didn’t need anyone to teach them how to obtain apes from Africa. Experimenting on animals is not a war crime. The suspicion here is that he had discovered something of value during his primate work. Evidence also suggests that he remained part of The Underground Reich.
Among the diseases that Liesau Zacharias’ animals were used for testing was “the plague”! Did the Nazis note that some people appeared to be immune to infection with plague? Were tissue and/or sera samples taken and preserved for further study? Was this in any way connected to the eventual evolution of the CCR5-delta 32 gene as a hereditary protection against infection by HIV? Is it possible that Liesau Zacharias was actually targeted for recruitment by the U.S. for Project Paperclip? Did Liesau Zacharias experience an outbreak of immunodeficiency among his primates awaiting shipment to Germany? Might such an outbreak have been due to SIV? Did Liesau Zacharias take tissue and sera samples from infected primates? Might such a development have been related to his importance to the Allies?
1. Initiating the discussion, we examine the career of Kurt Blome, the deputy surgeon general of the Third Reich, a top biological warfare researcher, conducting his work under the cover of “cancer research.”
Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen; HC Little, Brown and Company; Copyright 2014 by Anne M. Jacobsen; ISBN 978–0‑316–22104‑7; p. 75.
. . .The War Crimes Office had considerable information about Dr. Kurt Blome. He was deputy surgeon general of the Third Reich and vice president of the Reich’s Physicians’ League, Reichsarztekammer. He was believed to have reported directly to Goring and maybe even to Himmler, or to both. Blome had been named head of Reich cancer research in 1942. Alsos and OSS presumed that this was a cover name for biological weapons work. Blome was a dedicated and proud Nazi. . . .
2. More about Blome, biological warfare and the use of “cancer research” as a cover for BW research.
Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen; HC Little, Brown and Company; Copyright 2014 by Anne M. Jacobsen; ISBN 978–0‑316–22104‑7; p. 77.
. . . . [Major E.W.B.] Gill asked how Blome, a “cancer expert,” had been put in charge of the Reich’s bioweapons program, a subject he claimed to know very little about. Blome said he had no answer for that. . . .
3. Nazi biological warfare research was propelled, in considerable measure, by SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Himmler was particularly interested in bubonic plague.
Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen; HC Little, Brown and Company; Copyright 2014 by Anne M. Jacobsen; ISBN 978–0‑316–22104‑7; p. 160.
. . . . Himmler had a layman’s fascination with biological warfare. A former chicken farmer, the Reichsfuhrer-SS had studied agriculture in school. According to Blome, it was Himmler who was the primary motivator behind the Reich’s bioweapons program. Hitler, Blome said, did not approve of biological warfare and was kept in the dark as to specific plans. Himmler’s area of greatest fascination, said Blome, was bubonic plague. . . .
4. Kurt Blome was Himmler’s point man in researching bubonic plague for biological warfare applications.
Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen; HC Little, Brown and Company; Copyright 2014 by Anne M. Jacobsen; ISBN 978–0‑316–22104‑7; p. 161.
. . . . Blome then told Himmler that if he were to experiment with plague bacterium, he would need his own institute, an isolated facility far removed from population centers. Himmler and Blome agreed that Poland would be a good place, and they s ttled on Nessselstedt, a small town outside the former Poznan University (by then operated by the Reich). Blome’s research was to be called the Bacteriological Institute at Nesselstedt. . . .
5. Blome had achieved great progress with both bubonic and pneumonic plague.
Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen; HC Little, Brown and Company; Copyright 2014 by Anne M. Jacobsen; ISBN 978–0‑316–22104‑7; p. 230.
. . . . Dr. Kurt Blome’s expertise was in great demand, but his future was as yet undecided. In his Posen laboratory, Blome had made considerable progress with live plague pathogens, including bubonic and pneumonic plague. How far that research progressed remained vague, likely because it would put an unwanted spotlight on human experiments many believed had taken place there. . .
6. Blome allegedly knew more about bubonic plague than anyone else in the world.
Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen; HC Little, Brown and Company; Copyright 2014 by Anne M. Jacobsen; ISBN 978–0‑316–22104‑7; p. 275.
. . . . As for Dr. Blome, he was seen as a highly desirable recruit for Operation Paperclip. Blome allegedly knew more about bubonic plague research than anyone else in the world. But, given his former position in Hitler’s inner circle, coupled with the fact that Blome had worn the Golden Party Badge, bringing him to America as part of Operation Paperclip remained too difficult for the U.S. Army to justify. But as the Cold War gained momentum and intense suspicion of the Soviets increased, even someone like Kurt Blome would eventually be deemed eligible for Operation Paperclip. . . .
7a. In both FTR #912 and AFA #39 we discussed leading GMO producer Monsanto’s sale to Bayer. We noted that both Bayer and BASF (the firm viewed as a probable purchaser of Monsanto assets to be spun-off to conform to anti-trust requirements) are controlled by the remarkable and deadly Bormann flight capital organization.
Some $9 billion in assets are, indeed, to be sold to BASF. This will still leave them under the control of the Bormann group and the Underground Reich.
“U.S. Forces Germany’s Bayer to Shed $9 Billion in Ag Business in Biggest Ever AntiTrust Sell-Off” by Dan Mangan; CNBC; 5/29/2018.
Drug-maker Bayer, agreeing to the largest divestiture in American antitrust enforcement history, will sell agricultural businesses and assets worth about $9 billion to chemical giant BASF, clearing the way for approval of its $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The assets include Bayer’s canola, soybean and vegetable seed businesses, as well as its Liberty herbicide business, all of which currently compete with Monsanto products.
Bayer also agreed to certain “structural divestitures” and to sell off “certain intellectual property and research capabilities, including ‘pipeline’ R&D projects,” according to the Justice Department.
In revealing the settlement it reached with Bayer, the department said the sell-off will “preserve competition threatened by Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto.
Without the divestiture, the department said, the “merger is unlawful.”
