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OECLASSIF I ED AND RELEASED AYrENTRAL INTELLIBENCE AGENCY

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Ref: SH Report No. 481Dated: March 10, 1947

SAFERAVEN REPORT

Subject: (1*Richard Greiling, Werrgasee 9.Heidelbergs

(2) Sunda HoldinaLA.G. $ Zug.(3) Uahalla agaretten-Fabrik, A.G.,

Richterawil.

According to information submitted to the Legationand the Consulate General at Zurich, Richard Greilingof Heidelberg, who is alleged to have been an SS offi-cial and to have profited from the Nazi "Aryanization"decrees, is the beneficial owner of substantial propertyin Switzerland. His properties are further allegedneither to have been declared by Greiling to the AlliedMilitary Government authorities in Germany nor to theSwiss Compensation Office, The latter has been re-quested by this Legation, through the medium of theJoint Commission, to conduct appropriate investigations.In the interim, the Legation would be grateful to ob-tain indceeneent reports on this subject through themedium of the Office of the United States PoliticalAdviser for Germany'.

In Deeember 1946, pursuant to the suggestion of anofficer of he Consulate General at eurich, George Manamm,a formor German national deprived of his citizenship underthe terms of the Nernberg decrees with respect to personsof Jewish faith, who resides at 110 Rosehill Avenue, NewRochelle, New York, called at the Legation to report thesubstunee of his olaim approximating 64,000 Swiss francsagainst Richard Greiling of Heidelberg. The origin andnature of this claim, as set forth by Mr, Manasse, isdescribed in a letter addressed to the Legation by theConsulate General at Zurich on December 19, 1946, copyof which is submitted as Enclosure No. 1. In the saidenclosure it may be observed that Mr, Manassas whilestill in Germany, made an agreement on December 19, 1934with Greiling under the terms of which Mr. Manasse underetook to reorganize and manage the business of GoerlitzerWareneinkaufsverein I.G., of Dresden, and,other enter.-prises directli-UF-MaYectly owned by Greiling, in re-turn for which 'er. Menasse was to be paid four percentof the net profits of such enterprises. These paymentswere to be made available to Mr, Ranasse in Swiss francsand the euareetor therefor was Greilihg's personal holdingcompany, Survia Holding A.G. of Zug. The latter corporetion

Joh. 2‘ 7eP.SX)8e)e /9 illegally

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(Pa(!: 2 of SH Report No. 481, larch 10, 1947 from theAmerican Le6ation, Bern, Switzerland).

.11e5aly wau dissolved in February 1936 prior to

.Aatisieetion of the claims which Ur. Manasse heldagainst it and its owner, Ar. Greiling. Accordingto Mr. Monastic, the proceeus from he liquidation ofSunda, amounting to approximately 50,000 Swiss francs,were remittea to Ar. Greiling at Heidelberg. Sincethat date Mr. Greiling has denied the existence of anyassets belone,in,.; to him located in Switzerland. Ao-cordire;ly, Mr. Ilanasse, personally and through the mediumof his Swiss attorney, has been conducting investigationsin the effort to locate Swiss assets of Ur. Greiling inorder that he may lay claim to these. In this connectionattention is invited to the oommunication addressed anJuly 5. 1946 to the Cantonal Court of Zug by jr. C. Rust-timann, former president and liquidator of Sunda, whichreads in part as follows: "Greiling even today stillowns considerable assets in Switzerland. There is onlythe difficulty of locating these assets in Switzerlandas long us Greiling is not in Switzerland.*

