1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:08,240 Speaker 1: It's uh, it's this What's happening now? Is the podcast 2 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: that this is? I'm Robert Evans. Another introduction in the bag? 3 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: How do we do? Sophie? Are we? Are? We? Are 4 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: we solid? Is that one gonna three? Out of time? 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: Are we gonna win? A potty? I wish that's what 6 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: it was called. Yeah, that's the Imaginary Podcast award I invented. 7 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,720 Speaker 1: I'm Robert Evans. This is Behind the Bastards, a terrible 8 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:35,479 Speaker 1: podcast about terrible people. Um that's made incompetently by me. UM. 9 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,519 Speaker 1: I hope everybody's doing all right. Our guest today is 10 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: Allison Stevenson. Allison is a writer, a comedian, and creator 11 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: of the Audible original Like Mother. Alison. How are you 12 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: doing today? I'm doing not so bad. Not so bad 13 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: is excellent in it literally is as good as you 14 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: can be doing. Yeah, Allison, how do you feel about Germans? 15 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,959 Speaker 1: You know not? Let's just say this. I am a Jew, 16 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 1: so let me be more to the point. How do 17 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: you feel about the existence of the German state? No? 18 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I've been dying to go to Berlin. 19 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,840 Speaker 1: It's a great town. Great town, had some rough, rough 20 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:26,120 Speaker 1: patches a while ago. Um, some sort of wall or something. Yeah. Yeah, 21 00:01:26,319 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking today about a lot of stuff. 22 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:30,760 Speaker 1: The guy that we're chatting about is a fellow named 23 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:33,960 Speaker 1: Alfred Krupp. Does the name Krupp mean anything to you, M, 24 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think so, does it? Yeah? 25 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 1: Without Krupp, there's no Germany. Um, Like, no German state 26 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,279 Speaker 1: ever comes into existence without Alfred Krupp. UM. And also 27 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: no World War One, and also probably no World War 28 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: two h and also maybe no international arms trade today. 29 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: He's that guy. He's that kind of dud um. Yeah, 30 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 1: he's a he's a fascinating character. Um. And today we're 31 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: going to chat about him. But we're gonna start by 32 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:08,519 Speaker 1: talking about something that happened on October first, two thousand seventeen, 33 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: when a submarine built in Germany by the Tyson Krupp 34 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,960 Speaker 1: shipyard in Kiel, North Germany, set sail for Egypt. It 35 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:18,639 Speaker 1: was the fourth submarine the Egyptian government had ordered from 36 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:20,840 Speaker 1: Tyson Krupp since the start of the Arab Spring, and 37 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: its total cost was one point four billion euros. On 38 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: its way to Egypt, had stopped at the port city 39 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,080 Speaker 1: of Emden, where it met a French made Corvette class 40 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: attack ship, which was also built for the Egyptian Navy. Now, 41 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 1: the hundreds of millions of euros in profit that these 42 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: boats represented came from the taxes in natural wealth that 43 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:38,680 Speaker 1: on paper ought to belong to the people of Egypt. 44 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,240 Speaker 1: But they don't because Egypt is owned by the dictator 45 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:43,200 Speaker 1: who took power there in two thousand and fourteen after 46 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:47,080 Speaker 1: a military coup, Abdul Fata Alcisi. During his six years 47 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:49,360 Speaker 1: in power, CC has brutally cracked down on free speech, 48 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:54,000 Speaker 1: fought an unsuccessful but horrifically bloody counterinsurgency against Islamic extremists, 49 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,920 Speaker 1: and repeatedly murdered moderate protesters. Under his reign, food prices 50 00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: have risen and poverty in Egypt has sword. Three percent 51 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: of the country is now in poverty. UM. So things 52 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: aren't going great in Egypt, and one factor is that 53 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: the country is basically owned by the military, which is 54 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,919 Speaker 1: grafting tax money in order to buy weapons from Germany. UM. 55 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:16,840 Speaker 1: And of course, a significant amount of the money that's 56 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 1: paid to Tyson Krupp winds up in the pockets of 57 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: ALCSI and of his his his buddies, Because that's just 58 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 1: the way that military appropriations work in the global south. Um. 59 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:29,800 Speaker 1: This is happening not just in Egypt but all over 60 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 1: the world, but particularly in Egypt, because no country on 61 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: Earth buys more German weapons than Egypt. Um. And this 62 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 1: actually has been going on a lot longer than you 63 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 1: might think. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Also, 64 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: as a note, Tyson Krupp makes all of the elevators 65 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: you've ever been in. Um. So, yeah, this is freaky. 66 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: But like I was, for some reason, I was thinking 67 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 1: about elevators, but I was thinking about Schindler. Yeah, I mean, 68 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:59,760 Speaker 1: it's it's, it's it's We won't be talking about it 69 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: per much this episode, but Alfred Krupp's descendants absolutely, Uh, 70 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: we're responsible for tens of thousands of slave laborers in 71 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: concentration camps to make German submachine guns. They're cool dudes, 72 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:16,360 Speaker 1: the Krups. Um. Yeah no, this this family's this family's 73 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 1: got some history to it. Um. And Yeah. So I 74 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: started with that story because I think it illustrates kind 75 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:26,640 Speaker 1: of a weird continuity because the relationship between Germany and 76 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,359 Speaker 1: Egypt and the selling of weapons actually started in the 77 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, and it's continued without break ever since, through 78 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:37,119 Speaker 1: two world wars and like three or four different regimes. Um. 79 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,720 Speaker 1: And it's kind of a mark of how even though 80 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:42,480 Speaker 1: you know you've got guys like the Kaiser, guys like Hitler, 81 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,480 Speaker 1: the leaders at the top change, the people actually making 82 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: the weapons and in a lot of ways driving the 83 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,719 Speaker 1: conflicts don't change because, for one thing, the Krupp, who 84 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: was in charge of German arms production during World War 85 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: Two got arrested and sentenced at Nuremberg and did three 86 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:00,200 Speaker 1: years of a twelve year sentence and died the wealthyest 87 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: man in Europe because the Allies needed him to make 88 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: weapons for the Cold War. Um, these are the guys 89 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: who are who never get punished. Like right, we we 90 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:11,160 Speaker 1: throw all the blame at the Hitler's and the Girbels 91 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: and stuff, and like, obviously those guys are fucking monsters. 92 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: But the dudes who made the weaponry that allowed them 93 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 1: to do what they did, and the same thing with 94 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:22,039 Speaker 1: World War One, those guys never get punished because everyone 95 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: wants them to make guns that they have a posse, 96 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:26,159 Speaker 1: and everybody wants what they have, which is the ability 97 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: to make more fucking guns. It's good ship Yeah, it's great. Yeah, 98 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:33,400 Speaker 1: I was like, great that sounds That's exactly how I 99 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: described that. Yeah, it fucking rules. So Alfred Krupp, it 100 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 1: would be fair to call him like he's kind of 101 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: like the real Tony Stark, right, if you want the 102 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: actual guy like he's he's he's a brilliant engineer, inventor, 103 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:49,320 Speaker 1: innovator who sold weapons to everyone on the planet um 104 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: and who had and who was like a visionary. He's 105 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:53,560 Speaker 1: not just a businessman. He's a guy who's able to 106 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 1: like innovate killing machines and in fact, after a certain point, 107 00:05:57,120 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: the only thing he was really capable of thinking about 108 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: was how to build our guns to murder people with. 109 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: Um That's basically all this man ever did. Yeah. Yeah, 110 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: he's got some musky quality to him, although unlike Elon Musk, 111 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: Alfred was talented. So yeah, um, before we talk about Alfred, 112 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: we've got to learn a little bit about his family, 113 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:21,360 Speaker 1: because the Crups go back quite a bit in Germany. 