Big Business and the Battle of the Peace

At the end of World War II, Germany lay smoldering in the ashes of defeat. At the same time, a lone voice warned that the nation’s will for global dominance had not been broken, and that it would rise again—one final time. That lone voice warned that Germany had prepared a blueprint for the resurrection of the German Reich, long before its crushing defeat by the clenched fist of the Allied powers.

The late Herbert W. Armstrong’s warning came in May 1945, to an audience of World Tomorrow listeners, during the San Francisco United Nations conference: “Men plan, here, to preserve the peace of the world. What most do not know is that the Germans have their plans for winning the battle of the peace. Yes, I said battle of the peace. That’s a kind of battle we Americans don’t know. We know only one kind of war” (Autobiography, vol. ii, p. 114).

This time, it would not be a conflict where stony-faced, jack-booted stormtroopers took Europe by blitzkrieg. Rather, well-spoken, professional businessmen, equipped with the weapons of the new Euroforce—a three-piece suit and briefcase to match—would head the battle. The war waged by the underground Nazis was to be one fought in corporate boardrooms, restaurants, hotels, at political functions and through international diplomacy. But to accomplish their ultimate goal, they needed the help of big business in the United States.

The Corporate Plot

As Germany licked its deep wounds, Herbert Armstrong warned of its third blueprint for global ambitions. “The Nazis went underground, May 16, 1943!—two years before the war ended! The German generals, scientists, industrialists, bankers and others knew that World War ii was lost.

“So at that time they organized themselves for the future. The most thoroughly organized secret government of modern history began to function—underground!” (Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, lesson 3).

A declassified U.S. intelligence document dated November 7, 1944, proved Mr. Armstrong’s warning right. The document confirmed that on August 10, 1944, at the Hotel Rotes Haus in Strasborg, France, the unholy alliance was ratified. Key military and corporate personnel were present. The SS, Navy, Krupp, Rochling, Messerschmitt, Rheinmetall, Bussing, Volkswagen and others agreed to prepare for a post-war commercial campaign. Remember, all companies in Germany were influenced, dominated and administered according to the will of the National Socialists.

Commercial contacts and business links with U.S. companies that were established prior to the war had well positioned Germany for this commercial battle. These corporate stormtroopers were directed to increase the strength of Germany through their exports and establish a secure post-war foundation in foreign countries, including the U.S.

American Involvement

As has been proven by extensive follow-up investigation, remarkably, a number of American financial and industrial kingpins of World War ii—even several members of the government—readily cooperated with their German corporate counterparts.

Declassified documents prove the longstanding relationship between U.S. companies and Nazi Germany. These companies filtered money through various international accounts to front companies prepared, before war’s end, to fund Germany’s third attempt at global dominance. They amassed fortunes throughout the war as they stoked the fires of the Nazi industrial engine—in addition to contributing to the Allied war effort.

U.S.-based, Nazi-sympathetic companies identified in the declassified documents were Ford, General Motors, American skf, American Bosch, Chase and Morgan banks, Standard Oil, International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (itt) and Radio Corporation of America (rca). These and many other U.S. companies supplied vehicles, industrial components, money and communications assistance to the Nazi war machine before and during the war, favoring the love of money over national loyalty.

So rampant was this American double-dealing that on December 13, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the “Trading With the Enemy Act,” designed to instigate U.S. corporate denazification. But this mammoth task was severely hamstrung by a high degree of both German and American corporate resistance.

Years later, in 1944, Roosevelt wrote a letter stating that he was committed to the destruction of the Nazi weapons of economic warfare. Quickly thereafter the Department of Justice assembled a team to investigate corporate cooperation with the Nazi cause.

Unbelievably, that team included representatives of General Motors and bankers who had themselves financed the Teutonic incursion. James Stewart Martin, a young lawyer assigned to the case, inquired as to why representatives of Nazi-sympathetic companies were leading the investigation. His questions met with mute response. Every avenue investigated turned up no hard leads. Corporate roadblocks faced the investigators at every turn.