As indicated in Enclosure No. 1 Mr. Aanasse is ofthe belief that the Mahal& Cigaretten-Fabrik A.G. ofHiohterswil, Switzerland, which was the property of Sundaprior to 1936, may still in part, directly or indirectly,be owned by Mr. Greiling. In this connection attentionIs invited to the circumstance that Maballa Cigaretten-Fabrik AG. was retained on the Proclaimed List until thelatter's termination. Original listing of the companywas prompted by reports from the British Consulate Generalat Zurich and other sources, including the Swiss ControlOffice of Importations and Exportations, which indicatedthat this company during 1943 had exported ten millioncigarettes to Germany, a large portion of which were des-tined for the German army. The latter shipments containedindividual package inserts reading as follows: *Zigaret-tenspende ftir deutsche Soldaten durchgefUhrt von der Aus-land-Organleation der NSDAP Landesgruppe in der Sohweiz."The reports further indicated that the Swiss Nazi Partyorganization had chosen dahalla beoause its two "partners"were said to be members of the organization. These two*partners" were Werner Sprits and Martin Ott. As furtherreported in the Iegationis PM Note 1064 of February 19.1944, these two "partners" were reliably reported to haveendeavored to fame Swiss suppliers of Mahalla to Aryan-ize their firme.

It is suggested that Greiling be interrogated withrespect to the alleged sale of his interests in MahallaCigaretten-Fabrik in 1936 and with respect to the presentlocation of such stock certificates of that company aswould appear, from Enclosure No. 1, not to have been fullypaid for by Ott and Spring. Attention is invited to the

statement

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SECRET(Page 3 of SH Report No. 481, March 10, 1947, fromthe Amerioan Legation, iiern, SWit-4eriand).

statement that such unpaid-for certificates were sentto Gerwany„ presumably for safekeeping by Mr. Grelling.

On the occasion of Mr. Aanasse l s visit to theLegation, he exhieited two current reports on thesub3eot of Richard Greiling. The first of these, aphotostatic copy of which is being retained in theLegation's files, was prepared at Aannheim, August 23,1946, an the stationery of the "Office of MilitaryGovernment, stadtkreis and Landkreis, Mannheim, Det P-16,let Mil Govt Bn (Sep), Special Brunch, and concludes withthe phrase, "W.S invest." This report, in German, Judi-oates that Richard Greiling presently resides at Werr..gases 9, Heidelberg and is still the owner of the fol...lowing firms which are held in trusteeships Pa. Greiling& Co. Felina-Miederfabrik, eannbelm, Lange Rbtterstrasse11; Fa. Greiling & Co. SchUhfabrik Corona, Greiling-WerLG., Sohuhfabrik, Mannheim, Seokenheimerlandstr. 249,Sohuhfabrik Dorndorf in Niederauerbadh b. 2irmasens,Rheinisohe Feldbahnen, Handelsunternehmen, MannheiM.The report adds that Feline presently employs 400 personsand that "the percentage of politically undosirables issmall." The report concludes with the remarks:

"The trustee of Feline has been in the company for45 years. He most probably receives his instructionsfrom Greiling. According to the testimony of the chair-man of the board of managers, the trustee would hardlybe capable of directing the firm without instructionsfrom Greiling.

"He was in prison for the following reasons: in1939 or 1940 Greiling had a private affair with his sec-retary (details not known). He was imprisoned for 6weeks during the investigations.

"In 1932 he was forbidden to manage his industryfor three years and was fined 10,000 RU for tax evasion.(Cigarette factory, Dresden). Greiling went to Switzer-land after having sold his factory in Dresden, Afterthe Nazi victory in 1933 he came back. Greiling is alsosaid to have been an FM of the SS. Be was not a memberof the Nazi Party,

"The chairman of the board of managers of the firmGreiling, Jakob Loser, Lange .adtterstr. L, made thesestatements."

With respect to the alleged arrest of Greiling in1939 or 1940 referred to above, Ur. Aanasse informed anofficer of the Legation that, according to his under-standing, Mr, Greiling had been arrested by the Nazi

Government

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(Page 4 of SH Report No, 481, March 10, 1947 from theAmerican Legation, Bern, Switzerland),

Government during that period ror non-political reasons,A000rding to Mr. Manasse, Mr. Greiling had refused tomale a gift of the heating aystem for the residence ofa local SS Obergruppentuhrer and had, in consequence,been arrested but wee released when the "gift" was made,

Mr. Manasse also presented to the Legation a reportdated at Mannheim August 26, 1946 concerning Greilingwhich he stated he had obtained by correspondence withGerman friends in the Stadtkreis and Landkreis, kannheimaA translation of this report, the original of which isin German, is submitted herewith as Enclosure No. 2.Attention is invited to the conclusion of the reportto the effect that Greiling profited considerably duringthe Nazi regime from the Aryanization of Jewish firms,No mention, however, is made of possible external assetsbelonging to Mt. Greiling.

