Wu Congyang felt that he was the happiest person in the world, although he knew that his father could not stay by his side permanently, and even the countdown to his trip in Europe was estimated to have begun.

Still, he felt happy. Go to school in Stuttgart every day and return to Hohenzollern Castle in the evening.

Today, when he returned, he found that his father was not waiting for him at the door.

After asking the maid, I learned that Wushan was meeting guests.

Sneaking under the window of the reception room, he peeked in through the crack, and found that his mother was not there, but his father and two people, one was somewhat familiar, and the other had never seen each other.

"Haha, Mr. Wu, does the world say Ondet? Krupp is a bastard and you believe it? "This is the man who seems to have some impressions, as if he had been to the castle before.

The speaker had no intention, Wushan's heart was shocked, and even he didn't expect that he was actually the eldest son of the Krupp family.

The name Krupp has long been essentially synonymous with power, and to this day it still means ruthlessness, cynicism, insatiable greed, and most importantly – war.

As one of the most famous and successful international arms dealers, Krupp is a true state within a state.

In the twentieth century, no country has had successive governments so closely tied to an industrial family.

As with all admirable human achievements, at the time of the establishment of the Krupp industrial kingdom, there were no clues to Krupp's ability to dominate German industry for hundreds of years.

The first Krupp was just a shrewd businessman. His son Alfred? Krupp inherited his father's small business.

When one goes back in history, one will find that he was the true architect of this industrial empire.

Meantime. One will also find that Alfred himself's early life was full of desperate failures. All his rhetoric is an expression of dissatisfaction with the world.

His great success later in life may have come as a surprise to him.

Luckily, here's what's going on. He caught up with an explosion of opportunity.

The construction of railways everywhere has created a huge demand for steel.

On the one hand, Sam's steel giants like Andrew? Carnegie had not yet established his own kingdom of steel.

On the other hand, Krupp succeeded in obtaining a patent for train wheels, which allowed Krupp to produce wheels in the Ruhr to be supplied to Sam and European railway companies.

But the production of civil steel alone did not satisfy Alfred's commercial ambitions.

In an era when private business giants have not yet risen and ordinary people's consumption has not yet been fully awakened, what could be more profitable than doing business with the country?

The country and the emperor are the biggest customers. Rothschild, the most powerful financial family of the time, discovered this, as did the rising Krupp.

And what could be more attractive than selling weapons to the nation and the emperor when doing business with them? Moreover, from steel to artillery, the distance is not far.

Therefore, don't think that the official business hook? Knots only happen in China. Foreign countries are also prevalent.

From Alfred? From the moment Krupp sold the first weapons to Kaiser Wilhelm, the fate of the family was sealed.

Alfred wanted to make cannons, and William wanted to buy them.

It's a money marriage, and not even death can end it. Each of William's heirs was bound to form an alliance with Krupp the Elder's generation.

Since then, Krupp has been distinguished by its nationalist ambitions.

The alliance with the state brought the Krupps under the care of public institutions and created their supremacy.

Krupp himself was deeply aware of the source of his power. Every time there was a crisis, he would salute the flag.

If that doesn't work, he'll rant and threaten, and he'll leave to find a monarch who appreciates him.

In a letter that Alfred wrote to Kaiser Wilhelm. He sees his company as "the factory of a country".

In other words, Krupp goes beyond the company and is integrated with the interests of the state.

For the rest of his life, Franz? Krupp and the Kaiser always maintained a close relationship.

When Germany's most powerful industrial emperor was found to have a homosexual hobby. Despite the greatest taboo at the time, William forgave him and stepped in to clean up the mess.

In an immoral. Franz? Krupp died unexpectedly.

The Krupp family faced its first succession crisis. Because Franz had only daughters, not sons.

Then. It was the emperor himself who arranged the marriage of Franz's daughter, carefully choosing an heir for the family. Jean Gustav? Krupp entered the history of this industrial kingdom.

It turns out that Gustav? Krupp is a real Krupp.

During his "reign", he maintained the Krupp business model: maintaining good relations with the state and constantly selling arms to it.

What is even more striking is that after the blows of the First World War, the family had theoretically lost its source of power, but Gustav was able to quickly rise again from Krupp, just like the country of Germany.

