"MERCHANT STINNES"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1923, Page 10

"MERCHANT STINNES"

ORGANISER AND NEGOTIATOR

MAXIMILIAN HARDENS PEN-PIC-TURE.

The following portrait of Hugo Stinnes appeared in the Vienna- "Morgen" from the pen of Maximilian Harden, the famous publicist, says the Vienna correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." Herr Harden says that this is the Stinnes of the period before the interna.tional manipulations of the last throe years. To this new Stinnes, he says, 'ac will devote another article: —

He really exists. In Mulheim, on the Ruhr, where he was born; in Bei/liu, Hamburg, Prague, Vienna, Buda>pes,t, Karlsbad, Oberhof, Rome, Amsterdam, Zurich—wherever there is something to organise or to negotiate. His fathi-r and grandfather were barge-owners cm the Ruhr. The grandfather already kiiew and adopted the system of the vortical trust; instead of acquiring large numj bers of similar works—in his c*se shipping companies—he built his ovm barges and transported his own. ccyil. The grandson "extended the syrrtern. ' His paper comes from his own rorr.-sts, his own sawmills, his own cellnloqra factories, his newspapers are turned out from his own printing works; bit 'this is of little importance. It is ncjfc worth mentioning alongside the coal ajid iron mines, the iron and steel and cng'ineeHng works, the power stations and ship/ring in his hands. And the owner-^oE, this wealth, waxing with each new moon and waning with none, calls himseU simply Hugo Stinhes, merchant. * Thils w not a pose, a gesture;; he wants to appear no more •than he is. He became a merchant when with 50,000 gold marfe, received from his _ father, he ibundoA his independent business. He remained a merchant whose trade with Ev^k'sh coal till 1914 was not less than hii German coal trade. Without foreign help he made himself the mightiest of. his kind.

His mother was a kindly woman of tralhc-German extraction, nee coupienne From her he inherited his dark complexion and his chestnut hair. He has not the Jewish appearance which some people falsely attribute to him. He resembles the Gwrnan burgesses portrayed by the painter Matthias Grunewald; his head might sVt on the neck of an honourable member .of a Cologne guild, such as we see ra pictures by old Cologne painters. When many years ago I saw him at a meef.ing of a board of directors. . . I saw the glow of fanatical eyes ovei; narrow cheeks. These cheeks are now 'fuller, the lips somewhat heavier; yet these eyes, which now search the depth of other mysteries, can still laugh gaily or shoot lightnings of mistrust. In -those days he rarely left the boundaries of his mining and iron district; only now and then, after a tenhour ;day o f negotiations, would he come ? I*, but not for its.hedonism; thati had no attraction for him In hiß schooldays he spent the holidays sometimes in the mountains, sometimes in Luxemburg, sometimes in Noor. dwijk, the mighty melodies of which enchanted _ and soothed the heart even of I this Visionary. Much of the time he sat buside his mother, in the old Mulheim house, which looked like a guild masters, in the warm corner of bourgeoig German family life. I n e a r i y morning the knitted cosy kept the coffee warm. Midday and evening all joined ' around the table. The father was at? the same time teacher, friend, and com/ panion of the children, who, while quii/> you.ng_, had had to listen'to reports of complicated business transactions, arid thtui to repeat what they had learn/d. Stinnes's mother was his father's only help. Clothing, furniture, pottery everything the Eimplest possible, expressed the nature of this Ehirieland family lii days when it was the custom list heirs ok industrial and financial magnates to possess a horse, a motor-boat, a/ discreet bachelor s flat, and a huge private banking account, these children still loved the home; and Hugo Stinnerj, later to be the instructor of German ambassadors, carried his silver watch, on a steel chain. Even to-day, like the father, hfe wears raw sailor boots, impossible lounge suits, ready-made neckties, aud an old bowler hat, He does not smoke drinks only light wine, is unconcerned as to the taste of what he eats. Herr Emil Kirdorf lives magnificently in Stueithof Heir August Thyssen lives in Chateau Landsberg. Round and below the lull where Krupp's mansion stands the directors of the company have maw nificent villas. Merchant Stinnes rl. mains where he is. His study i s not much larger than Michael Angelo's, and sometimes behind the foreheld o the Mulheim man for the length of a light SaL^BuSi^ur PW "*-