Please refer copy of this Report to Pangerm.

850.3HConover/jm

Hectograph to the DepartmentTwo copies to USPOLAD, BerlinOne copy to American Embassy, London

Bnolosures:

(1) Copy of letter from the AmericanConsulate General at 7urich,dated December 19, 1946

(2) Copy of report dated at MannheimAugust 26, 1946 re Richard Greilingo

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SECRET(Enclosure No. 1 to SH Report Nu. 481 1 March 10,

from the American Legation, Bern, Switzerland).

COPY

851LLB/df Amerioan Consulate General

ZUrich, Deoember 19, 1946.

Secret

The HonorableLeland Harrison,

American Minister,Bern.

Sir:

Re: Sunda Holding A.G., Zug

I have the honor to refer to the various calls madeby George 1.-AANASSB, 110 Rosehill Avenue, New Rochelle,New York, at the Legation and the Consulate General inconnection with his claim against SUNDA HOLaNG A.G. ofZug and Richard MEILING, German citizen now residingat Heidelberg, and to provide the Legation with a sum-mary of his statements to this office.

Manasee first called at this office on November30, 1946, and gave the following account: On December19,1934, he signed a contract with GREILING's holdingcompany Sunda to manage the busineaa of GUIRLITZERWARENEINICAUFSVEHEIN A.G., Dresden, and other corpor-ations belonging directly or indirectly to Greiling.For his services Manasse was to be paid 4 percent ofthe net profits. Greiling, who was then living inSwitzerland, personally signed the contract and guar-anteed payment by Sunda.

About 1938, Manaase was obliged to leave Germanyon account of his Jewish origin. Greiling in themeantime had been liquidating his Swiss assets andhad returned to Germany; Sunda itself was dissolvedillegally in February 1958 upon a false statement ofobligations which did not disclose its liability toManasse. Greiling refused to honor his agreementwith Manasse, and rejected his demand for payment madeMay 27, 1958, Manasse thereupon began suit againsthim in ZUrich in September 1938, which was terminatedon Greiling t s showing that his Swiss assets amountedto only 3,000 francs, already attaohed. Manasse thenobtained in November 1938 an annulment of Sundalalegal dissolution ana sued it. He won a :udgment inthe Zug Kantonegericht in October 1945, which was can.firmed by the Obergerioht of the Canton of Zug inOctober 1945, and confirmed again by the Bundeagerioht

on

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SECRET(Page 2 of Enclosure No, 1 to SP Report No. 481, March

10, 1947, from the American Legation, Bern, Switzerlande)

on April 24, 1946, in the amount of 44,074.85 francs,plus interest on that sum at 5 percent from June 1938,plus fees and costs amounting to 2,465 franca; in all,approximately 65,000 francs.

Manesse was represented throughout the period byDr. George de PUOZ, St. 2eterstrasse 16, ZUrich, whomhe has authorized to Give full information to the Con-sulate General; Greiling i s attorney was Dr. HansWIDUKR of the HENG4 v m- law office, =rich; accordingto Manasse, Widmer made use of some remarkable argumentsin his effort to defeat him, e.g., that Hanasse couldnot testify since as a Jew he could not take a Christianoath; and that sinoe manage:Os contract could not beenforced in Germany under the Nuremberg laws Manasseshould not be permitted to claim under it in Switzerland.