Germany-based Bayer and St. Louis-based Monsanto are two of the world’s biggest agricultural companies, and currently compete against one another to sell farmers seed and crop protection products, the department noted. BASF is the largest chemical producer in the world. . . .
7b. The I.G. Farben company, a core element of the Third Reich, was central to Reichsleiter Martin Bormann’s plans to secret Germany’s wealth abroad. Note, also, I.G. Farben’s dominance of the European chemical industry, and the opinion of Dr. von Schnitzler that technical dependence on I.G. facilities would continue after the war. (To learn more about I.G. Farben, see—among other programs–FTR#’s 305, 411, 506, 552. Serious students should also read Treason’s Peace and The Devil’s Chemists, available for download.)
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; p. 28.
. . . I.G. Farben was a formidable ally for Reichsleiter Bormann in his plans for the postwar economic rebirth of Germany. In a telephone conversation with Dr. von Schnitzler, Bormann asked what would the loss of factories in France and the other occupied countries mean to German industry in general and to I.G. in particular. Dr. von Schnitzler said he believed the technical dependence of these countries on I.G. would be so great that despite German defeat I.G., in one way or another, could regain its position of control of the European chemical business. ‘They will need the constant technical help of I.G.’s scientific laboratories as they do not own appropriate installations within themselves.’ . . .
7c. Bormann and Schmitz then discussed I.G.’s prospects for the postwar period. The cozy relationship with powerful elements within the power elites of the Western allies was foreseen by Schmitz as boding well for the company’s future. Schmitz’s predictions were relatively accurate. Neither Schmitz nor any of the I.G. Farben executives were severely punished and the firm’s three successor firms carried on effectively in the postwar period.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; p. 158.
. . . .The Reichsleiter asked Schmitz his views of the future. Schmitz replied, ‘The occupation armies will be understanding in the West, but certainly not in the East. I have instructed all Farben administrators and technicians to come to the West, where they can be of use in resuming our operations once the disturbances of 1945 come to a halt.’ Schmitz added that, while general bomb damage to the I.G. plants was about 25 percent of capacity, some were untouched. He mentioned speaking with Field Marshal Model, who was commanding the defenses of the Ruhr. ‘Model had planned to turn our Bayer-Leberkusen pharmaceutical factory into an artillery base, but he agreed to make it an open, undefended factory. Hopefully, we will get it back untouched.’ ‘What about your board of directors and the essential executives? If they are held by the occupation authorities, can I.G. continue?’ Bormann asked. ‘We can continue. We have an operational plan for such a contingency, which everyone understands. However, I don’t believe our board members will be detained too long. Nor will I. But we must go through a procedure of investigation before release, so I have been told by our N.W. 7 people who have excellent contacts in Washington.’ . . .
7d. The broadcast details the profound relationship between I.G. Farben and the government of the Third Reich. Of particular utility to the Bormann flight capital program was I.G. Farben’s elaborate infrastructure in foreign countries. Note that, as is seen here, I.G. Farben was inextricably linked with both the government of the Third Reich and with the Nazi party itself. Of particular significance is the N.W.7 office and its control by Martin Bormann.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; p. 54.
. . . This, too, reported to Martin Bormann.I.G. Farben’s N.W.7 office in Berlin compiled military and economic data on all countries for the Wehrmacht. This department was staffed with men of recognized ability in all branches of business and science. It was under the direction of Dr. Max Ilgner, nephew of Hermann Schmitz, I.G.’s president, who was known throughout the industrial world as ‘the master of financial camouflage.’ [Emphasis added.] Farben had offices and representatives in 93 countries, and no social gathering of businessmen was too small to be covered by an N.W.7 representative, whose reports on market conditions, factory installations, raw-material supplies, and research were transmitted immediately to Berlin and Dr. Ilgner. In the United States, N.W.7 operated through the firm of Chemnyco, Inc., an American-formed subsidiary. Chemnyco sent tremendous amounts of information ranging from photographs and blue prints to detailed descriptions of entire industrial complexes and secret processes. . . .”
7e. Of particular importance for this discussion is the fact that I.G. used German military conquest to gain effective functional control of the chemical industry of the continent. In paragraph 13, we noted Georg von Scnitzler’s prediction that I.G.’s technical dominance would result in the postwar perpetuation of this control. As we will see, this control was maintained. Note the role of the N.W.7 Farben espionage organization in Bormann’s plans for the secreting of Nazi monies abroad.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; pp. 55–58.
. . . This huge organization functioned as a manufacturing and research arm of the German government, with the responsibility of discovering all possible means of increasing the military power of Germany. More than RM 4.25 billion was invested in new plants, mines, and power installations, with other millions going into new research facilities. . . . So close had Farben become to the government that I.G. always knew in advance all invasions planned by Hitler. It was to supply the materials necessary to each conquest, and when a land had been overrun and subjugated, the Farben experts would handle the consolidation and organization of the industrial facilities as additional supply sources for the German armed forces. As German troops swept across Europe and Hitler proclaimed his vision of a thousand-year Third Reich, I.G. Farben also dreamed of world empire. This was outlined with clarity in a document called Neuordnung, or ‘New Order,’ that was accompanied by a letter of transmittal to the Ministry of Economics. It declared that a new order for the chemical industry of the world should supplement Hitler’s New Order. Therefore, the document stated, Farben was fitting future industrial plans into such a framework. . . . I.G. Farben was the major chemical firm on the Continent, and as each country fell to Germany its acquisitions of chemical and dyestuff companies were enormous. I.G. also increased its investments in these by RM 7 billion. [Emphasis added.]
. . . .The close relationship of Farben to the Third Reich leadership was underscored in other ways. I.G.’s leading officials assisted in the formulation and execution of economic policies of government; its president was a member of the Reichstag; its leading scientist was a chief assistant to Hermann Goering under the Four-Year Plan; its statisticians and economists prepared intelligence for the Nazi High Command; scores of its technicians were at any given time on loan to the air and war ministries.