Writing in his book All Honorable Men, Martin pointed the finger at American business: “We had not been stopped in Germany by German business. We had been stopped in Germany by American business. The forces that stopped us had operated from the United States but had not operated in the open.” Needless to say, the efforts at halting the disloyalty largely failed.

Business as Usual

At the close of the war, Nazi-allied companies and business executives were instructed by the fatherland to reorganize their efforts and aid in the reconstruction of Germany as a national trading giant dominating global business.

Charles Higham, in his compelling book Trading With the Enemy, factually recounts the Nazi corporate plot and details the underhanded tactics of a fraternity of U.S. companies sympathetic to the fascist cause.

“The tycoons were linked by an ideology: the ideology of Business as Usual. Bound by identical reactionary ideas, the members sought a common future in fascist domination, regardless of which world leader might further that ambition…. When it was clear that Germany was losing the war, the businessmen became notably more ‘loyal’ [to the U.S.].

“Then, when war was over, the survivors pushed into Germany, protected their assets, restored Nazi friends to high office, helped provoke the cold war, and insured the permanent future of The Fraternity” (pp. xiv-xv).

After the war, Germany began to rebuild; new life began to stir in the shattered fatherland. The corporate elite had not accepted defeat; they had signed no papers of surrender. The Nazi military machine may have been overcome, but not its corporate stormtroopers. “The massive defeat they suffered during World War ii did not refute the innermost convictions of many fascists, who kept pining for the day when they might again inflict their twisted dream of a new order on much of the world” (Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, p. 11).

Meanwhile, by the 1945 Yalta Conference, President Roosevelt was nearing death. Harry Truman waited in the wings to replace him. The timing of the change of guard in the White House was perfect for the Germans: The Truman administration failed to fully complete the corporate denazification process Roosevelt had started.

Rising From the Ashes

Thus, as the Allies began to relax, the German corporate juggernaut once again shifted into high gear. Germany’s economy quickly began to grow and develop. Nazi officials were placed back into their former jobs by the Allied governments!

Prior to 1946 the Germans had managed to transfer $500 million out of their country into accounts in Spain, Switzerland, Argentina, Chile and Turkey. The money was used to purchase hundreds of companies and establish foreign bureaus from which to further the corporate fascist cause. In 1949 the Petersburg Treaty was signed by the Allies, and the new Federal Republic of Germany was born.

By 1950 the mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, became chancellor. One year later he admitted 134 former Nazis, men and women who had served under Hitler, into high posts in his Bonn government. Then, in a stunning display of defiance, Germans again began to sing their national anthem, “Deutschland Über Alles”—Germany over all. Adenauer would later have the anthem shortened to “Über Alles,” citing foreign misunderstanding of the intent of the lyrics.

Over 1952-53, Deutsche Bank guru Hermann Joseph Abs convinced the Allies that Germany couldn’t pay its $20 billion debt to its enemies. The debt was consequently reduced to $14 billion. The passage of time was softening the West.

As the Allies met with resolute opposition by America and German business at every turn, rather than getting tougher with them, these governments’ will to dismantle Germany’s corporate war machine waned. Germany was finally left to denazify itself!

Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa and VW (removed from existence only briefly after the war) returned under the same names and under the stewardship of many of the same fascist leaders, who were now training the Aryan youth to carry on the cause. Germany had survived! Its corporations and business leadership remained intact. The country entered a period of economic boom.

The ’60s and ’70s saw companies regenerate and consolidate. Establishing pockets of influence all over the world and deepening their attachment to the United States both diplomatically and corporately, the Germans were fooling the West.The plan was working.

By the 1980s, the U.S. felt they had done very well at teaching Germany a valuable lesson, and decided that it was time to withdraw from Germany. With the U.S. gone (and Russia as well), the Germans were free to consolidate their power. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and East and West Germany reunited.

The coming decade would place Germany in its strongest economic position since its defeat at the hands of the Allies. A united Germany then cast its corporate eyes squarely on the U.S.

Buying American

Half of today’s top ten European companies are German: DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen, Siemens, Metro and Veba. Having established themselves firmly throughout Europe, Germany’s corporate colonels have turned their economic panzar divisions toward the United States.