The result o2 the Bundesgericht decision is thatManasse can enforce his judgment not only against Sundaand Greiling, but also against Dr. C. RUETTIMANN of Zug,President of Sunda, for permitting the liquidation ofSunda without provision flor Manassas claim, and againstthe Canton of Zug itself for authorizing the liquidationwithout observance of all the requirements regardingtime and notice to claimants, On July 5, 1946, Dr.Rattimann wrote to the Zug KantonsgerichtsprAsidium asfollows (in German):

"Furthermore, I want to point out, that Greilingas the only Shareholder of Sunda AG., has re-ceived in 1938 the total proceeds of the liqui-dation of this company, amounting to more thanhalf a million Swiss francs. It is certainthat Greiling has preserved his assets in Germanyfor the most part. Besides that, Greiling, eventoday, still owns considerable assets in Switzer-land. There is only the difficulty of locatingthese assets in Switzerland as long as Greilingis not in Switzerland."

Manasse came close to effecting a compromise withDr. tdittimann personally a few drys ago at 20,000 francs,but the suggestion has been made to him that in so doinghe may run the risk of sacrificing all rights against theCanton of Mug., He left for Sweden on December 17, 1946without having bound himself in any way.

Manassas own investigations disclose few possibleassets of Greiling in Switzerland, as follows:

10 MAHALLA-CIGARETTBN-FABRIK A.G., RichterswiloThe entire 200,000 franc capital of this company, organ-ized in 1934, formerly belonged to Sunda; in 1936, the

latter

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(Pace 3 to Enclosure No. 1 of :Ili Report No. 481, March10, 1947 from the American Legation t Bern, Switzerland),

latter contracted to sell its holdings to MahallafsVerwaltungarat Martin OTT (Kloten/tUrich) and 701sec:torWerner SPRING (Zurich) for 300,000 francs. A copy ofthis contract is said to be available, Under its termsthe purchasers were to pay 5,000 francs monthly in In-steam:mats; in the meantime the certificates were con-fided tel*Dr. Paul HERZOG, =rich lawyer having officesat Limmatquat-17-fraildlary for Sunda and Greiling. inall, 25,000 frame were paid under this contract, andin 1938 it was canceled in favor of a new agreement re..dicing the purchase price to 150,000 frenos, againstwhich was credited the 25,000 franos already paid. Ottand Herzog have told Manasse that the last instalmenton the balance of 125,000 francs Was paid in July 1942,but they have ahown him only one receipt, for 2,500francs. They also promised to exhibit the contract tohim, but have not done so. Ott has stated that theMahalla certificates were sent to Germany and were :sur-rendered to him only as paid for, which seems probableonly as part of a scheme to prevent the enforcement ofany judgment upon Manasse's suit then pending In Zug.

2. REAL ESTATE: Greiling os residenoe in =richwas a large dwelling at KrithbUhlsteig 4; this was soldon April 12, 1938 to Dr, Hans FROEHLICH for oath, whohas since resold.

Greiling further owned a parcel of land fronting onRichard Risslingweg, ZUrich„ on which he erected thehouses now known as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10.Greiling l s architect and house-agent was Dr. Erhard GULLof Asoona, a lecturer at the Federal Institute of Tech-nology, who sold the dwellings between 1934 and 1938,chiefly to German emigrants; the payments were madeprimarily in marks through the Bank VKERZCEILER of Mann-heim. A Dr. Kurt FONDHEIM (now in the United States)bought three such houses; he was later involved in a lawsuit with Gull and resold his houses, one of , which passedto Jr, Widmer who told Manasse on December 16 that he wasable to buy it at e low price from Fondheim "because ofthe real estate depression". Although Manasse, as acreditor of Greiling, can compel the opening of the =richreal estate transfer books of record, it appears that suchright does not (intend to resales. He intends to inter-view Dr. Fondheim in the United States if he can find him.

SUNJA HOLDING A. G.: Although Sunda was supposed tohave been fully liquidated in 1938, it was discovered thatfor several years thereafter it remained the nominal ownerof a "Grundsttickbrief" or bearer mortgage on property inGermany belonging to HYPOTHEKEN AUP HAUS UND GRUINSTIACK

G.m.b.H.,

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(Page 4 of Enclosure No, 1 to SF Report No. 481, March10, 1947, tom the American Legation, Bern, Switzerland.)