. . . The contact men of N.W.7 throughout the world were called the I.G. Verbindungsmanner, the liaison officers between Farben back in Germany and the branches elsewhere. These I.G. Verbindungsmanner, as well as all other key Farben representatives working beyond the borders of the Third Reich, were members of the National Socialist German Workers Party. . . . So now Martin Bormann had at his command not only the Auslands-Organisation but also the I.G. Verbindungsmanner of Farben, which could be counted on to heed his orders when it was time to disperse the commercial assets of the Third Reich. . . .
7f. More about how the vast international operations of the I.G. Farben firm and its various subsidiary operations was a principal element of the Bormann organization. I.G. Farben chief Hermann Schmitz discussed I.G.’s involvement with the Bormann program.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; pp. 157–158.
. . . . In testimony later given to Nuremberg investigators, Schmitz praised Bormann for the way he had directed the distribution of German assets around the world. His own Farben organization had, of course, contributed to the success of the operation. Every regional representative working for Hermann Schmitz was an exceptional businessman, or he would not have been with I.G. All had contributed sound advice in their areas of competence, the regions of the world where they represented Farben while keeping an eye on the subsidiaries of the parent concern and the 700 hidden corporations they controlled. They had provided assistance and continuing guidance in establishing the 750 new companies created on order of Bormann, who wanted more than hidden assets; Bormann wanted the money and patents and technicians put to work to create even greater assets that would bolster Germany in the postwar years. In their meeting in the chancellery, both men checked over the figures of sums disbursed, and they were accurate to the pfennig. . . .
7g. As forecast by Dr. Scheid in the August 10, 1944 meeting, the corporate allies of the major German corporations, including and especially those of I.G. Farben, proved to be of great value to the uccess of the Bormann flight capital program.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; p. 156.
. . . . Powerful friends of the Bormann organization in all Western countries, including those sprinkled in control points throughout the administration in Washington and in the financial and brokerage businesses of Wall Street, the City of London, and the Paris establishment, did not wish a coordinated drive to get at these external German assets. They had understandable reasons, if you overlook morality: the financial benefits for cooperation (collaboration had become an old-hat term with the war winding down) were very enticing, depending on one’s importance and ability to be of service to the organization and the 750 corporations they were secretly manipulating, to say nothing of the known multinationals such as I.G. Farben, Thyssen A.G., and Siemens; and, as a second reason, the philosophy of free enterprise and preservation of private property. . . . (Ibid.; p. 156.)
7h. Note the postwar resuscitation of I.G. Farben, in the form of the “Big Three” successor firms that grew out Farben. Although officially broken up at the end of World War II, I.G. Farben continued functioning in new form. Recent mergers (such as the 1996 merger of I.G. cartel affiliates Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz to form Novartis) indicate a new coming together of the old components of I.G. Again, pay close attention to the relationship between these companies and the Bormann capital network.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; p. 282.
. . . . By 1956, the three major multinationals (Hoechst, BASF, and Bayer) reshaped from the 159 companies within Germany that had comprised I.G. Farben were generating record profits for the original 450 major Farben stockholders, who had organized themselves into the I.G. Farben Stockholders Protective committee in Bonn. The Big Three went on expanding, tripling capitalization in 1956 from investment funds that poured in from the interlocking companies established in safe haven countries by Martin Bormann and Hermann Schmitz. There was a return, more vigorous than ever, of the huge, monolithic industrial multinationals that dominated the German economy before and during World War II. . . .
7i. The enormous corporate wealth and power of the three successor firms is at the disposal of the Bormann capital network and Underground Reich.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; pp. 282–283.
. . . . Each of these three spinoffs from I.G. Farben today does more business individually than did Farben at its zenith, when its corporate structure covered 93 countries. BASF and Bayer individually boast worldwide sales of nearly $10 billion annually, while Hoechst, now the world’s largest chemical company, generated $16.01 billion in worldwide sales in 1980. Each does more business than E.I. du Pont de Nemours, with sales of $9.4 billion. The United States is, of course, the major market, one into which these German corporations continue to pour investment money for both new capital construction and corporate takeovers. Together, these three multinationals assure permanent prosperity for the original 450 Farben stockholders, their banks, and the shadowy shareholders of the Bormann organization in South America who guard and vote the Hermann Schmitz trust fund through intermediaries at the annual meetings of BASF, Bayer and Hoechst. [Emphasis added.] . . . .
7j. A significant part of the I.G. Farben legacy, the Hermann Schmitz Trust is also at the disposal of the Bormann capital network and the Underground Reich.
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; pp. 279–280.
. . . . If there is any doubt in Europe who, in the long run, won the peace, there is none whatsoever among the former German leaders dwelling in South America. It is a good bet that if Hermann Schmitz were alive today, he would bear witness as to who really won. Schmitz died contented, having witnessed the resurgence of I.G. Farben, albeit in altered corporate forms, a money machine that continues to generate profits for all the old I.G. shareholders and enormous international power for the German cadre directing the workings of the successor firms. . . . He was the master manipulator, the corporate and financial wizard, the magician, who could make money appear and disappear, and reappear again. His whole existence was legerdemain, played out on the gameboard of I.G. Farben and his beloved Germany. . . Their [Schmitz and Bormann] association was close and trusting over the years, and it is the considered opinion of those in their circle that the wealth possessed by Hermann Schmitz was shifted to Switzerland and South America, and placed in trust with Bormann, the legal heir to Hitler. [Hermann] Schmitz’s wealth—largely I.G. Farben bearer bonds converted to the Big Three successor firms, shares in Standard Oil of New Jersey (equal to those held by the Rockefellers), as well as shares in the 750 corporations he helped Bormann establish during the last year of World War II—has increased in all segments of the modern industrial world. The Bormann organization in South America utilizes the voting power of the Schmitz trust along with their own assets to guide the multinationals they control, as they keep steady the economic course of the Fatherland. . . .
7k. The program notes the economic and political significance of the Bormann network:
Martin Bormann: Nazi in Exile; Paul Manning; Copyright 1981 [HC]; Lyle Stuart Inc.; ISBN 0–8184-0309–8; pp. 284–285.