Reborn German conglomerates like Daimler-Benz, Deutsche Bank, Allianz, Siemens, Bayer, basf, Hoechst, Lufthansa, Bertelsmann, Thyssen, Heidelberger, Mannesmann, Volkswagen and bmw gathered as bees to the hive, ready to launch their ultimate conquest of corporate America. Decades of groundwork had been laid for this thrust forward.

A former editor for Der Spiegel, Werner Meyer-Larsen, recounts in his shocking book Germany, Inc. the premeditated intentions of German corporations toward the United States. “Most German companies now setting sail in the direction of America have troubled pasts. The larger and more important they were then, the more it is assumed they were involved in the corporate system of the Nazi regime” (p. 20).

Inroads into the American economic landscape by German firms have been steady, discreet and significant. Hundreds of takeovers, friendly and hostile mergers and acquisitions of small, medium and large U.S. companies line the German corporate war chest. Many of these German conglomerates have more money at their disposal than medium-size states. Their revenue is sometimes even higher than the budget and gross domestic product of entire nations! All of these companies have executed a carefully planned acquisition strategy for development in the United States. They have taken full advantage of the prevailing climate of weak, ineffective, morally decrepit politicians and corporate elite who have no affiliation with the home team other than the lust for money.

Nine years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was reported that “large German companies are in the midst of the biggest concentration in their core competencies and the strongest portfolio restructuring since World War ii” (Financial News, July 6, 1998).

Deutsche Bank and the German empire were born together and have always remained inseparable. In 1998 the bank’s acquisition of Bankers Trust created the largest financial services company in the world. This past September, news leaked that Deutsche Bank was considering buying U.S. brokerage jewel J.P. Morgan. Germany’s third-largest bank, Dresdner Bank, agreed to buy Wasserstein, Perella and Co. for $1.56 billion. Dresdner has now gained access to a powerful client list that includes giants Phillip Morris and Time Warner.

In 1998 the parent of Daimler-Benz agreed to buy Chrysler Corp. for more than $37 billion. In addition, Daimler-Chrysler recently acquired Detroit Diesel, the giant manufacturer of diesel engines. The company’s revenues for 1999 were $2.4 billion, with Freightliner (a Daimler-Chrysler company) as its largest single customer. The combination of the world’s fourth- and fifth-largest truck engine builders ensures that their sales volume will pass Volvo, Cummins and Caterpillar—making Daimler-Chrysler the world’s number-one builder of truck engines. This enhances its current status as number-one commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world.

Thyssen-Krupp merged in 1998, forming Europe’s largest and the world’s third-largest steel producer. They have walked an extensive path of expansion in the U.S., acquiring companies in Colorado, California, Michigan and Mississippi.

Germany’s insurance giant Allianz recently completed the $3.3 billion purchase of Pimco Advisors Holdings. The all-cash acquisition makes Allianz, Europe’s second-biggest insurer, the world’s sixth-largest money manager, with $650 billion worth of investments under management. In addition, Allianz has expressed interest in acquiring privately owned U.S. fund manager Nicholas Appelgate.

German companies that have settled in the industrial parks of America have enjoyed rich success. One such example is bmw, which selected Spartanburg, South Carolina, as the manufacturing base for its Z-3 roadster. With unemployment high in the region due to losses in the tobacco industry, the German firm was welcomed with open arms. Daimler-Benz followed suit and established the manufacturing location for its M-class in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Deutsche Post recently bought Airborne Express, snagging the third-largest courier company in the U.S. This takeover included Airborne’s international airport, the United States’ largest privately owned airport.

In September of this year, German utility company rwe purchased British Thames Water for $4.3 billion. This also netted it a solid standing in the U.S. through New Jersey’s water supply (E’Town), which had been recently acquired by Thames Water.

Perhaps the most recent advance is Deutsche Telekom’s keenness to take over the nationwide U.S. wireless telephone company VoiceStream.

Regulators are calling for Deutsche Telekom to reduce its government’s 58 percent stake in the company. German officials have already promised that the government will drop the level to 44 percent and eventually zero. (U.S. law prohibits an American telecommunications company from being bought by a foreign company that is more than 25 percent government owned.)