114 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:23,599 Speaker 1: The first information we have on the family, the first 115 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:26,640 Speaker 1: Crup that we know about, was a fellow named Aren't Krupp, 116 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:29,560 Speaker 1: who moved to a city called Essen sometimes in the 117 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 1: late fifteen hundreds now Essen is located in the Ruhr, 118 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:34,919 Speaker 1: which is a coal rich region that's the center of 119 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:38,120 Speaker 1: German industry. UM. But at the time it was a sleepy, 120 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: small city and we know very little about aren't because 121 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: but that he was a man of means. We know 122 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: it was rich because he signed his name in a 123 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: book that was held in the city like Hall and 124 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:49,880 Speaker 1: if you had a signature back in the hundreds, you 125 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:53,720 Speaker 1: were rich. Like nobody was signing ship unless you had 126 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: money back then. Um. Our most important source for this 127 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:00,560 Speaker 1: episode is the book The Arms of Crup which was 128 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: written in the nineteen sixties by a guy named William 129 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,320 Speaker 1: Manchester who was a british Man who had actually fought 130 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 1: against Krupp guns as a young English soldier. And I 131 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:09,840 Speaker 1: don't normally gush about the books that we have on 132 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: this show, but I feel the need to hear because 133 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: the while The Arms of Krupp is preposterously long, it 134 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: is a massive, massive book. It's very readable. William is 135 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,679 Speaker 1: a really, really funny writer, and I enjoyed every page 136 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: of this book and I absolutely recommend reading it if 137 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: you want to learn about the arms trade that currently 138 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:27,720 Speaker 1: dominates the world because it's it's kind of about how 139 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 1: it all got started. Um, And for an example of 140 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: William's writing style, I'm gonna quote here how he explains 141 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 1: that he knew Aren't Krupp was probably fat, because this 142 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:39,800 Speaker 1: is this is fun. Well, the record indicates nothing beyond 143 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,240 Speaker 1: a faceless blob. It is safe to hazard something about 144 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,480 Speaker 1: the first Crup's physiognomy. First, Almost certainly he lacked the 145 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: gauntness of later krups. Aren't was a sixteenth century German merchant, 146 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: and we know quite a lot about the customs of 147 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: that class. They were, above all dedicated. Glutton's girth was 148 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:56,160 Speaker 1: proof of prosperity. The man who could out eat his 149 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,240 Speaker 1: neighbors was admired everywhere. One performer devoured thirty eggs, a 150 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: pound of cheese, and a large quantity of bread in 151 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:04,600 Speaker 1: a single sitting. He then fell dead and became a 152 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:07,600 Speaker 1: national hero. Seven hour meetings were not uncommon. It has 153 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: been estimated that the well to do spent half their 154 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: waking hours either masticating or defecating. And these circumstances, only 155 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: an abnormal metabolic rate could prevent a rich man from 156 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:19,280 Speaker 1: becoming obese, which I did not know and find fascinating 157 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:24,040 Speaker 1: that's so weird. I kind of feel like we should 158 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:28,880 Speaker 1: bring that back a little. Just yeah, it would be 159 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:31,920 Speaker 1: easier to chase down Jeff Bezos if he wasn't strong. 160 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:40,520 Speaker 1: You're right, I just find that amazing. That, Like becoming 161 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:42,439 Speaker 1: a national hero back then was like, yeah, he ate 162 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:47,360 Speaker 1: himself to death? What a guy? Uh died a hero? 163 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: I hope my kids grow up to eat themselves to 164 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 1: death one day. So what little we do know for 165 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:58,040 Speaker 1: sure about Aren't suggests that he embodied what would come 166 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:00,680 Speaker 1: to be one of the key Krupp family characteristics, the 167 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:03,720 Speaker 1: ability to profit from tragedy. Twelve years or so after 168 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:06,640 Speaker 1: he moved to Essen, the bubonic plague stuck struck, and 169 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:09,080 Speaker 1: about half the town died. Corpses were piled up with 170 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: no one to bury them. Whole neighborhoods became graveyards. All 171 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,080 Speaker 1: the good plague. Should you know the good plague ship 172 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: we're there now? Yeah, classics, this is extra meaningful for us. Yeah, 173 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:21,120 Speaker 1: classic plague. Uh So, while other men sold their property 174 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: and drank themselves to death before the plague could get them, 175 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: Aren't bet that he would live through the plague, and 176 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:27,600 Speaker 1: he bought up their abandoned properties. So all these guys 177 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 1: are like, we're all going to die, let's sell our 178 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 1: homes and buy liquor, and aren't like, y'all buy your 179 00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:33,640 Speaker 1: fucking houses. I don't think I'm gonna die. And that's 180 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:36,320 Speaker 1: how the Crupp family first ends up super rich because 181 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:38,840 Speaker 1: they buy up all of these people's property when they 182 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 1: plague gets it's it's always property, it's always lands, the 183 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:47,120 Speaker 1: only thing that's valuable. Oh my god, I say, ignoring 184 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:51,520 Speaker 1: the real estate collapse that happened like ten years ago. Yeah, 185 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:54,959 Speaker 1: I just like the first Superman movie. Anyway, we don't 186 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,440 Speaker 1: know much about the Crups who immediately followed, aren't, other 187 00:09:57,480 --> 00:09:59,800 Speaker 1: than that they survived the Thirty Years War of eight 188 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 1: into sight with their wealth and property. Intact, this would 189 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,040 Speaker 1: not have been easy. The area Essen was in was 190 00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:08,640 Speaker 1: invaded by Danes, Swedes, Spaniards, Bohemians, and worst of all, 191 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:12,320 Speaker 1: the French um and about two thirds of the population 192 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: of Germany died during that war. So again, and also, 193 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: there's no Germany during this Like I'm saying Germany because 194 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: people roughly know the geographic area Germany doesn't exist at 195 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,080 Speaker 1: this point, Like it's a bunch of warring kingdoms like 196 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:28,040 Speaker 1: you've got the Prussians and the Austrians and the Fans 197 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: and Bohemians filthy bohemians. Yeah, um, all these different all 198 00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 1: these different people, they're all and they're always shooting each 199 00:10:34,800 --> 00:10:36,920 Speaker 1: other too, and they're getting shot by everybody else, and 200 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:39,280 Speaker 1: they're they're they're kind of One of the things that's 201 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:41,360 Speaker 1: interesting about the Germans in this period is that they're 202 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: like famously um, famously polite and humble because they get 203 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 1: their asses kicked so much um, which is a reputation 204 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,079 Speaker 1: that changes because of the things that we're about to 205 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:55,600 Speaker 1: talk about in this episode. I think I know they 206 00:10:55,640 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: stopped being humble after a while. Yeah, yeah, uh so 207 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:04,400 Speaker 1: the Crep family basically, yeah, despite all of this disaster, 208 00:11:04,440 --> 00:11:07,559 Speaker 1: they managed to expand their land holdings and expand their wealth, 209 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:10,199 Speaker 1: and that suggests that they all kind of inherited, aren't 210 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:13,040 Speaker 1: strait of profiting from disaster. We know that one of 211 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,400 Speaker 1: Ourn's sons was a fellow named Anton Krupp, who was 212 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:18,079 Speaker 1: the first member of the family we have decent documentary 213 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,600 Speaker 1: information on. We know, for example, that at one point 214 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:24,079 Speaker 1: he received a significant municipal find for quote, beating doctor 215 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,280 Speaker 1: Hasselman in the street, which I think rules you just 216 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:31,520 Speaker 1: got to a fist fight with a doctor. I think 217 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 1: he got like a bad diagnosis or something. Yeah, I 218 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:37,560 Speaker 1: mean doctors then weren't really doctors. They were just they 219 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:41,080 Speaker 1: were drug dealers, which only about half of doctors aren't 220 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:46,800 Speaker 1: out today, so penicillin pushers. Back then it was just 221 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:53,360 Speaker 1: it was just and Scotch in Mercury. They were like 222 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:58,080 Speaker 1: the original seven eleven. Yeah, well they were the original 223 00:11:58,160 --> 00:12:00,440 Speaker 1: guy in front of the seven eleven who has a 224 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: really bulgy coat, so he's In sixteen twelve, Uh, Anton 225 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:08,959 Speaker 1: married a guy who was at the time one of 226 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: Essen's most prominent gunsmith's, and Anton got into the gunmaking business. 