G.m.b.H., believed to be a Dresden firm. Dr. RUttimannattempted to withhold formel transfer until Manasse'sclaim had been disposed of, but in 1942 he was induced tosurrender Sundt 's rights to this item as well, This itemis presumably °I more interest to Wanasse than to theMixed Commission,

Greiling himself was an extremely rich man who leftGermany for Switzerland about 1930, a000rding to Manage,brinting with him at least 10,000, 000 marks. Sunda wasfounded March 2, 19311 its records show assets at one

• time of 6,000,000 marks' and Greiling's income from in-vestments exceeded 500,000 francs annually. Sundaeoriginal stockholders were Dr. F. EHRBNSPERGER, directorof the BANK GUYERZELLER Ulrich, who died in 1940Dr. RUttimann, Dr. Hermann SIGRIST, Zollikon businessman/and EuGen ETTER, a businessman in Zug; but all held theirstock as trustee for Greiling. After the National Social-ist seizure of power Greiling returned to Germany and ao-cording to Manasse Greatly augmented his fortune by buyingJewish commercial properties et advntaiglous prices; hisaddress at this time was Berlin, NUrnbergerstrasse 53/55.In a letter exhibited to an offioer of the Consulate General,Dr. Gull replies to Greiling's reproaches that in the Fond-helm financial dispute .ur. Gull seemed to take better careof a Jew's interest than of his employer's; and R. Galstoutly asserts that his attitude towards Jews should bewell known to Greiling. Greiling's letterhead describeshim as "General Consul"; Manesse stated that this refer*to an office once purchased by him from some Balkan govern-ment. Greiling's tax advisers in =rich were .Jr. WernerHAUSHEBR, Bahnhofstrasse 20, and Willy WA N-, Bleicherweg11. It is Manassas belief that Drs. Herzog, Gull, andHausheer as well as Dr. Rattimann have information re.garding assets of Greiling in Switzerland.

Respectfully yours,

Sam h. WoodsAmerican Consul General

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(Enclosure No. 2 to SR Report NJ * 4b1, March 10, 1947from the American Legation, Bern, Switzeriand).

con

RE: Richard GREILING, Conaul General, retiredMannheim, at present residing in Heidelberg,Worrgasse 9.

Richard Greiling, b.rn 1882, is known as the formerowner and main partner of the well known oigarettefactory Richard Greiling in Oresden. When he soldhis share in the Dresden factory about 10 years agohe received about 6 to 8 million marks in Gash.Elisabeth Greiling is his wife, They have two chil-dren, Manfred and Lothar Greiling, both residing atWerrgasse 9, Heide/berg.

It is not fully known why Greiling went to Switzer-land in 1930. He states that he gained his title ofConsul General at the time he concluded a contract withthe Bulgarian state for the exclusive use of Bulgariantobacco by the cigarette factory in Dresden. After re-turning to Germany from Switzerland in 1933/34, Greilingis said to have been arrested and imprisoned by GaUleiterMutschmann in Dresden. Greiling naturally mentions allthese things now in order to free himself of politicalobjections.

After giving up his oigarette factory in the ThirdReich, Greiling occupied himself with buying up Jewishfirms. As far as is known there is not one of his firmswhich was not formerly in Jewish hands,

The following aryanized firms axe in Mannheim, allworking under a director of the Military Government inaocordance with Law No. 5s

1) Greiling & Co. - Felina-Miederfabriken, Aanager proxy3oppel

2) Greiling & Co. - Corona Schuhfabriken, Manager proxyKropp

3) Greiling & Co. - Rheinische FeRdbahnen, Manager proxyKraft

Factory premises, officer, storage house in Mannheim,Lange-Rdtterstfasse 11/19 for numbers 1 and 2 above,

The premises of Number 3 above are located In Mannheim-Industriehafen, Pranzosenstrasse 8.