. . . . Atop an organizational pyramid that dominates the industry of West Germany through banks, voting rights enjoyed by majority shareholders in significant cartels, and the professional input of a relatively young leadership group of lawyers, investment specialists, bankers, and industrialists, he is satisfied that he achieved his aim of helping the Fatherland back on its feet. To ensure continuity of purpose and direction, a close watch is maintained on the profit statements and management reports of corporations under its control elsewhere. This leadership group of twenty, which is in fact a board of directors, is chaired by Bormann, but power has shifted to the younger men who will carry on the initiative that grew from that historic meeting in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. Old Heinrich Mueller, chief of security for the NSDAP in South America, is the most feared of all, having the power of life and death over those deemed not to be acting in the best interests of the organization. Some still envision a Fourth Reich. . .What will not pass is the economic influences of the Bormann organization, whose commercial directives are obeyed almost without question by the highest echelons of West German finance and industry. ‘All orders come from the shareholders in South America,’ I have been told by a spokesman for Martin Bormann. . . . .
8a. We recapitulate information from the Nazi tract Serpent’s Walk. Like The Turner Diaries (also published by National Vanguard Books), the book seems to be a blueprint for a Nazi takeover of the United States (rather than a novel), set to take place in the middle of the 21st century.
Serpent’s Walk by “Randolph D. Calverhall;” Copyright 1991 [SC]; National Vanguard Books; 0–937944-05‑X; pp. 42–43.
. . . . The SS . . . what was left of it . . . had business objectives before and during World War II. When the war was lost they just kept on, but from other places: Bogota, Asuncion, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Colombo, Damascus, Dacca . . . you name it. They realized that the world is heading towards a ‘corporacracy;’ five or ten international super-companies that will run everything worth running by the year 2100. Those super-corporations exist now, and they’re already dividing up the production and marketing of food, transport, steel and heavy industry, oil, the media, and other commodities. They’re mostly conglomerates, with fingers in more than one pie . . . . We, the SS, have the say in four or five. We’ve been competing for the past sixty years or so, and we’re slowly gaining . . . . About ten years ago, we swung a merger, a takeover, and got voting control of a supercorp that runs a small but significant chunk of the American media. Not openly, not with bands and trumpets or swastikas flying, but quietly: one huge corporation cuddling up to another one and gently munching it up, like a great, gubbing amoeba. Since then we’ve been replacing executives, pushing somebody out here, bringing somebody else in there. We’ve swing program content around, too. Not much, but a little, so it won’t show. We’ve cut down on ‘nasty-Nazi’ movies . . . good guys in white hats and bad guys in black SS hats . . . lovable Jews versus fiendish Germans . . . and we have media psychologists, ad agencies, and behavior modification specialists working on image changes.
8b. In the context of the purchase of food-producing companies, we note J.A.B Holdings and it’s associated Reimann family.
They are owned by a secretive group of German billionaires, mostly related to each other. This group owns (outright or majority) a rather shocking number of major American brands, including Peets Coffee, Panera Bread, Jimmy Choo Shoes, Dougwe Eberts Coffee, and Krispy Kreme Donuts! They also own part of 3G, the massive Brazilian holding company (with one of the three heads having the last name Lemann, and the other having Hermann as a middle name). (This is a focal point of FTR #912.)
3G owns Inbev (dominant player in the world’s liquor industry), Heinz, Kraft, and Burger King, who they quickly moved to Canada and merged with Tim Hortons, a massive Canadian restaurant chain, for tax breaks. They also own the largest logistics/railroad company in South America and its largest retail shopping company. So, between their interests in JAB and 3G, this one family has their tentacles into a ridiculous amount of commerce.
Like many German corporate citizens, they make their headquarters in Luxembourg.
Is this Bormann money “gulping up companies like a giant amoeba?”
“Germany’s Intensely Private and Immensely Wealthy Reimann Family” by James Shotter; Financial Times; 3/10/2016.
Late last year, a group called JAB Holding splashed out $13.9bn to add Keurig Green Mountain, the biggest group in the US single-serve coffee market, to its growing list of coffee investments.
The deal capped a three-year, $30bn acquisition spree, during which JAB bought up groups ranging from instant coffee specialists in Europe to hipster coffee chains in the US and prompted suggestions that a challenger to Nestlé’s dominant Nespresso brand could be emerging.
At the same time, the deal sparked another round of interest in the principal owners of JAB Holding: four members of Germany’s intensely private and immensely wealthy Reimann family: Wolfgang, Stefan, Renate and Matthias.
Keurig Green Mountain coffee packs, which form part of JAB’s growing list of coffee investments © Bloomberg
Through JAB, the family owns stakes in some of the world’s best-known brands. As well as its investments in the coffee sector, JAB’s burgeoning portfolio encompasses a 8 per cent stake in Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer goods conglomerate, and a 77.4 per cent stake in the US fragrance group Coty, which owns the Calvin Klein and David Beckham perfume brands. On top of this, the holding company also controls luxury marques Jimmy Choo, Bally and Belstaff.
Last year, Forbes put the combined wealth of JAB’s four principal owners at $16bn, which would make the clan one of Europe’s wealthiest business dynasties. Representatives of the family and JAB declined to comment for this article.
The Reimanns’ march to industrial prominence began in the early years of the 19th century. In 1823, Johann Adam Benckiser, whose initials are enshrined in JAB’s name, bought a chemicals business in Pforzheim, a small town in the south-western German province of Baden-Württemberg.
A few years later, Ludwig Reimann, the great-great-grandfather of the Reimanns who now own JAB, joined the company and married Benckiser’s daughter. After Benckiser’s death, Reimann took over the company, which had by now moved some 100km north to Ludwigshafen, paving the way for his descendants to etch the family’s name into the annals of German industry.
The last of the Reimanns to actively be involved in the day-to-day running of Benckiser was Albert junior, Ludwig’s great-grandson, who inherited the company in 1952 and pushed it in the direction of consumer goods. He died in 1984, leaving equal stakes to his nine adopted children.