227 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:15,959 Speaker 1: He was selling about a thousand barrels per year during 228 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:18,199 Speaker 1: the Thirty Years War, and he was described in the 229 00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: town council meeting as our highly honored patriot Lord. Now, 230 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,079 Speaker 1: the Crups didn't get straight into the arms business from there, 231 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:27,080 Speaker 1: and in fact, after Anton they stopped for decades. Uh. 232 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 1: The family made most of its money because they owned 233 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,679 Speaker 1: a large store and they collected rent from properties, and 234 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:33,440 Speaker 1: this was enough to make sure that the family's wealth 235 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,199 Speaker 1: grew every year. In the mid sixteen, hundreds of crupt 236 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,560 Speaker 1: named Matthias bought fields east of the town wall would 237 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:41,920 Speaker 1: become the site of the crupt gun works that later 238 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:45,160 Speaker 1: armed Germany through two World Wars. By the late sixteen hundreds, 239 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:48,560 Speaker 1: one writer described the family as the uncrowned kings of Essen. 240 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:51,800 Speaker 1: When Matthias died in sixteen seventy three, the town left 241 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,840 Speaker 1: his position the office of town clerk, unfilled until his 242 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:57,080 Speaker 1: oldest son was old enough to take the jobs. That's 243 00:12:57,080 --> 00:12:59,600 Speaker 1: how big a deal this family is in late sixteen hundreds. 244 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:03,640 Speaker 1: Now corrupt fortunes waned throughout the seventeen hundreds as frivolous 245 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,120 Speaker 1: family members and bad luck whittled them down from the 246 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:08,199 Speaker 1: family that owned the town to just another kind of 247 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 1: rich family who weren't as rich as they used to be. 248 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:12,599 Speaker 1: They bought a large steel foundery at one point, but 249 00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:14,560 Speaker 1: they sold it in the early eighteen hundreds, and this 250 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,880 Speaker 1: leads us to Friedrich Krupp. In short, Fredrick was ambitious, 251 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,319 Speaker 1: but either dumb or unlucky. He liked to spend money, 252 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:22,160 Speaker 1: and he had no real talent for making more of it. 253 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 1: In eighteen ten, he inherited the modern equivalent of a 254 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: million dollars uh Friedrich had other siblings but the Krupt 255 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,440 Speaker 1: family tradition was for the oldest son to get everything, 256 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:32,760 Speaker 1: and this is how the family succeeded in holding onto 257 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:34,440 Speaker 1: all of their wealth and influence over the years, but 258 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:36,439 Speaker 1: it put them at a disadvantage when a real dummy 259 00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: happened to fall out of a corupt ladies womb first, 260 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: And that's what happened with Fredrick. Yeah, his first decision 261 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,320 Speaker 1: was to scrap the business like the store that his 262 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:47,800 Speaker 1: ancestors had made all of their money with, and instead 263 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: invested in an exciting new venture cast steel. Now, at 264 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:54,240 Speaker 1: the time, people are real shitty at making metal, Okay, 265 00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: So like metals hard, right, Like you've got bronze, which 266 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:59,360 Speaker 1: is pretty easy to make and kind of durable, but 267 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:01,760 Speaker 1: it's it's sucks when it comes to making cannons. Like 268 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:04,520 Speaker 1: if you're trying to blow things up through bronze, you 269 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:07,840 Speaker 1: can only make shoot things that are like projectiles so large. 270 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:11,400 Speaker 1: It can only handle so much powder without exploding. Um, 271 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: So it's yeah, it's just not a great thing to 272 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,400 Speaker 1: make cannons out of. It was the only thing to 273 00:14:17,679 --> 00:14:20,880 Speaker 1: do it. Yeah, So like at the time, steel had 274 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: existed for a while, and in fact, some people will 275 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:25,240 Speaker 1: suggest like you know, the Spartans. Everybody talks about how 276 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:29,440 Speaker 1: they were like famously good warriors. Um, there's actually a 277 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:32,200 Speaker 1: school of thought among historians that's just like they weren't 278 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: any better at fighting than anyone else, but the nature 279 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,120 Speaker 1: of the iron that was in there, uh, that was 280 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: like in near Sparta was very easy to kind of 281 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:45,080 Speaker 1: accidentally turn into steel. And steel is a thousand times 282 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: better than any kind of like ancient metal, than bronze 283 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,040 Speaker 1: or than just straight iron. It's just much more durable. 284 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:53,760 Speaker 1: And so the Spartans had steel blades and that's why, 285 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,360 Speaker 1: like they were famous because just because they had better technology. 286 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:58,040 Speaker 1: And that's kind of what everyone was looking for in 287 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,880 Speaker 1: the Napoleonic era, right, Like, no one's good at metal yet. 288 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,760 Speaker 1: People have started to figure out how to make steel, um, 289 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:08,440 Speaker 1: but they haven't gotten good at it. And cast steel 290 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: is like modern steel. It's like the ship that you 291 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,760 Speaker 1: can make skyscrapers with. It's the ship that you can 292 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,960 Speaker 1: make battleship cannons with. It's it's like kind of the 293 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:19,600 Speaker 1: necessary precursor to the modern world. You can't have the 294 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,920 Speaker 1: modern world without quality steel. And people had started to 295 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 1: figure it out, particularly the British had kind of started 296 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:29,720 Speaker 1: to figure out how to reliably make modern steel, which 297 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:31,960 Speaker 1: again is cast steel. When I talk about cast steal, 298 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:34,680 Speaker 1: that's what I'm talking about, but no one was very 299 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:37,560 Speaker 1: good at it. And Friedrich Krupp becomes obsessed with making 300 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 1: cast steel. He thinks that's how he's going to revive 301 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 1: the family fortunes. And then a quote now from a 302 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,960 Speaker 1: passage in the arms of Krupp and the Napoleonic eraic 303 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:47,960 Speaker 1: cast steele had a special cash a. It was the 304 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: nuclear fission of its day, mysterious, glamorous, seemingly limitless in 305 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:55,440 Speaker 1: its possibilities. Steel, low carbon, iron, tough and malleable is 306 00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: not a natural phenomenon, and in a time when chemistry 307 00:15:58,280 --> 00:16:00,680 Speaker 1: was poorly understood, it was regarded as a marvel. In 308 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: the past, smelters had produced small quantities of it by 309 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:06,960 Speaker 1: manipulating ore and carbon with rods, meantime regulating the flow 310 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: of air through bellows to produce the metal. They worked 311 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:11,720 Speaker 1: on its field, on its appearance, on hunches, and on 312 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,320 Speaker 1: slights and arcana, handled down from fathers to sons. Until 313 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. These hit or miss methods were good enough, 314 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,360 Speaker 1: but now in the spring of the machine age, Europe 315 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 1: was crying for big chunks of high quality steel. The 316 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 1: old smiths couldn't help, nor could the operators of blast furnaces. 317 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: Furnaces produced only cast iron, which, with its high urban 318 00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:33,400 Speaker 1: carbon content, was too brittle to be satisfactory. Attempts were 319 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:35,840 Speaker 1: made to fuse several small ingots of steel and cast 320 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:38,400 Speaker 1: them as a single block. The smiths were frustrated because 321 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:40,480 Speaker 1: the oxygen in the air combined with the carbon and 322 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,600 Speaker 1: the steel, ruining the whole batch. Yet some men could 323 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:46,440 Speaker 1: bring the thing off. The secret existed and had been discovered, 324 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,600 Speaker 1: to the great annoyance of Napoleon. The discoverers were Englishmen. 325 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,080 Speaker 1: Not only had the British cornered cast Steele, they held 326 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,920 Speaker 1: their monopoly of it for seventy years. So the British 327 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:57,080 Speaker 1: figure out cast Steele and no one on the continent 328 00:16:57,160 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: has it. And this is one of Britain's main military 329 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,520 Speaker 1: advance edges, as they have good steel, and Napoleon wants 330 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:04,880 Speaker 1: it because he's still fucking around with brass cannons, which 331 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: are trash um. And so you know, Napoleon is at 332 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:12,040 Speaker 1: this point, fucking Napoleon. He's the he's the Emperor um 333 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,280 Speaker 1: and Germany is just like a bunch of little warring states. 334 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: So everyone kind of is looking to Napoleon, even the 335 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:21,520 Speaker 1: people outside of his borders. Young Friedrich Krupp became obsessed 336 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: with the idea of figuring out how to cast steal 337 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:28,359 Speaker 1: for himself and his people. And yeah, Napoleon announced a 338 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:30,920 Speaker 1: prize to whoever could figure out how to cast steal 339 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:33,159 Speaker 1: for continental Europe. He was going to give them like 340 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,040 Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of pieces of gold, and it was 341 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,600 Speaker 1: just a fortune worth of fucking French money. And so 342 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:42,199 Speaker 1: in eighteen eleven, Friederich Krupp founded the cast Steel Works 343 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:45,640 Speaker 1: with the ambition of like winning the prize that Napoleon 344 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:48,160 Speaker 1: had set out. Now, this was an ambitious goal because 345 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:51,000 Speaker 1: Friedrich had no idea what he was doing. He grew 346 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:53,520 Speaker 1: increasingly obsessed with trying to puzzle out the secrets of 347 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:56,400 Speaker 1: cast steel and burnt through his entire inheritance to buy 348 00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:59,240 Speaker 1: property and equipment, while at the same time neglecting the 349 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:01,240 Speaker 1: store that had brought his family most of their wealth. 