After the First World War, it was unwise for France and Great Britain to insist that Germany pay huge war reparations.

It will only provoke a stronger nationalist backlash. But Germany's resurgence and its consequences are still surprising.

The Krupp family has always been on the side of the state.

This time, they were on the side of the Third Reich and Hetler. Krupp in World War II represented the darkest side of business.

If one would condemn the Watson family's IBM for producing punches for Germany, then Krupp should be nailed to the heaviest and most unforgivable pillar of shame in the history of business.

It was they who supplied the Nazi army with an endless supply of artillery and tanks. Because of this, Krupp entered the list of war criminals.

Moreover, after the Nuremberg trials, no one could have imagined that there would be a future for this family.

There is a dramatic scene in this trial that fully demonstrates the differences between Krupp and Sam's giants such as Ford, Rockefeller or Carnegie.

Alfried? Krupp said, "I don't want you to tell me that a Sam entrepreneur would say no to his government during the war." ”

There was an unpleasant silence below. They recognize. His understanding of Sam is also not deep.

Despite the fact that he is very smart. But he still failed to grasp the unspoken rules outside of Germany – he didn't know what the Sam government didn't dare to ask companies to do, and he didn't know that Sam's major industrialists dared to do anything without the government's consent.

Krupp's success stems from its unity with the state; But it will also end up the industrial family.

Despite the zài controversy. Alfried? Krupp still escaped the harshest punishment.

His elderly father, Gustav, received the harshest reproaches and was freed after 3 years in captivity.

And, unexpectedly, when he walked out of prison at 9 o'clock in the morning on February 3, 1951, he was surprised to find that he had become an icon of the nation.

The revival of this powerful industrial family is seen as part of Germany's renewed revival. Alfried? Krupp became the object of media pursuit.

When he was asked by a reporter whether Krupp would still produce guns, the sensible answer was no, but Alfred said: "My life is determined by the course of history, not by me." ”

Although the historical record is unknown, there is no doubt about the resurgence of Krupp.

Alfred calmly told the board, "I thought it would take half a century to build. But I never doubted the day when I would make a comeback. ”

Like his father, Gustav, who was part of the Krupp family, he was determined not to be dragged down by fate.

After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Gustav secretly resumed preparations for the production of weapons, determined that "the future will be brighter without giving up hope."

Within a few years, the French magazine Reality reported that the Krupp Complex had become the fourth largest company in Europe.

Reuters said Alfried's comeback in the 1950s surpassed Gustav's table in the 1920s. It seems that nothing can destroy Krupp. Except for the next heir.

Alfried's eldest son, Ondet? Krupp is destined to be a man who will disappoint every Krupp.

He told reporters, "Krupp has consumed the happiness of generations of my ancestors. If my father's performance were converted into working hours, he would have worked longer than his life, and I didn't want to live like that. ”

At the same time, Alfred found that his family could no longer afford to be in debt.

This centuries-old industrial empire has not been able to escape the most naïve crisis in business: debt.

Although in terms of personal wealth. Alfried? Krupp was the richest man in Europe, but he was also the largest debtor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The only way to survive is to reorganize the family's privatized company into a joint-stock company. This is the most hated thing by the heads of Krupp in the past.

Krupp wants to have absolute control over his company. For this absolute control. The Krupp family follows a strict system of primogeniture.

But the day is finally coming. In 1967, Krupp was reorganized into a joint stock limited company. Even so. The Krupp Group did not last a few years.

It's hard to say exactly what legacy one of Europe's most famous industrial families of the 20th century left on the business world, because they were so close to the state and politics. It has even become part of the regime.

Like all business empires of the same period, their business model was to do business with the state and the monarch.

In this pattern, Balzac's famous statement seems incomparably true: behind every great fortune is an equally great evil. The future belongs to the new business empires, who have built their models on selling products and services to the average consumer.

People have the impression that Krupp is a thing of the past.

However, when he spoke with a straight face, not to mention Wu Shan at the scene, even Wu Congxuan, who was not very sensible and eavesdropped, knew that this Ondet was definitely not as superficial as he seemed. (To be continued......)