Although all nine of Albert’s children had initially kept the 11.1 per cent stakes they inherited, by 2003, Wolfgang and Renate (who are siblings) and Matthias and Stefan (who are brothers) had bought out the other five.
In 1997, the family took Benckiser public and two years later engineered a merger with the British consumer goods group, Reckitt and Colman, to form Reckitt Benckiser.
The family members who sold out of the business then followed a well-trodden path by relying on a family office to manage their wealth. Subsequently they founded Deutsche Kontor Privatbank, a private bank based in Munich, to offer wealth management services to other non-family members.
Those who kept their stakes have put their fortune in the hands of a small group of trusted advisers who run JAB — currently Peter Harf, Bart Becht and Olivier Goudet. Harf started at Benckiser in 1981, while Becht joined in 1988. Goudet, a former Mars executive, joined in 2012. The family members play no role in the operative businesses. The trio of managers make suggestions to the family members on possible investments, which they then discuss, but that the family has the ultimate say.
The set-up has prompted comparisons with 3G, a private equity group run by three Brazilian tycoons, that has been buying up brands in the consumer goods sector. However the difference, according to Pablo Zuanic, an analyst at Susquehanna, is that at 3G the managers also provide the cash. “At JAB, the Reimann family provides the capital, but the driving force behind the day-to-day strategy is the three managers,” he says.
The Reimann’s newest asset, Keurig, co-operates with a number of third-party brands, whose coffee it sells along with its coffee-dispensing machines. This means it is potentially vulnerable to some of those brands walking away. The best way to deal with this, says Zuanic, would be for the family vehicle to buy up more brands of its own. “JAB has to have bigger plans in coffee for this deal to make sense,” he says.
8c. We present more information about JAB Holding and the brands they control.
“Meet the Family Behind the World’s Biggest New Coffee Company;” Quartz; 5/8/2014.
… In addition to the new coffee behemoth, the family owns a substantial luxury portfolio which includes brands such as the high-end shoe brand Jimmy Choo, the perfume maker Coty, and the Swiss shoemaker Bally. Before its $9.8‑billion purchase of D.E. Master Blenders, the company spent a combined $1.3 billion on the retail coffee chains Caribou Coffee and Peet’s, though the businesses are run separately.
8d. More data on the Coffee Coup… also note how JAB is compared to 3G, yet without mentioning how JAB and 3G often partner together!
“Billionaire Reimann Adding Krispy Kreme to Its Empire in $1.35 Billion Deal” by Kevin Orland [Bloomberg]; Saint Louis Post Dispatch; 5/9/2016.
The Reimann family, one of Europe’s wealthiest business dynasties, has the coffee. Now, it wants the doughnuts.
After building a coffee empire ranging from hipster Stumptown Coffee Roasters to single-serve mainstay Keurig, the Reimanns’ JAB Holding investment company wants its growing stable of consumer brands to add some high-calorie oomph: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.
The $1.35 billion deal, announced Monday, puts the intensely private Reimann clan — Wolfgang, Stefan, Renate and Matthias — on a potential collision course with Krispy Kreme’s rival of the moment, the mighty Starbucks Corp.
It also trains a spotlight on JAB, whose stewardship of the Reimann fortune has drawn comparisons to 3G Capital, the Brazilian private equity giant run by the billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann. JAB, run by a trio of trusted Reimann advisers, is coming off a four-year acquisition spree in which it spent about $30 billion taking controlling stakes in Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Espresso House and Baresso Coffee.
“They’ve been slowly amassing a pretty big umbrella of breakfast- and coffee-oriented brands, and so Krispy Kreme slides underneath that umbrella pretty easily,” said Will Slabaugh, an analyst at Stephens Inc.
…The four Reimanns each have a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. A fifth sibling, Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli, sold her stake in JAB in 2003 and has a $1.2 billion net worth. Seeking a favorable tax environment for the Reimanns, Harf moved their family offices to Vienna from Ludwigshafen, Germany, in 2006. The family traded their German passports for Austrian ones.
For now, coffee is a small part of Krispy Kreme’s business. Almost 90 percent of its revenue came from doughnuts last year. Compare that with Dunkin’ Donuts, which gets most of its sales from coffee. Dunkin’ too has been cited as a possible JAB takeover target, though the firm may take its time before making such a deal, Slabaugh said.
“They probably want to swallow an acquisition like this for a while before looking at something like Dunkin’,” he said.
8e. More biographical information on the Reimann family.
“The Secretive Billionaire Family Behind The $13.9 Billion Keuring Green Mountain Deal” by Max Jedeur-Palmgren; Forbes; 12/7/2015.
Just as they wish it to be, you have probably have never heard of the Reimann family. Chances are however that you have come across the products of their empire multiple times a day; maybe it was a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes, Durex condoms, Peet’s coffee, a Mondelez snack or Calvin Klein fragrances. On Monday, the family’s conglomerated announced it will pay $13.9 billion in cash to add yet another well-known product to its portfolio, Keurig Green Mountain, maker of home and office coffee brewing systems. The offer was a 78% premium to where it had traded on Friday, and the news sent the stock soaring. (The company’s founder, Bob Stiller, saw his fortune jump nearly $300 million today but he is still worth well less than he was at the stock’s peak).
The siblings are decedents of German chemist Ludwig Reimann, who in 1828 joined Johann Adam Benckiser, and his namesake company in Ludwigshafen, Germany. By marrying one of Benckiser’s daughters, Reimann ended up inheriting the entire company. His great-grandson Albert Reimann took the reins in 1952, and decided to steer the company in a new direction, adding consumer goods to its business. When he died in 1984, his nine adopted children, none of whom had ever worked for the business or had any role in its operations, each inherited 11.1% of John A. Benckiser (JAB S.e.r.l.).
The lack of involvement is allegedly part of the family policy, which also includes signing a codex on one’s 18th birthday pledging to stay out of the public as much as possible, thus making them one of the most private billionaire families.