350 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:03,960 Speaker 1: His eyes were always on the prize the Emperor had promised, 351 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:06,680 Speaker 1: and he began making loud public boasts about he how 352 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,320 Speaker 1: he basically already figured out how to make cast steel. 353 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: In December of eighteen eleven, he declared his loyalty to 354 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,040 Speaker 1: the Emperor of France. This was bad timing since it 355 00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 1: was at the precise moment that Friedrich declared his fealty 356 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,560 Speaker 1: to France that the Emperor lost his entire army in Russia. 357 00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: So Fredrick like declares himself loyal to the French crown 358 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:26,160 Speaker 1: and then the French crown loses all of its power 359 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:29,400 Speaker 1: by getting massacred in the frozen steps of Russia. Bad 360 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:33,120 Speaker 1: timing for Friedrich. Yeah, uh, so he basically his loyalty 361 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:36,159 Speaker 1: wound up guaranteeing him a doomed job digging trenches for 362 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:38,119 Speaker 1: a French army that got its ass handed to it 363 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:40,919 Speaker 1: by Prussia while Napoleon was running away from the Cossacks. 364 00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: And the good news is that nationalism didn't exist back then, 365 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:46,120 Speaker 1: so most people in s and felt as much loyalty 366 00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:48,439 Speaker 1: to France as they did to Prussia, because again, no 367 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: one's really German then, so as soon as Prussia took 368 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:55,760 Speaker 1: over in Napoleon's empire collapsed, nobody like got revenge on Friedrich, 369 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:57,320 Speaker 1: which is what would have happened later so he got 370 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 1: to core. Now he's got no money. Yeah he's broke. Now, 371 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:03,639 Speaker 1: yeah he's broke his ship. Um he gives. Yeah, he 372 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:05,639 Speaker 1: loses all of his money trying to make cast steele. 373 00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,159 Speaker 1: He fails. The emperor he was hoping to get a 374 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:11,000 Speaker 1: reward from is no longer the emperor, and it's just 375 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:13,720 Speaker 1: yeah trash luck and also kind of a dumb guy. 376 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: Um so, yeah, Fredrick wasn't completely like a failure. He 377 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:22,119 Speaker 1: succeeded in getting the Krupt families first military contract, but 378 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:25,280 Speaker 1: which was just like supplying steel bayonets uh and he 379 00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:27,680 Speaker 1: sold quality tools and dies, but he was never able 380 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,000 Speaker 1: to make enough money fast enough to like make up 381 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:31,879 Speaker 1: for all of the debts he had incurred trying to 382 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,200 Speaker 1: figure out how to make cast steel, and of course 383 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,800 Speaker 1: the other family business failed. Uh So Fredrick did throw 384 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:39,720 Speaker 1: a bunch of money into making a big machine shop 385 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,800 Speaker 1: which was finished in eighteen nineteen, but only worked about 386 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,159 Speaker 1: half the year because he fucked up on like it 387 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:47,159 Speaker 1: would rely on the local river in order to be 388 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,760 Speaker 1: able to function, because you don't have like electricity then, 389 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,000 Speaker 1: so people will use rivers to like move the different 390 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,120 Speaker 1: wheels and ship that need to anyway, it's a bad 391 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 1: He makes a bad bet and his fucking machine shop 392 00:19:57,800 --> 00:19:59,560 Speaker 1: doesn't work, and he spends the last two years of 393 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,639 Speaker 1: his life poverished in bedridden, ranting and coherently about his 394 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,560 Speaker 1: ruined life and fortune. He dies at age thirty nine. 395 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so kind of a bummer of a story. 396 00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:15,960 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, So, don't always chase your dreams. Don't don't 397 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: ever chase your dreams. Never ever chase your dreams. If 398 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:22,199 Speaker 1: there's one lesson of this podcast is that dreams are 399 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 1: a bad idea. Um. Yeah, if everyone would just sit 400 00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:29,480 Speaker 1: alone in a dark room until they died, we would 401 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: have no Hitler's, no Stalin's nod, no penicillin either. So 402 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 1: it's a mixed bag. Um yeah, but we're not leaving 403 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:42,840 Speaker 1: our houses. How are you going to get sickin syphilis? Yeah? Yeah, 404 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:49,000 Speaker 1: yeah anyway. Uh Alfred So, Alfred Krupp was Friederich's son, 405 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:50,960 Speaker 1: and he was fourteen years old when his dad died. 406 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:52,400 Speaker 1: But that was enough to make him a man by 407 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,360 Speaker 1: the standards of the time, and he was, to say 408 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: the least, an odd child. He was terrified of fire, 409 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:01,199 Speaker 1: which is like not unreasonable, but if your entire family 410 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,000 Speaker 1: business is operating a forge. It's kind of weird that 411 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,680 Speaker 1: you're scared of fire. Um. He was fascinated by smells, 412 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:10,359 Speaker 1: and particularly the smell of horseship, which he loved more 413 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:14,040 Speaker 1: than anything in the entire world. This dude, his entire life, 414 00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:17,800 Speaker 1: loves horseshit like candle get enough of it. Thinks that 415 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:21,240 Speaker 1: it like inspires him and like sets his mind going 416 00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,280 Speaker 1: and gives him his best ideas and it's great for 417 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:28,000 Speaker 1: his health. Like, he absolutely loves horseshit. Is there anything 418 00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:32,240 Speaker 1: behind us or is it just we don't I don't know, 419 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,760 Speaker 1: but it's his entire life. We'll talk about horseshit a 420 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:40,520 Speaker 1: few times in this episode because he's fucking loves horsepoop. Damn. Yeah, 421 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:43,919 Speaker 1: it's very strange. He was equally insistent. As much as 422 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:46,679 Speaker 1: he loved horsepoop, he was insistent that his own breath 423 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,440 Speaker 1: was poisonous, and so he moved around constantly in order 424 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:52,040 Speaker 1: to avoid breathing it in. He was convinced that if 425 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:54,000 Speaker 1: he stayed in the same room for too long, he'd 426 00:21:54,000 --> 00:22:00,280 Speaker 1: breathe in all the oxygen and die. He's very weird dude. 427 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:05,400 Speaker 1: As a result of this, sleep was a nightmare for him. 428 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:08,359 Speaker 1: He couldn't really sleep. He had chronic insomnia his whole life. 429 00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:10,840 Speaker 1: Like he's just a miserable, neurotic wreck of a man 430 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: who loves horseship. It's awesome, damn. Yeah, yeah, he's he's 431 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,399 Speaker 1: a very strange dude. And I'm gonna quote William Manchester 432 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:23,760 Speaker 1: writing a little bit more about him here. What can 433 00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:28,040 Speaker 1: I ask ye? How so was he like carrying horseship 434 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,320 Speaker 1: with him? He just made sure horseshit surrounded all of 435 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,480 Speaker 1: his homes and also later in life, made sure that 436 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 1: his homes had specific like ducks to take the smell 437 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:43,119 Speaker 1: of horseship up into his rooms. He wanted everything around 438 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:45,840 Speaker 1: him to smell like horseshit at all times. He loved. 439 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,879 Speaker 1: He could not get enough horship. This is really making 440 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: me want to smell horseship. It's great. Like it's not 441 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:55,439 Speaker 1: as bad as normal ship because they're vegetarians, right, Like 442 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,359 Speaker 1: they don't eat meat, like I've I grew up with 443 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 1: like cows and horses and ship on like pastures and 444 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,520 Speaker 1: like it's not as bad as you know, dogshit or something. 445 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,280 Speaker 1: But it's not a pleasant smell. It's ship, you know, 446 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:15,639 Speaker 1: all right? Yeah, anyway, here's William Manchester writing about this 447 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,240 Speaker 1: weird ass poop love and dude. Yeah, his chronic insomnia, 448 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:21,760 Speaker 1: which would have crippled another executive, actually may have made 449 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 1: Alfred more efficient. He was such a bundle of neurotic 450 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:27,200 Speaker 1: quirks that they seem to have supported one another at night. 