Fritz_Thyssen_Foundation
The Fritz Thyssen Foundation (German: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung) is a private nonprofit foundation in Germany, created on 7 July 1959 by Amélie Thyssen and Anita Gräfin Zichy-Thyssen[1][2] and named in memory of prominent iron and steel manufacturer August Thyssen and his son Fritz,[2] who became a major financial backer of the ascendant Nazi Party in the early 1930s.[2][3]
The Thyssen family generated significant wealth in the late 19th century as producers of coal, iron and steel.[4] August Thyssen founded Thyssen & Co. KG in Mülheim in 1871 and, over the following decades, established iron- and steelmaking plants throughout the Ruhr region of Germany.[5] Following August's death in 1926, Fritz Thyssen assumed control of the iron and steel empire. In 1932, Thyssen signed a petition urging German President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Adolf Hitler to the German chancellorship.[3] The following year, he orchestrated a meeting between Hitler and influential German industrialists, which significantly increased support for the Third Reich among leaders of major companies.[3] Thyssen officially joined the Nazi Party in 1933.[3] Following World War II, a German denazification court found him guilty of being a "minor Nazi offender"[6] and ordered him to surrender a portion of his property to a compensation program for victims of Nazi persecution.[4]
Thyssen's wife Amélie, also a member of the Nazi Party, inherited control of the iron and steel business following her husband's death in 1951. She used proceeds from the sale of shares in August Thyssen-Hütte AG to create the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, for which she was awarded the second highest Order of Merit in the Federal Republic of Germany.[2]
Today, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation supports research in the fields of history, language and culture, state, economics, society and medicine, devoting special attention to support for junior researchers.[7] The award of grants to doctoral graduates and the funding of staff positions in projects is intended to advance scientific research.[8] The foundation is based in Cologne.[9]