Five of the original nine siblings have divested from JAB, selling their stakes to the remaining four. Wolfgang, Matthias, Stefan and Renate together now own 95% of the company, which they hold through family offices based in Vienna. Andrea Reimann-Ciadelli, now an American citizen living in New Hampshire, sold her stake in 2003 for close to $1 billion and is the lowest ranking family member one the Forbes Billionaires List. The other sellers are believed to have been bought out in the late 90’s to unknown, but probably lower, amounts.
…The explicit aim of the latest deal according to the press releases was to create the world’s largest pure-play coffee company. With the Keuring Green Mountain Deal announced on Monday, JAB will have succeeded in doing just that, and will pass Nestlé in terms of global annual revenue for coffee. Be as secretive as you may, it’s hard to escape the headlines if you are making deals to take over an industry.
8f. This article discusses JAB and 3G competing for Panera, but takes the time to point out that this unusual and that they usually move in tandem. Also, note that the CEO of JAB is chair of 3G-owned Inbev! Very cozy… also, note that Warren Buffett is routinely involved with both. Few things testify to the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of American liberalism than its fandom for Buffett. Yeah, he occasionally takes a swipe at Trump or the Bushes, but that doesn’t mean he is “the Good Billionaire”. He has always been dirty.
“Buffet-Backed Firm Interested in Bid for Panera Bread” by Josh Kosman; New York Post; 4/10/1017.
If 3G moves to top JAB’s $7.5 billion offer for Panera, it would put two of the world’s largest PE firms in direct competition for what is likely the first time.
JAB and 3G have been seen as allies. For example, Olivier Goudet, JAB’s chief executive, is chair of 3G’s Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The two firms have also invested in each other’s deals, sources close to the firms said.
“The idea of them being in combat with each other is really unusual,” a source who’s an investment banker said.
“Given that they invest in each other’s deals, it would be like going to war with your neighbor,” the banker said.
JAB, the investment vehicle for the reclusive billionaire Reimann family, of Germany, signed a $315-a-share cash merger agreement with Panera last week. Panera shares closed Monday at $313.30.
It was an exclusive sales process whereby Panera did not shop itself to other suitors, an investment banker said.
Both JAB and 3G are on a global buying spree. They have a similar strategy of investing in a space and expanding their businesses via acquisition.
8g. This article confirms the JAB investment in 3G.
“Brazilian PE Firm 3G Capital Eyes SAB Miller;” Venture Capital Post; 9/17/2015.
Though 3G Capital is a PE firm, it doesn’t raise money in the normal way as most of the private equity firms do. It prefers to get huge lots of money from the wealthiest families in the world. Lemann and his associates Carlos Alberto, Sicupira and Marcel have pooled up big lots of money from over three dozen super rich individuals and the most wealthiest families in the world.
The world’s well-known fund manager William Ackman also recently invested in 3G Capital. Other major investors include Colombia’s Santo Domingo family, tennis player Roger Federer from Switzerland and JAB Holdings, which handles Germany’s Reimann family assets.
8h. An overview of Jorge Paulo Lemann’s business undertakings, noting as we go his Germanic last name and the profound Bormann presence in Latin America and Switzerland (Lemann’s place of residence):
“Jorge Paulo Lemann”; Forbes; 5/27/2016.
Jorge Paulo Lemann is Brazil’s richest man thanks to his stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, which he owns through private equity firm 3G Capital together with fellow billionaires and longtime partners Carlos Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles [a nice Iberian name, no?–D.E.]. The trio also has stakes in Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King and Tim Hortons and is listed both the New York and Toronto stock exchanges. In 2013 Lemann’s private equity firm bought H.J. Heinz & Company for $23 billion together with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. It was 3G Capital’s second acquisition of an American name brand. In 2010, 3G Capital bought Burger King in a leveraged buyout.
DISCUSSION
2 COMMENTS FOR “FTR #1012 FOOD FOR THOUGHT, PART 2”
Did Bayer buy a lemon? That’s probably one of the questions the company executives and shareholders are probably asking themselves after a week of plummeting stock valuations following a wave a lawsuits directed at Bayer’s recently acquired Monsanto for $63 billion. As the following article articles, Bayer’s share prices dropped 10 percent on Monday following a California jury that awarded $289 million to a man who sued Monsanto after getting cancer following years of heavy use of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide despite assurances of its safety, opening the floodgates to potentially thousands of other similar lawsuits.
Then, on Wednesday, the California Supreme Court turned down an attempt by Bayer to keep Roundup off the list of known carcinogens. That knocked another 6 percent off of Bayer’s share price and Bayer’s stock is now at a five year low.
But the woes don’t stop there. Bayer/Monsanto was also just hit with a new class action lawsuit by farmers in Arkansas and South Dakota over Dicamba, an alternative herbicide produced by Monsanto and seen as a potential successor to Roundup.
Also, it looks like Brazil might ban glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup.
Oh, and it turns out researchers have been elevated levels of glyphosate in a wide variety of children’s cereal products. So Bayer is potentially looking at lawsuits involving exposing children to carcinogens. Plus, if dangerous levels of glyphosate are indeed found in cereals, you can be sure it’s going to be found in all sorts of other food products that have yet to be discovered.
So you have to wonder if this is a surprise for Bayer or was expected when they agreed to pay $63 billion for a company that appears to be a lawsuit machine at this point:
Fortune
Bayer Stock Keeps Falling as Its Monsanto Woes Stack Up
By David Meyer
08/16/2018 7:23 AM EDT
Bayer stock continues to slide in the wake of last week’s bombshell verdict on the carcinogenic nature of Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller.
Bayer bought Monsanto earlier this year for $63 billion. Roundup’s active ingredient is a herbicide called glyphosate, which a jury last week decided was responsible for the cancer of former groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson—a verdict that quickly lopped 10% off Bayer’s share price.
Glyphosate’s responsibility for causing cancer is a deeply contentious issue. The World Health Organization thinks the substance is dangerous. However, the European Union decided in 2015 that it is not carcinogenic, the Environmental Protection Agency said last year that it probably doesn’t cause cancer, and Bayer continues to argue that its newly acquired product is safe—it’s appealing the Johnson ruling.