451 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,280 Speaker 1: For example, he wrote business memoranda. A compulsive writer. Over 452 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:32,679 Speaker 1: thirty thousand of his letters and notes are excellent. He 453 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:35,600 Speaker 1: trained himself to scribble in the dark, crouched sweating under 454 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:38,560 Speaker 1: his eyder down after dawn flushed his workers from their beds, 455 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,560 Speaker 1: they would find scrawled praise or scorn he propped on 456 00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 1: their benches to them. His energy was a marvel to us. 457 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 1: The greater marvel is that he kept this up for 458 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: over fifty years without once being institutionalized. So he's a 459 00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:59,320 Speaker 1: bizarre man. And Robert fu anyway, this is the man 460 00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: who helps in vent the military industrial complex and creates Germany. Um, 461 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,000 Speaker 1: he's a fun, fun dude. Quite a fantastic way to 462 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:13,199 Speaker 1: introduce this episode. I meant so Alfred inherited a tremendous 463 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:15,199 Speaker 1: amount of debt in a broken business because again, his 464 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:17,879 Speaker 1: dad was kind of a dumbass, but Alfred was not 465 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,359 Speaker 1: dumb the one thing you like. Again, Unlike Elon Musk, 466 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,680 Speaker 1: he's legitimately a genius, uh. And he was very shrewd enough. 467 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:26,600 Speaker 1: He was shrewd enough to see what assets he had. 468 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:29,320 Speaker 1: The forges he'd inherited were substantial, and while his father 469 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:32,879 Speaker 1: never unlocked the secrets of cast steel um, they were 470 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,040 Speaker 1: good enough to make stuff people could use and for 471 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: So for four years Alfred toile, learning through trial and 472 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,520 Speaker 1: error how to make stronger and more useful steel, and 473 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:43,439 Speaker 1: also developing an eye for business. He broke even for 474 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,919 Speaker 1: the first time in eighteen thirty, and from then on 475 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,800 Speaker 1: his career moved steadily upward. He'd inherited four workers from 476 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: his father, and thanks to a family loan in eighteen thirty, 477 00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: he hired five more employees. That year Alfred was inherited workers. Yeah, yeah, 478 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,120 Speaker 1: workers go come with the company. The they're still kind 479 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,000 Speaker 1: of like like their peasants still at this period, so 480 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:06,880 Speaker 1: it's kind of like it's it's it's not you don't 481 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,320 Speaker 1: quite own them, because they can quit and go find 482 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:11,920 Speaker 1: other work. But it's really uncommon. You tend to work 483 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,240 Speaker 1: for the same people your dad worked for, right, Like 484 00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,400 Speaker 1: that's kind of the norm. This is not that far 485 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:22,320 Speaker 1: from medieval times, right, Yeah, Alfred actually is responsible for 486 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:24,520 Speaker 1: kind of turning Krupp into one of the first like 487 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:28,400 Speaker 1: modern style businesses in the world. Like he inventced the pension, 488 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:33,720 Speaker 1: among other things. Um, yeah, he's a weird dude. Uh so. Yeah, 489 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,560 Speaker 1: Alfred was obsessive. He wrote his workers relentlessly to ensure 490 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,080 Speaker 1: the steel they produced was as close to perfect as possible. 491 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:41,639 Speaker 1: He toured with samples of his products all through central 492 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,320 Speaker 1: Germany and returned home after three months with pockets filled 493 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,239 Speaker 1: with orders. In his first sales trip abroad. Alfred had 494 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: found his first true talent salesmanship. In eighteen thirty four, 495 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,520 Speaker 1: when the thirty six Germanic States of Europe established their 496 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:56,880 Speaker 1: first common market, which abolished all the internal tariffs. Alfred 497 00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,440 Speaker 1: pompously sent the government a letter declaring that he would 498 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 1: meet all the German Union steel needs on his own. 499 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,439 Speaker 1: This was a lie. He couldn't do anything near this, 500 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 1: but as got it, got his name and people in 501 00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,240 Speaker 1: government's ears, and that was his goal. So as Alfred 502 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,639 Speaker 1: developed new methods of making better and better steel, he 503 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:15,200 Speaker 1: grew equally paranoid about corporate espionage. He started requiring all 504 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,080 Speaker 1: of his employees to swear personal oaths of loyalty, and 505 00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:20,160 Speaker 1: he started locking them into the works when they were 506 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 1: doing their job. Um, he's again kind of a dick. 507 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:27,600 Speaker 1: That seems to be a theme. Is like paranoia with 508 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,440 Speaker 1: these types of people. Yeah, I mean, one could argue 509 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:35,320 Speaker 1: it's not doesn't make them bad at their jobs. Yeah, 510 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:37,879 Speaker 1: you know. Uh So he hired a bunch more people. 511 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:39,879 Speaker 1: He brought in his close relatives to help him manage 512 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,119 Speaker 1: the growing plant, and in eighteen thirty eight he felt 513 00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:45,040 Speaker 1: comfortable enough to leave on his first international sales trip 514 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:47,840 Speaker 1: to France and England. France had a lot of business 515 00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: to offer corrupt in most days, he returned to his 516 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,640 Speaker 1: hotel Triumphant with more steel orders to send back home, 517 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:54,880 Speaker 1: but on the rare occasions when he was turned down, 518 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 1: Alfred collapsed entirely. At one point, he was bedridden for 519 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:02,000 Speaker 1: five days after a French company refused to buy his product. So, yeah, 520 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,320 Speaker 1: he's neurotic again. On the whole, the trip was a success, 521 00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,600 Speaker 1: but when he left France for England, his goal was 522 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,760 Speaker 1: not to make more sales. Because English steel was still 523 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,320 Speaker 1: the best in the game. Alfred was kind of verging 524 00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:15,840 Speaker 1: on cast steel but he wasn't as good or consistent 525 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,280 Speaker 1: as what the English could make. Um In England was 526 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: the most industrialized nation in Europe at this point. Krupp 527 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,600 Speaker 1: had nothing that they wanted, so he couldn't sell anything 528 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,560 Speaker 1: to them. But he wasn't there to sell. He was 529 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,760 Speaker 1: there to engage in corporate espionage, and thankfully for the 530 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:32,000 Speaker 1: English steel industry, he was terrible at it. His first 531 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,480 Speaker 1: plan was to England, enter England on a fake passport 532 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:37,000 Speaker 1: with the name that he thought based on nothing nothing 533 00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: sounded English, uh Alfred Croup Crup instead of care upp like. 534 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,720 Speaker 1: He thought that that would make him pass. He bought 535 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,440 Speaker 1: a pair of spurs, which English gentleman wore in those days, 536 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:49,879 Speaker 1: and he teamed up with another Germanic merchant, with the 537 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,040 Speaker 1: idea of that that they would pretend to be British 538 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:54,880 Speaker 1: people looking to learn the secrets of fine steel production, 539 00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:58,879 Speaker 1: have some sort of accent give him away. Well, the 540 00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:00,480 Speaker 1: other thing that would give them the way is that 541 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:05,000 Speaker 1: neither of them spoke English. It wasn't even that they 542 00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:10,880 Speaker 1: had an access They only spoke German. Alfred had memorized 543 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,000 Speaker 1: a couple of pleasantries from a phrase book, but he 544 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,960 Speaker 1: could not talk to people. Um. He had figured that 545 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,400 Speaker 1: the dozen words he knew and his fake name would 546 00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 1: let him pretend to be an Englishman who just spent 547 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:22,239 Speaker 1: time on the continent for a while, and it did 548 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: not work. Everyone who met him immediately realized he was German, 549 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:27,840 Speaker 1: but they didn't care either, like they weren't scared that 550 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,200 Speaker 1: he would spy on them. Um. And he was so 551 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: bad at espionage that some of the English steelmakers he 552 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,280 Speaker 1: met even figured out that he was Alfred Kruoke without 553 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,800 Speaker 1: saying him saying a word, and they still gave him 554 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: tours of their factories because they're like, he's not going 555 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:42,240 Speaker 1: to figure it out by just walking around the factory floor, 556 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:45,520 Speaker 1: and he didn't. He was terrible at spying on people. 