Fritz Springorum

Fritz Springorum (6 June 1886 – 16 April 1942) was a German engineer, business executive and politician. He worked for over two decades in leading positions at Hoesch AG, a large steel and mining conglomerate, and rose to become the chairman of its supervisory board. He was politically active in the Weimar Republic as a member of the conservative German National People's Party. Though he initially was not a supporter Adolf Hitler, after the Nazi seizure of power, he served as a deputy in the Reichstag from 1933 until his death, and joined the Nazi Party in 1937.

Early life and education Springorum was born in Ruhrort, a borough of Duisburg, the son of Friedrich Springorum, the general director of Hoesch AG, a German steel and mining conglomerate in Dortmund. He obtained his Abitur from the and then studied metallurgy at the RWTH Aachen University. In 1904, he became a member of the Academic Association Montania, later the Corps Montania Aachen, whose professional association he headed from 1920 to 1933. He completed his studies and earned an engineering degree in 1908. He also spent some time studying in Great Britain and Belgium. He next worked as an operations assistant in 1909 at Deutsch-Luxemburgische Bergwerks- und Hütten-AG, a large mining concern in Differdange. He then studied economics and public finance at the Humboldt University of Berlin and became a Doctor of Engineering in 1910.

Leading industrialist Springorum worked as an engineer at United States Steel in New York from 1910 to 1911. From 1911 to 1915, he was the chief engineer and head of the steelworks of near Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg. From 1915, he worked at Hoesch AG in Dortmund, initially as plant manager, from 1917 as steelworks director, in 1925 as general director in succession to his father, from 1932 as general director and chairman of the Vorstand (management board), and from 1937 as chairman of the supervisory board.

Political activity in the Weimar Republic During the Weimar Republic, Springorum was a member of the nationalist, conservative and anti-republican German National People's Party (DNVP). From 1924 to 1930, he was an elected city councilor in Dortmund. Supporting private sector capitalism during the difficult economic crisis of the early 1930s, he helped raise contributions of 1.5 million Reichsmark annually to support the conservative bourgeois parties. Springorum was formally admitted to the Nazi Party on 1 May 1937 (membership number 4,569,841) and he remained a member of the Nazi parliamentary faction until his death.

Springorum succeeded Albert Vögler as the national chairman of the Association of German Steel Manufacturers (VDEh) in 1936, but resigned due to illness in 1939. He was also a member of the supervisory board of the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and the advisory board of the Trustee of Labour for the Economic Area of Westphalia. Springorum died in Duisburg in April 1942.