Democratic Senator Ernest Hollings of South Carolina has voiced opposition on Capitol Hill to the Deutsche Telekom-VoiceStream takeover. Hollings, a World War ii veteran who fought in Europe, is concerned about the national security implications of permitting a foreign power to claim a large piece of the national communications network. “It’s lunacy to think we’re going to sit back here and give away America’s telecommunications to the foreigners. We can’t depend on the German government to always be friendly” (Washington Post, July 13).

However, most expect that the deal will eventually go through, considering the U.S. government’s support of the market-opening rules of the World Trade Organization.

Other German-U.S. mergers and acquisitions have been announced recently in the legal, chemical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and financial service industries. Most of the U.S. companies that have been acquired are renamed and brought under the direction of the parent headquarters in Germany.

Illusion of Peace

While the required government approvals continue to be quietly rubber-stamped, it appears America is oblivious to the frightening reality of the specific intentions of the reborn German corporate juggernaut.

Noting how before World War ii those in Britain wanted to believe that all was well, Winston Churchill poignantly said, “All will seek the illusion of peace.” Today, America is seeking the illusion of peace while the corporate battle rages.

In short, America is asleep—intoxicated by the love of money (i Tim. 6:10). Government officials, regulators, business executives and the general public are clearly deceived. Germany is perceived as an ally, a friend, a trusted neighbor with a wayward past—reformed by the fluttering stars and stripes. Public opinion couldn’t be more wrong. Herbert Armstrong’s warnings, now proved beyond doubt by declassified intelligence documents, have gone unheeded.

Mr. Armstrong’s 1945 warning over the airwaves continued, “We don’t understand German thoroughness. From the very start of World War ii, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War iii!”

As we look through the lens of time at the phenomenal strides made by German business, we see that the United States has already lost that battle. It lost the battle of the peace between World Wars i and ii and again is losing the battle of the peace following World War ii into the foothills of World War iii.

Germany has waited patiently for its enemy to rest, to become comfortable, before it exposes its talons in a blitzkrieg military attack!

Today, America permits German business and the German military into its country. The U.S. draws down and closes long-held bases in Germany, giving them to a former enemy, while allowing Germany to establish a permanent military facility at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The signing of an open-skies treaty now permits German aircraft to make surveillance flights over the U.S., conducting joint military exercises on U.S. soil. In addition, America encourages the European Union as it separates from the West with Germany as its undisputed leader. In its own backyard the U.S. compromises national security and economic stability by signing off on the largest mergers and acquisitions in history.

We have forgotten the millions of men, women and children massacred at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno and Lublin. We have forgotten how a nation was galvanized by its antisemitic hatred. We have forgotten that U.S. companies sheltered, supported, aided and abetted Hitler’s fascist final solution.

It is time to wake up, America! Hear the message of Herbert Armstrong and of this magazine (Ezek. 33:11). We must realize that the German plan is steadily reaching its climax! God prophesies to America and Britain that He will raise up Germany, a nation we are treating as our “lover,” and bring them against us (Deut. 28:43; Ezek. 23:22). As the U.S. continues to turn away from God, defiling the very principles of His commanding law upon which its Constitution was founded, God warns that He will bring this punishment upon us (Deut. 28:49-53). America has forgotten God, and He desperately wants America to turn back to Him. However, this unrepentant country will have to learn the hard way—through pain and suffering.

It is now startlingly clear that, following its carefully laid plans, Germany has successfully used the United States to further its own global ambitions.

The battle of the peace is about over. The tribulation of World War iii is coming. This time the United States will not be victorious. Because of national arrogance and sinful practices that have come from our rejection of God’s governing law, the American people will suffer as never before (Matt. 24:21-22). However, this suffering is for a very great purpose—to draw them back to God. Soon both the U.S. and Germany will submit in unity to the government of God.

For those who yield themselves now to the almighty, unseen hand, there is a way of escape (Luke 21:36). They must have an ear to hear and come out of today’s sin-sick world to support the one voice that increasingly trumpets the final watchman warning to all peoples, nations, tongues and kings (Rev. 10:11). God will provide shelter from the coming storm. That way is open to you. Will you make the right choice?