557 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 1: He stayed there for five months and he learned nothing, 558 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,479 Speaker 1: and he also sold nothing. And it didn't matter anyway, 559 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,120 Speaker 1: because before much longer Krupp figured out how to make 560 00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: cast steal of their own, and once he was home, 561 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,280 Speaker 1: he set to work figuring out how to take advantage 562 00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 1: of the fact that now he made pretty much the 563 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 1: best steal out side of England, and the obvious answer 564 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: was the armaments industry. On his way home from England, 565 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:07,760 Speaker 1: Alfred had developed a dream of making a new steel cannon, 566 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,240 Speaker 1: and this was very controversial at the time. At this 567 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 1: point in Europe, all cannons were bronze, and for complex 568 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: metallurgical reasons. I don't understand bronze cannons. Number one, we're 569 00:29:17,520 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 1: only really short range cannons. Like the big guns that 570 00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:22,160 Speaker 1: you had in World War One that could bombard cities 571 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:24,880 Speaker 1: from miles away. You couldn't make those out of bronze. 572 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: They had to be steel because they would explode under 573 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,280 Speaker 1: the pressures that those big guns did, and bronze cannons 574 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:34,120 Speaker 1: couldn't be breech loading cannons. This is an important but 575 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:36,600 Speaker 1: kind of like I don't know, nuanced gun different. So, 576 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:38,840 Speaker 1: barrel loading cannons work the way they sound, right. You 577 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:40,960 Speaker 1: you jam a bunch of powder into the barrel, then 578 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:42,880 Speaker 1: you shove a cannon ball in there, and you light 579 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,280 Speaker 1: it from behind and it shoots the cannon ball out right. 580 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,760 Speaker 1: That's the cannons you see in all the pirate movies. Yeah, 581 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:51,360 Speaker 1: a breech loading cannon loads the way that like a 582 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:54,440 Speaker 1: double barreled shotgun does today, where you put the round 583 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 1: in at the back of the gun. This has a 584 00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,560 Speaker 1: bunch of advantages. It makes it fire a lot faster, 585 00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:02,360 Speaker 1: allows for more advanced kind of gunnery. It allows for 586 00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 1: like shells that are instead of just like a cannon ball. 587 00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:08,000 Speaker 1: It allows for explosive shells to be fired. It's kind 588 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,479 Speaker 1: of in order to have a modern artillery, you have 589 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:13,239 Speaker 1: to have a breech loading gun. Um. People have been 590 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 1: dreaming about them for a while. Leonardo da Vinci had 591 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,200 Speaker 1: sketched breech loading guns and they tried. People have tried 592 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 1: to make them for centuries, but they'd always exploded and 593 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:22,840 Speaker 1: killed the people manning them. So folks have just figured 594 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:29,640 Speaker 1: it's impossible to date. Yeah, So Krupp has a dream 595 00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,600 Speaker 1: that he can make this like a steel cannon that 596 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: will allow him to do all this fun kind of 597 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:41,120 Speaker 1: canon stuff that he wants and envision your your future. Yeah, 598 00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,000 Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense that I'm going to get 599 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,920 Speaker 1: this gun, right. Yeah, I'm gonna make the best gun 600 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,960 Speaker 1: anybody's ever made so that Europeans can kill each other better. 601 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:54,040 Speaker 1: That that's that's this whole this guy's whole entire life. Um, 602 00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:58,600 Speaker 1: And yeah it was. You couldn't really have like because 603 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,600 Speaker 1: brass cannons were the only le cannons that existed. You 604 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: couldn't really have big guns even Napoleon. Like Napoleon was 605 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:07,680 Speaker 1: a famous artillery man, but his guns actually were pretty 606 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,560 Speaker 1: tiny compared to like what we now consider modern artillery. 607 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:12,920 Speaker 1: To beat well, they were big, they were big compared 608 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:17,080 Speaker 1: to him. Yeah, they were. That's that's very fun. Actually, 609 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:27,160 Speaker 1: you know, so much go Ahead tried to do in 610 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,720 Speaker 1: his masculinity. I mean, he had, he had reason to 611 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:35,000 Speaker 1: be he did. He did almost beat all of Europe 612 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:39,640 Speaker 1: and in several wars. Um, so you know what, you know, 613 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:42,000 Speaker 1: you know who didn't beat Europe in several wars? It's 614 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:43,880 Speaker 1: time for an ad break, and that's not really bad? 615 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:50,320 Speaker 1: Are we not sponsored by the brun Napoleon? No? No, no, 616 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 1: he is not sponsoring this episode, unfortunately, with us unfortunate, 617 00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:02,920 Speaker 1: I have geared this entire episode to winning the Bruce favor. Um. Well, 618 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,160 Speaker 1: I guess we'll try to get Czarist Russia as a sponsor. 619 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:14,760 Speaker 1: Until then, here's some ads. We're back, and I'm being 620 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:19,040 Speaker 1: informed that some tragedy seems to have befallen the Romanov dynasty. 621 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:20,640 Speaker 1: So I don't think we're going to be getting a 622 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,160 Speaker 1: sponsorship from the Czar either. And that that is a 623 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: real bummer. I'm hearing good things about this Linen character, though, 624 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:31,720 Speaker 1: so we might be able to I think he might 625 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:34,320 Speaker 1: like adds a lot. It seems like a real products 626 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:38,560 Speaker 1: and services kind of do. We'll figure it out. So, 627 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:41,800 Speaker 1: uh yeah, bronze cannons are kind of the standard in 628 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,760 Speaker 1: Europe at the time. And this dream of like the 629 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: fact that uh that Alfred Kripp wants to make steel 630 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,640 Speaker 1: guns is not just like it's it's not just seen 631 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:52,640 Speaker 1: as like it's not seen as like a revolutionary thing. 632 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,480 Speaker 1: It's seen as madness because people had tried to make 633 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,000 Speaker 1: steel cannons and wrought iron cannons and they've always been disasters. 634 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,360 Speaker 1: And in fact, in eighteen four for the United States 635 00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 1: had built a twelve inch wrought iron smooth bore canon 636 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:07,520 Speaker 1: for the USS Princeton Um and on the ship's Gala voyage, 637 00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:09,680 Speaker 1: they tried to fire it and it exploded, killing the 638 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:13,440 Speaker 1: Secretary of the State and Secretary of Navy. UM. So 639 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:15,880 Speaker 1: people aren't just like this won't work. People are like, 640 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,760 Speaker 1: it's reckless to even try to make these guns, you 641 00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:23,320 Speaker 1: fucking idiot. Um. And another reason why people are obsessed 642 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,920 Speaker 1: with bronze cannon at the time is that Napoleon had 643 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 1: been beaten by Wellington with bronze cannons, right like Wellington 644 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,560 Speaker 1: like bronze guns had beaten Napoleon forty something years ago, 645 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:36,200 Speaker 1: and people are like, why would we need to change 646 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 1: It was good enough to fight Napoleon, It's good enough 647 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,520 Speaker 1: for anything we could possibly use it as. And it's 648 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,760 Speaker 1: kind of worth noting here that at this point, you know, 649 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:47,959 Speaker 1: it's been decades since Napoleon's defeat, like more than a generation, 650 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,960 Speaker 1: and artillery had not changed at all. Like if you 651 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,560 Speaker 1: could imagine if we were still using the exact same 652 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: weaponry that like we'd used in Vietnam or Korea. Um, Like, 653 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,440 Speaker 1: that's kind of the situation Europe is in in in 654 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:05,720 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty, um, because things just didn't advances quickly back then. Um. 655 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:08,080 Speaker 1: So it's it's it's seen as kind of odd. In 656 00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:11,120 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty Krupp and his workers put together a three 657 00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,120 Speaker 1: pound cannon for an exhibition in London. And these exhibitions 658 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,000 Speaker 1: were like the arms trade shows of the day. There 659 00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,480 Speaker 1: were places where all of the rich industrialists and scientists 660 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:21,680 Speaker 1: would come and bring all of their latest innovations and 661 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,040 Speaker 1: achievements and stuff. This is like the birth of the 662 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:26,840 Speaker 1: This is the industrial revolution, the birth of the steel age. 663 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,279 Speaker 1: So people are figuring out new ship every year, and 664 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,400 Speaker 1: like every year so they'll gather in a new city 665 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 1: to show off the cool ship that they've invented. And 666 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,640 Speaker 1: most of it's like like a violent science fair. Yeah, 667 00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:40,279 Speaker 1: it's not all guns. A lot of it is like agriculte. 