But on Wednesday, the California Supreme Court turned down Bayer’s attempt to keep Roundup’s name off a list of known carcinogenic chemicals.
Bayer’s share price fell 6.1% on Thursday, following the Californian decision. So far, it has lost more than 18% of its value since the Johnson verdict, and is now lower than it has been for more than five years.
The negative sentiment can also be traced to class action lawsuits that the company is facing in the U.S. over its Dicamba herbicide. According to Bloomberg, Arkansas and South Dakota farmers who are suing Bayer/Monsanto say Dicamba harmed crops adjacent to those on which it was sprayed—it’s only supposed to be applied to plants that are engineered for resistance to Dicamba.
Meanwhile, according to Germany’s Wirtschaftswoche magazine, glyphosate could also face a ban in Brazil. And environmentalists said Wednesday that they found unhealthy levels of glyphosate in popular breakfast cereals such as Cheerios.
...
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“Bayer Stock Keeps Falling as Its Monsanto Woes Stack Up” by David Meyer; Fortune; 08/16/2018
“Bayer bought Monsanto earlier this year for $63 billion. Roundup’s active ingredient is a herbicide called glyphosate, which a jury last week decided was responsible for the cancer of former groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson—a verdict that quickly lopped 10% off Bayer’s share price.”
So the week started off with a 10 percent drop in Bayer’s share price following the California verdict. And it just kept getting worse. The California Supreme court refused to hear an appeal by Bayer over a ruling that put glyphosate on the list of carcinogenic chemicals, knocking another 6.1 percent off the share price:
...
Glyphosate’s responsibility for causing cancer is a deeply contentious issue. The World Health Organization thinks the substance is dangerous. However, the European Union decided in 2015 that it is not carcinogenic, the Environmental Protection Agency said last year that it probably doesn’t cause cancer, and Bayer continues to argue that its newly acquired product is safe—it’s appealing the Johnson ruling.
But on Wednesday, the California Supreme Court turned down Bayer’s attempt to keep Roundup’s name off a list of known carcinogenic chemicals.
Bayer’s share price fell 6.1% on Thursday, following the Californian decision. So far, it has lost more than 18% of its value since the Johnson verdict, and is now lower than it has been for more than five years.
...
Then there’s the lawsuits against Bayer/Monsanto by farmers in South Dakota and Arkansas over Dicamba, a product Monsanto was promoting as a replacement for Roundup:
...
The negative sentiment can also be traced to class action lawsuits that the company is facing in the U.S. over its Dicamba herbicide. According to Bloomberg, Arkansas and South Dakota farmers who are suing Bayer/Monsanto say Dicamba harmed crops adjacent to those on which it was sprayed—it’s only supposed to be applied to plants that are engineered for resistance to Dicamba.
...
Finally, it turns out elevated levels of glyphosate are found in a large number of popular breakfast cereals popular with children:
...
Meanwhile, according to Germany’s Wirtschaftswoche magazine, glyphosate could also face a ban in Brazil. And environmentalists said Wednesday that they found unhealthy levels of glyphosate in popular breakfast cereals such as Cheerios.
...
So it’s looking like Bayer paid $63 billion for a legal nightmare scenario. Again, was this kind of legal liability seen as a real possibility when they made the purchase or a big surprise? Because if it was a big surprise, well, that’s unfortunate for Bayer but oh well.
But if this legal nightmare was expected, you have to wonder if Bayer also expected to be able to fend off these legal challenges and this is all part of the plan. Or was the expectation inside Bayer that acquisition of Monsanto was going to be so profitable in the long run anyway that Bayer could afford to take these losses? Because if it’s the latter case, and Bayer was willing to just absorb these legal blows, that suggests Bayer is expecting the joint Bayer/Monsanto behemoth to be incredibly profitable in the future, which, in turn, implies that Bayer was expecting Bayer/Monsanto to have an even larger grip on the global agricultural markets than it already has.
And that’s all why the question of “what was Bayer thinking when they made this purchase?” is a rather ominous one for not just Bayer’s shareholders but everyone else too.
POSTED BY PTERRAFRACTYL | AUGUST 16, 2018, 11:39 AM
The German tabloid Bild just reported on the Nazi history of the family behind JAB Holdings. Surprise! It turns out Albert Reimann Sr. and Jr. were big time Nazis and the company employed forced labor. The report found that French and Russian prisoners of war were used in the family’s factories and private villas during WWII. Reimann Jr. once complained to the mayor of Ludwigshafen that the prisoners weren’t working hard enough. Reimann Sr. and Jr. were also big anti-Semites and supporters of Adolf Hitler and Sr. donated to the SS as early as 1933.
The Reimann family, currently the second wealthiest in Germany, actually commissioned a historian in 2014 to investigate the family’s ties to the Nazis. That work is still ongoing and wasn’t part of this report so it sounds like there might be even more Nazi revelations on the way. As family spokesman Peter Harf put it, “It is all correct...Reimann Senior and Reimann Junior were guilty. The two men have passed away, but they actually belonged in prison.”:
The Washington Post
German billionaire family that owns Einstein Bros. Bagels admits Nazi past
By Eli Rosenberg
March 25, 2019 at 10:49 AM
The German family whose holding company owns controlling stakes in companies such as Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Panera Bread, Pret a Manger and Einstein Bros. Bagels profited from the horrors of the Nazi regime, according to a bombshell report in a German newspaper.
The tabloid Bild, one of Germany’s most popular papers, reported that Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr., whose family backs JAB Holdings, had significant links to the Third Reich.
JAB Holdings is a privately held conglomerate that has investments in a wide portfolio of global companies, among them Peet’s Coffee, Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper-Snapple. It acquired Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, which owns three national bagel chains — Einstein Bros., Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel — in 2014.
The report found that Russian civilians and French prisoners of war were used as forced laborers in the family’s factories and private villas around World War II, when it was involved in chemicals-related manufacturing mostly for the food industry, according to Deutsche Welle.
