In 1997 we learn, via a dormant bank account in Switzerland that Hugo Boss
participated in the Nazi war effort during the second world war and
that the company thrived thanks to the production of SS and SA of the
Wehrmacht uniforms. In the late 1990s, the management of the company,
who was not aware of the situation and who had few sources available to explain the situation,
they decided to mandate a historian: Roman Köster. They asked him to conduct a study
to clarify the situation. However, since the 1970s, Hugo Boss
is recognized as a specialized luxury clothing brand
in the suit business for men. Over time, the company associated
itself with the most important and glamorous events and to the best athletes of the
planet. Hugo Boss is a bit like the Mercedes of the
suit. We need not say more, like in
TV ads, they convince without speaking, The details are useless.
However, nobody currently really knows if Hugo Boss is an Italian or an American
brand because the brand has gone far beyond the
research of its origins. Good for them, because
if only people knew, because yes, Hugo Boss actively participated in the war effort
of the Nazis during the second world war. I assure you and I will
prove it. Today, at l’Histoire nous le dira,
when Hugo Boss dressed the Nazi Officers!
Hugo Ferdinand Boss was born on July 8, 1885 in the small town of Metzingen south of
Stuttgart in Germany. He is the youngest of a
family of 5 children. His parents owned a linen company and he is chosen
to be the heir of the family business.
He begins his apprentice merchant studies before doing his military service. Much like
several men of his generation, he participated to the first world war without being
promoted. In 1924, with the financial assistance of
two manufacturers in Metzingen, Hugo Boss opens
his own sewing factory. Employing between 20 and 30 seamstresses, the company manufactures
handmade clothing of all kinds, from the simple shirt to the traditional coat
of southern Germany. One of the first large orders for
the company is from a clothing distributor from Munich, Rudolf Born. In these orders,
we find, among other things, brown shirts intended for the members of the young National
Socialist party, the Nazi party. Hugo Boss is unlikely, however, to
have been aware of the use of the shirts even if in an advertisement of the 1930s
he claimed to produce political party uniforms since 1924, that's what we
could say is either misleading advertising, The 1929 crisis weakened
the textile industry and Hugo Boss’s company faced bankruptcy.
However, in 1931, he avoided closing by making a deal with these creditors.
In that same year 1931, Hugo becomes a member of the German National Socialist Party.
His membership allows him to gradually receive party orders for production of
brown shirts and clothes for SA, and later, the SS.
The textile industry starts to slowly regrow around 1933, despite
export restrictions on synthetic fibers and raw materials
by the National Socialist Party, now in power.
From the 1930s onwards, production of clothing will gradually decrease
in favor of worker’s clothes and military uniforms. Uniform orders for
the government are becoming more and more numerous
on the one hand and on the other hand, these are the only products that are not affected
by restrictions on raw materials. In 1938, the rearmament of Germany is
already well underway and Hitler is preparing the
war. Uniform orders increase and Hugo Boss not only comes out of bankruptcy
but it also starts to receive large orders for the military.
The company then begins to produce uniforms for the army and the Waffen
SS (the military branch of the SS). Then came the war, the second world
war. In 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and Germany.
Orders increased significantly for Hugo Boss.
The company's annual turnover increases until reaching a maximum of
just over 1 million Reichsmarks in 1942. From that moment onwards, his turnover
began to decrease significantly as a result of the introduction of a fixed price on
raw materials. Lack of employees encouraged the company
to use forced labor. Employment of forced labor in Germany
during the second world war probably deserves an entire video devoted to it,
we will do it eventually. But let's just summarize by saying that during
world war two, German production companies, in order to solve the
lack of manpower, were encouraged to use forced laborers from different
conquered territories to fill vacancies in factories.
During the second world war, Hugo Boss employed 140 forced laborers, mostly
women, and 40 French prisoners of war (from October 1940 to April 1941) which
makes it the third company employing the most forced laborers in Metzingen.
The laborers' working conditions evolved gradually during
the conflict. Until 1943, men were confined to barracks on the company
grounds, the conditions were later be described as "hygienic".
These conditions would however change at the start
1943 with the construction of a camp for workers from Eastern Europe. Built,
funded and operated by the largest companies of Metzingen, the camp responds to a new
law promulgated by the government of Württemberg stipulating a separation of forced
laborers from local residents. The new camp quickly faced
financial difficulties that would gradually worsen the hygienic conditions and
the quality of the food as the war intensified.
In early 1944, Hugo Boss tries to improve the situation by applying a new diet
exclusive to women from food reserves from the company canteen.
Several testimonies, especially from forced laborers make pretty positive
descriptions of how Hugo Boss personally treated these employees.
However, there are other testimonies who denounce aggressive and inappropriate
behavior of certain executives towards the seamstresses. Even if Hugo Boss has
never been personally involved in these incidents, nothing indicates
that he tried anything to put an end to them. 4 fatalities among laborers were reported,
3 died of so-called natural deaths and 1 died by
suicide. Metzingen was occupied in April 1945 by the
allied troops and became a part of the French occupation zone.
During the denazification process, Hugo F. Boss
is found not guilty but must pay
a fine of 100,000 Reichsmarks for having been a member of the party, and for having
financially
taken advantage of the actions of the Nazi government.
After appealing his case, he is classified as a supporter of the party, a
person who was in favor of the regime without having actively engaged in it politically.
After the war, the business continued to produce clothes and uniforms,
notably for the French occupation police and the Red Cross. After Hugo Boss's death
in 1947, the business continued to grow under the direction of his son Eugen Holy.
The company produced its first suit in the 1950s.
In 1969, the Hugo Boss company was taken over by his grandsons Jochen and Uwe Holy who
redirected company towards luxury clothing for men.
This approach changed the company image which became a luxury clothing company.
While it is true that Hugo Boss's business actively participated in the war effort
during the second world war, it was by no means
the enterprise that we
know today.
Hugo Boss also explained at Nuremberg trial that if he hadn't joined
the party he never would have received the uniform
orders that allowed him to save
his bankrupt business.
However, Köster, in his study on Hugo Boss’s past, claims that he
did not necessarily join the party under promise of order but
because he was sympathetic to the Nazis and that he saw it as a business opportunity.
Contrary to general belief, Hugo Boss was not the "Hitler’s favorite designer”.
In fact, nothing in the sources Supports the idea that Hugo Boss had
the skills to draw a uniform.
It would rather seem that Hugo Boss's factory benefited from the great decentralization
of government orders to produce already designed uniforms. In short, he received
party orders and produced uniforms through subcontracts.
Decentralization of textile production in Germany under Nazism allowed for the development
of a plurality of small and medium-sized enterprises who were able to benefit from government orders.
However, Hugo Boss did take advantage of the generosity of the Nazi party.
It's over for today, I am Laurent Turcot of l’Histoire nous
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