668 00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:42,800 Speaker 1: People are showing off plows and ship, but the guns, 669 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:44,440 Speaker 1: like in CREP is kind of the first person to 670 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:47,719 Speaker 1: realize that, like, well, most of the products there are 671 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:51,360 Speaker 1: like tractors and plows and light bulbs, the thing that 672 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:54,480 Speaker 1: people asking that feeds people. Yeah, it guns are what 673 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,359 Speaker 1: people care about. Journalists don't write about the boring ship, 674 00:34:57,440 --> 00:34:59,839 Speaker 1: they write about the guns. Everybody thinks the guns are neat. 675 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 1: So he built this cannon a little bit earlier, this 676 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,480 Speaker 1: first steel cannon, and nobody wanted to buy it. But 677 00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:09,560 Speaker 1: he figured, like, maybe if I take it to this exhibition, 678 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 1: because people just fucking love weapons, that will build up 679 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,480 Speaker 1: enough buzz that ILL can start selling some of this ship. Now, 680 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:17,439 Speaker 1: he brought more than just a cannon to show off 681 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:20,520 Speaker 1: his company's new capabilities. He's had his workers slathered together 682 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 1: what has been the largest bar of cast steel ever produced. 683 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:27,239 Speaker 1: It weighed thousands and thousands of pounds. Um. And yeah, 684 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:29,040 Speaker 1: so he just like he brought this giant lump of 685 00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:32,160 Speaker 1: metal and a cannon to this show. Um, and his 686 00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:35,319 Speaker 1: enormous steel ingod actually won the expedition because that was 687 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,160 Speaker 1: like for years in the eighteen fifties, every one of 688 00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:40,680 Speaker 1: these exhibitions, the product that would win would be like 689 00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:43,960 Speaker 1: an increasingly large lumps of metal because people are just 690 00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 1: look at how much metal I can make? Now I 691 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,960 Speaker 1: can make more metal. And most of this is because 692 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:50,880 Speaker 1: like railroads the big thing at the time, right, So 693 00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:53,439 Speaker 1: by making like, by making like a ten thousand pound 694 00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:55,279 Speaker 1: piece of steel, you're saying like I could make a 695 00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,279 Speaker 1: fucking railroad for your ass. Real goddamn quick, that's the 696 00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,920 Speaker 1: whole that's the whole deal, you know. Yeah, it's a 697 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:05,640 Speaker 1: weird time. Um. So he wins the exhibition because of 698 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:09,280 Speaker 1: his steel ingod, and the judges completely ignore his steel cannon, 699 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: and Alfred was frustrated at first because again his cannon 700 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:14,360 Speaker 1: had been ignored by all the people he'd wanted to 701 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,480 Speaker 1: buy it too. But journalists were drawn to the gun 702 00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:19,440 Speaker 1: and At first, the press piled on about what a 703 00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,440 Speaker 1: bad idea a steel cannon would be, the Observer's The 704 00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:25,000 Speaker 1: London Observer wrote, the brittleness of steel is so great 705 00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:27,920 Speaker 1: that we doubt whether it would resist any successive charges 706 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,920 Speaker 1: of powder. But pressed within the London News and the 707 00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:32,760 Speaker 1: Daily News had to admit that the cannon was almost 708 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:37,080 Speaker 1: hypnotizing lee beautiful. One reporter regretted that Krupp hadn't shown 709 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:40,479 Speaker 1: devices for quote, grinding corn, or surgical instruments or something 710 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,080 Speaker 1: more appropriate to this peaceful age and to the exhibition 711 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,960 Speaker 1: than a modern field piece. I mean, did he test 712 00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:48,640 Speaker 1: it out? Yeah, yeah, yeah, they fired it and stuff. 713 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:52,560 Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah. I mean like people just kind of 714 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,200 Speaker 1: doubted that it would continue working and stuff. But like 715 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:57,839 Speaker 1: again he most of them like came around because they 716 00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:59,560 Speaker 1: just thought it was so beautiful. And there's this one 717 00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,160 Speaker 1: British journalists who writes that, like it's kind of fucked 718 00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:03,880 Speaker 1: up that we're trying to do the show about like 719 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,799 Speaker 1: the advance of technology, and like you don't come here 720 00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:09,239 Speaker 1: with like new farming implements or new surgical tools, but 721 00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:12,239 Speaker 1: you bring like a giant gun. Um. But that guy 722 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:15,720 Speaker 1: was actually kind of the one who misjudged what people 723 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:18,640 Speaker 1: wanted at the time because the United States section of 724 00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:21,200 Speaker 1: the fair to show you how different things were the US, 725 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:24,279 Speaker 1: all we brought was a massive plow. No, we brought 726 00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,120 Speaker 1: like farming equipment, Yeah, farming equipment, a bunch of paintings 727 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:30,240 Speaker 1: of farms and ship. Uh. And everyone ignored it. Everyone 728 00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:33,080 Speaker 1: ignored it in favor of the big german gun. Um. 729 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:35,400 Speaker 1: And that taught Alfred a lesson, which is that people 730 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:37,520 Speaker 1: only let people don't give a ship if you make 731 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:40,520 Speaker 1: stuff that will improve their lives. They like killing machines. 732 00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:49,160 Speaker 1: Yeah it's good, it's good. Yeah, it's absolutely Um. I 733 00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,239 Speaker 1: don't buy a bunch of old cannons, you know, or 734 00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:53,920 Speaker 1: a bunch of old I don't buy a bunch of 735 00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:57,239 Speaker 1: old farming implements. I buy antique German handguns. It's weird, 736 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,400 Speaker 1: that's what people do. Huh. If I could afford it, Yeah, 737 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:08,399 Speaker 1: they're beautiful and fucking plows are lame. You want to eat? Yeah, 738 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,480 Speaker 1: I got put a plow in my apartment. And talking 739 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:14,360 Speaker 1: about so, Alfred Krupp was the only man at the 740 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,520 Speaker 1: time who really like realized this that like that you 741 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:22,080 Speaker 1: could basically at this point in time, weapons technology was 742 00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:25,640 Speaker 1: entirely driven by militaries, and like there were there were 743 00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:28,440 Speaker 1: outside firms who would make weaponry for them, but it 744 00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:30,319 Speaker 1: was basically like, hey, we need this kind of gun, 745 00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:32,080 Speaker 1: and they'd figured out how to they try to figure 746 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:34,319 Speaker 1: out how to make it. Alfred was the first person 747 00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:36,600 Speaker 1: to be like, I'm going to make something they don't 748 00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:38,480 Speaker 1: want and I'm going to force them to want it. 749 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:41,080 Speaker 1: That was new and he was the first guy to 750 00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:45,000 Speaker 1: figure this out. Okay, okay, it was slow going at first. 751 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,520 Speaker 1: Generals and admirals and secretaries of war are inherently conservative men, 752 00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,000 Speaker 1: and changed frightened them. They wanted to stick with what 753 00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:53,480 Speaker 1: had worked before, and brass cannons had worked before. It 754 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:56,080 Speaker 1: was almost impossible to get a new weapons system going. 755 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,680 Speaker 1: But journalists love new shiny things and they love weapons, 756 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,239 Speaker 1: and so to their readers. And basically, Krupp figured out 757 00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:04,960 Speaker 1: that he could stoke in nations demand for guns by 758 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,560 Speaker 1: playing to the fact that people are drawn to guns 759 00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,280 Speaker 1: kind of inherently, and he took a lot of advantage 760 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:14,759 Speaker 1: of that. Um, people suck. Yeah, they're not great. It's 761 00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:17,879 Speaker 1: kind of a bummer, but it works very well for him. Um. 762 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:19,759 Speaker 1: Although it is a bit of a slow burn. So 763 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,319 Speaker 1: at the time, advertising was not really a thing that 764 00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:25,279 Speaker 1: existed in its modern concept, Like there were ads, but 765 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:29,960 Speaker 1: like the ad industry did not exist. Um and so yeah, 766 00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:34,440 Speaker 1: Krrupt like knew that these exhibitions, like even if no 767 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:36,799 Speaker 1: one bought his product bringing it there could still be 768 00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:38,919 Speaker 1: a success because it would generate interest and that would 769 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:42,520 Speaker 1: generate buzz and that would eventually lead the sales. Now, 770 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:44,840 Speaker 1: by this point in the eighteen fifties, Crupt became a 771 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,719 Speaker 1: had become a fairly large and successful steel company. He 772 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:50,359 Speaker 1: had thousands of employees by this point, and what they 773 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:52,960 Speaker 1: made their money on was making cast steele axles and 774 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:56,920 Speaker 1: springs for trains and and train tires like what are 775 00:39:56,960 --> 00:39:59,919 Speaker 1: called train tires, which is basically like like the roly 776 00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,839 Speaker 1: wheels on trains. Like he could make very like the 777 00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:05,799 Speaker 1: best steel to make trains possible. All of the early 778 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:09,719 Speaker 1: train tracks in the United States are made with crub steel. Um. Yeah, 779 00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,239 Speaker 1: like that's that's how he gets rich. Like they're not 780 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,479 Speaker 1: making any money off of guns at this point. They're 781 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,479 Speaker 1: making guns, but nobody's fucking buying them. Like governments want 782 00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:21,000 Speaker 1: trains and ship and that's what they're making their profit 783 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:24,480 Speaker 1: off of UM, and so Alfred's commitment to weaponry was 784 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:28,360 Speaker 1: was kind of weird. UM and his new like he 785 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:31,520 Speaker 1: gets increasingly upset obsessed with it, and for whatever reason, 786 00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:34,000 Speaker 1: his kind of growing obsession with guns comes at the 787 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:36,840 Speaker 1: same time that his mom dies and he finds himself single. 