“It is all correct,” family spokesman Peter Harf, who is one of two managing partners of JAB Holdings, told Bild. “Reimann Senior and Reimann Junior were guilty. The two men have passed away, but they actually belonged in prison.”
The two men died in 1954 and 1984, respectively.
Other disclosures in the report include revelations that the two men were anti-Semites and avowed supporters of Adolf Hitler, and Reimann Sr. donated to the paramilitary SS force as early as 1933, according to Deutsche Welle.
Reimann Jr. once complained to the mayor of Ludwigshafen, where the family had an industrial chemicals company, that the French prisoners of war weren’t working hard enough, Deutsche Welle reported.
The report was a reminder of the way that some private businesses that are willing to put moral and human rights concerns aside are able to profit from the repression of fascist regimes. Many German companies have reckoned with histories of collaboration with the Nazi regime, among them: Hugo Boss, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and others.
Harf told Bild that the company plans to give about $11 million to charity after learning of the family’s history, the AFP reported. He said that the family had been looking into its past and in 2014 commissioned a historian, Paul Erker of Munich University, to study its ties to the Nazi regime, a work that has yet to be completed after more than four years. Harf said that the family plans to release more information about that study when it is done.
In an email, Erker confirmed that he was investigating the company’s history during the Nazi era.
“It is about an overall story also in the industry context, but in which the subject of forced labor plays a central role,” Erker said. “The mandate includes absolute scientific independence and unrestricted access to files, including the Benckiser Archive and family records. I ask for your understanding that I cannot provide any information on the details and results of the ongoing project.”
Die Industriellen-Dynastie Reimann gilt heute mit 33 Milliarden Euro als die zweitreichste Familie Deutschlands. pic.twitter.com/GxkEBbBruJ
— BILD am SONNTAG (@BILDamSONNTAG) March 24, 2019
JAB Holdings was founded in the 1820s by Johann A. Benckiser, according to CB insights, and now serves as the “investment vehicle” for the Reimann family.
It holds stakes in companies behind brands such as Mucinex, Woolite and Durex condoms, according to CB Insights, and is a majority shareholder of the beauty product company Coty. In recent years, its aggressive moves to expand beyond the world of household goods have drawn attention, particularly in the world of coffee and baked goods. It has reportedly spent more than $40 billion to acquire brands such as Peet’s Coffee, Caribou Coffee and Keurig Green Mountain, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia.
The Reimann family, which has been described repeatedly in news reports as “secretive,” has an estimated wealth of some 33 billion euros, or about $37 billion, according to the AFP, and is believed to be the second-wealthiest in Germany. JAB Holdings did not respond to a request for comment.
Erker said he did not have an exact date when he expected to have his report ready.
According to the AFP, the company employed as many as 175 forced laborers, and produced items for the Nazi military and weapons industry. The company has not provided compensation to any of the forced laborers, “but we have since talked about what we can do now,” Harf said.
...
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“German billionaire family that owns Einstein Bros. Bagels admits Nazi past” by Eli Rosenberg; The Washington Post; 03/25/2019
“The Reimann family, which has been described repeatedly in news reports as “secretive,” has an estimated wealth of some 33 billion euros, or about $37 billion, according to the AFP, and is believed to be the second-wealthiest in Germany. JAB Holdings did not respond to a request for comment.”
This isn’t just any wealth family with a dark family secret. This is the second wealthiest family in Germany, with holdings that include Peet’s Coffee, Caribou Coffee, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Keurig Green Mountain, Intelligensia, Dr Pepper-Snapple, Einstein Bros., Noah’s New York Bagels, Manhattan Bagel, Mucinex, Woolite, Durex condoms, and the beauty product company Coty. And that’s just some of the brands held by JAB Holdings:
...
JAB Holdings is a privately held conglomerate that has investments in a wide portfolio of global companies, among them Peet’s Coffee, Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper-Snapple. It acquired Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, which owns three national bagel chains — Einstein Bros., Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel — in 2014.
...
JAB Holdings was founded in the 1820s by Johann A. Benckiser, according to CB insights, and now serves as the “investment vehicle” for the Reimann family.
It holds stakes in companies behind brands such as Mucinex, Woolite and Durex condoms, according to CB Insights, and is a majority shareholder of the beauty product company Coty. In recent years, its aggressive moves to expand beyond the world of household goods have drawn attention, particularly in the world of coffee and baked goods. It has reportedly spent more than $40 billion to acquire brands such as Peet’s Coffee, Caribou Coffee and Keurig Green Mountain, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia.
...
And this incredible family wealth, along with the family’s extensive secrecy, raises obvious questions about how this Nazi past may have played into the accumulation of such wealth. Of course, that turns out to include the use of prisoner of war forced labor. It’s one of the more shocking findings, along with the revelation that Reimann Sr and Jr were both avowed supporters of Hitler and Sr. donated to the SS as early as 1933:
...
The report found that Russian civilians and French prisoners of war were used as forced laborers in the family’s factories and private villas around World War II, when it was involved in chemicals-related manufacturing mostly for the food industry, according to Deutsche Welle.
“It is all correct,” family spokesman Peter Harf, who is one of two managing partners of JAB Holdings, told Bild. “Reimann Senior and Reimann Junior were guilty. The two men have passed away, but they actually belonged in prison.”
The two men died in 1954 and 1984, respectively.
Other disclosures in the report include revelations that the two men were anti-Semites and avowed supporters of Adolf Hitler, and Reimann Sr. donated to the paramilitary SS force as early as 1933, according to Deutsche Welle.
Reimann Jr. once complained to the mayor of Ludwigshafen, where the family had an industrial chemicals company, that the French prisoners of war weren’t working hard enough, Deutsche Welle reported.
...
According to the AFP, the company employed as many as 175 forced laborers, and produced items for the Nazi military and weapons industry. The company has not provided compensation to any of the forced laborers, “but we have since talked about what we can do now,” Harf said.
...
, Japan (3.7) or even the European Union as a whole (13.7). 