The three faotories mentioned above employ about 600 or700 people alone for its clerks and employees,

Besides

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SECRET(Page 2 of Enclosure No, 2 to SH Report No. 481, March 10,1947, from the American Legation * Bern, uwitzerland),

Besides the above concerts in Me.nriheim, Greiling alsotook over and aryanized the world renowned shoe faotory"Dorndorf" in zweibrUcken in 19384939. It is said thatthis factory which cost 2 million marks is under thedireotion of the French military government. Ob3ectionshave been raised several times about missing maobines andother furnishings which Greiling probably removed to Mann.,helm in the last days of the war.

In the Soviet Zane Greiling owned the Einkauf-4 Reguflierungs-Xontor with 95,4; of the shares and the GoerlitzerWaren-Einkaufs AG. "Goerlitzer n had nearly 80 brandhesin Dresden and was a large retail and Wholesale foodundertaking worth many millions of marks. At present,of course, there is no possibility of communicating withDresden,

Formerly Greiling participated in many other under..takings but he was clever enough to get rid of them duringthe war and devote himself entirely to the above-mentionedfirms.

During the Third Reich, i.e. during the period ofaryunized businesses, Greiling plaoed the leadership intrusted hands of Party Members or favorites.

As businass manager of the Mannheim Feline, Coronaand Rheinische Feldbahnen figured Dr, Fritz GABER, Mann-heim, an economic leader, leader of the economic group,official In the SS with influence in the offices of theParty, the police, the SS, the SA and connections withother important personalities. The management in Dresdenwas represented by Director General Herbert ECKLUM whohimself managed over food products enterprises on theside. Furthermore *, he in said to have been a personalfriend of Reichsminister Funk and State Secretary Heyler.Eckldh built the largest food products house in the East(as far as is remembered in Gracow) for the German po0u."lation. In the Dorndorf firm in Zweibraoken other middlemen maintained contact between Greiling and GauleiterBarkel,

Greiling made his decisions rapidly after the col..lapse of March 1945. In the summer o. 1945 he foundedthe Greiling-Werke in Mannheim-Seokenheim, SeckenheimerIandstrasse whioh should manufacture shoes and later under-clothing etc. in his name and with its own capital. Hethus tried to disassociate himself from the other indus-tries which would be taken over by the Allies in accord..ance with Law No. 52. But the military government alsoplaced this company under the management of proxy Kropp.

In conclusion

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In conclusion it might be said:

a) the financial condition of Greiling has notgrown worse,

b) the enterprises are active and no enterpriseexcept the one in the Russian Zone may be de-scribed as unproductive.

c) all enterprises have a large bank account,d) Greiling himself has much money and is not

hindered in his activities as he was not an of-ficial Tarty Member but only profited from thearyanization of the Jewish firms.

e) he has large real estate investments,

As for his character, it is only known that he,a) was unpopular among his workers before, during

and after the war because of his strict attitude and hisarguments with his personnel, even during air attacks eta.

b) as owner of all his enterprises, is completelyresponsible for all business transactions. Grelling,however, tries to prove in his defense that the businessmanagers were more or less forced upon him by the Nazisand that he could only do what his business managers toldhim to do. On the other hand, during the last years ofthe war he called himself the "chief business a"nger"so that he was at the head of his business managers,

c) employed people in the Ghetto of Lodz, formerlyLitzmannstad„ to make brassieres and corsets. However,in the year 1945 when the documents of the businessmanager Dr. saber were Investigated, there was, curiouslyenough, no proof of these business transactions with theghetto inhabitants of Lodz0

d) had enough food for his whole family during thewar as a result of his participation in the "Goerlitzer°food undertaking with its 80 branches in Dresden. Notone of his family ever had a bad day. For his clerks andworkers he was merely the unapproachable Consul Generalwho was bent upon earning more and more money each day,

e) The questionnaires from Greiling must be inHeidelberg, In 1945 he prepared a defense document inGerman and English, It is not known whether this docu-ment was ever handed in but inquiries can be made,

f) Further information may be obtained if so desired.

Mannheim, August 26, 1946

Translation: Hnothrop

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