788 00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:42,480 Speaker 1: See now it's sounding very like edible something some falon like, 789 00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:45,560 Speaker 1: you know, some penis thing going on. I don't know, 790 00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:47,400 Speaker 1: because he's a weird guy. When it comes to his 791 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:56,319 Speaker 1: relationships with women, you could desperately. Yeah, that's that's why 792 00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:00,320 Speaker 1: easy to come on. His money is basically his wife. 793 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:02,560 Speaker 1: Not that he like had sex with her or anything, 794 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:04,680 Speaker 1: but his mom cooked his food and kept his house 795 00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:06,880 Speaker 1: clean and made his bed, and he had no desire 796 00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,800 Speaker 1: for a wife while he had his mom because he 797 00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,600 Speaker 1: wanted he wanted a mommy wife like that was his 798 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:18,440 Speaker 1: His His priority was having a coming another. Yeah, he 799 00:41:18,480 --> 00:41:21,080 Speaker 1: wouldn't have been wild about it. He met the love 800 00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:23,200 Speaker 1: of his life after writing into town from a long 801 00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:25,840 Speaker 1: work trip and spotting her in the audience at a play. 802 00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:28,280 Speaker 1: Her name was Bertha, and she was less than half 803 00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:30,440 Speaker 1: his age and not at all interested in him, But 804 00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:32,120 Speaker 1: he was in love with her and he was rich, 805 00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,080 Speaker 1: and that was all that mattered to the people who 806 00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:36,560 Speaker 1: got to make decisions on whether or not Bertha got married. 807 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:39,560 Speaker 1: She could barely stand Alfred, and it's kind of hard 808 00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:41,759 Speaker 1: to blame her. The man was frightened to stand near 809 00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:43,640 Speaker 1: his own breath, and he loved the smell of hoorship. 810 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:45,600 Speaker 1: It was kind of a hard sell falling in love 811 00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:51,000 Speaker 1: with Alfred krupp. Uh. His opening quick up, Yeah, definitely quirky. 812 00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,880 Speaker 1: His opening pickup line to her was where I supposed 813 00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,000 Speaker 1: I had nothing but a piece of cast steel, I 814 00:41:57,080 --> 00:42:01,880 Speaker 1: had a heart, which I guess is kind of sweet. Huh. Yeah, 815 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:06,360 Speaker 1: it's not a terrible opening line for the age. Wouldn't 816 00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:09,279 Speaker 1: get me going, but no, but like you know, it 817 00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:11,680 Speaker 1: was a different time. Yeah, I mean it, and it 818 00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:15,480 Speaker 1: didn't work on her, to be fair, Ye's probably what 819 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,560 Speaker 1: he followed that up with. Yeah. Yeah. Now. William Manchester 820 00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:22,480 Speaker 1: notes quote, given Alfred's temperament, domestic happiness was impossible. No 821 00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:24,640 Speaker 1: one could live with such a man. He could barely 822 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:27,680 Speaker 1: stand himself. The match was doomed, and all that remained 823 00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:32,760 Speaker 1: was to define the exact nature of the distress. Yeah, 824 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:36,960 Speaker 1: it's not a good relationship, but oddly enough, Bertha was 825 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,200 Speaker 1: the cold one in the couple. Whatever else you can 826 00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,560 Speaker 1: say about Alfred, he was absolutely in love with his wife, 827 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:44,879 Speaker 1: and he would spend his life obsessed with Bertha. Now, 828 00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,279 Speaker 1: it was a love that knew nothing about her and 829 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:51,759 Speaker 1: like was absolutely uninterested in actually understanding her needs in 830 00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,719 Speaker 1: order to please her, because again, he was kind of 831 00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,920 Speaker 1: incapable of understanding other people in any way, shape or form. 832 00:42:58,000 --> 00:42:59,799 Speaker 1: But he was madly in love with her, and she 833 00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:04,440 Speaker 1: kind of despised him. It's a bummer. Huh. That sounds 834 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,520 Speaker 1: like the perfect relationship to me. Yeah, that's like the 835 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,359 Speaker 1: kind of guy I'm looking for. Yes, I don't. I 836 00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,640 Speaker 1: don't think that you are. I don't think anybody wants 837 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:20,400 Speaker 1: to be with Alfred grow not specifically, but so in 838 00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,359 Speaker 1: order to woo her after getting married, he constructed a 839 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:27,280 Speaker 1: massive and completely insane house for her, the Garden House, 840 00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:31,080 Speaker 1: which was a gigantic, mostly glass building that incorporated incorporated 841 00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:33,480 Speaker 1: a number of greenhouses into it, which were meant to 842 00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:37,200 Speaker 1: grow beautiful hot house flowers. It also held habitats for peacocks, 843 00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,800 Speaker 1: grape vines, pineapple groves, all on this giant glass castle 844 00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,839 Speaker 1: in the middle of Essen, which doesn't sound terrible. So far, 845 00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:48,480 Speaker 1: that sounds lovely, um, but there were some weird aspects 846 00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:52,840 Speaker 1: of it. Well worse than that, actually, because he built 847 00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,280 Speaker 1: the garden house directly in the center of his giant 848 00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,400 Speaker 1: steel factory, and if you've never been in a steel smelter, 849 00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:01,600 Speaker 1: they put out an enormous amount sutain pollution, and as 850 00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:04,000 Speaker 1: a result, within months, every window of the garden house 851 00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:07,000 Speaker 1: was permanently stained brown and caked in filth. All of 852 00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:09,760 Speaker 1: the plants died. I have to assume the peacocks did too. 853 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:12,640 Speaker 1: He had basically moved his wife to a glass mansion 854 00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:18,560 Speaker 1: in the middle of a smokestack god ideot, and to 855 00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:21,000 Speaker 1: make matters worse, the house had one other feature I 856 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:23,800 Speaker 1: haven't mentioned yet. There was a glass crow's nest peeking 857 00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:25,520 Speaker 1: out of the top of the roof, so that Alfred 858 00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:29,360 Speaker 1: could spy on his workers at all times. So it 859 00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:33,080 Speaker 1: was kind of a nightmare. In other words, I'm gonna 860 00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:36,600 Speaker 1: quote from the Arms of Crook here. Alfred was installing 861 00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:39,000 Speaker 1: heavier and heavier machinery, and the grunt of his steam 862 00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:42,000 Speaker 1: hammers rocked the foundations of his home. Bertha couldn't keep 863 00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: glasses on her sideboard if she put them out after breakfast, 864 00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,399 Speaker 1: all would be cracked by lunch. Alfred didn't seem to mind. 865 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:49,560 Speaker 1: He was proud of the house and who his wife's annoyance. 866 00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:52,240 Speaker 1: He became a homebody. When she complained about the dishes, 867 00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:55,160 Speaker 1: an admiring friend jotted down her husband's reply, it's only 868 00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:58,160 Speaker 1: a few porcelain plates. I'll make the customers pay for them. 869 00:44:58,200 --> 00:44:59,839 Speaker 1: And when she countered with a plea that he take 870 00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:03,400 Speaker 1: away for just one evening to a concert, he answered sharply, sorry, 871 00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:06,640 Speaker 1: it's impossible. I must see that my smokestacks continue to smoke, 872 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:08,759 Speaker 1: and when I hear my forge tomorrow, that will be 873 00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:13,000 Speaker 1: music more exquisite than the playing of all the world's fiddles. 874 00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:17,279 Speaker 1: So terrible man to be married to. Yeah, it is 875 00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:19,960 Speaker 1: probably not surprising that Bertha left him as soon as 876 00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:23,439 Speaker 1: she possibly could. And obviously she couldn't leave him, leave 877 00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:26,000 Speaker 1: him like there was no getting divorced as the wife 878 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,600 Speaker 1: of a rich woman in the eighteen fifties in the 879 00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:31,880 Speaker 1: center of Europe. But she claimed to be sick with exhaustion, 880 00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:34,040 Speaker 1: and maybe she might have been a hypochondric, but basically 881 00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,640 Speaker 1: she she played well enough at being ill um or 882 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:39,279 Speaker 1: she actually got ill because they did live in a 883 00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:42,160 Speaker 1: poison box in the middle of a factory that Alfred 884 00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:44,200 Speaker 1: just kind of would spend send her off to different 885 00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:47,040 Speaker 1: spas and health cares and stuff in various fancy towns. 886 00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:48,520 Speaker 1: Like that's what you did if you were rich and sick, 887 00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:51,839 Speaker 1: you would go off to some spa to get to heal. Um, 888 00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:56,160 Speaker 1: so he sends her. Yeah, it's not wildly different. They 889 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,759 Speaker 1: get a private island just to unwind. Yeah, and that's 890 00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:03,000 Speaker 1: basically what Bertha spends the rest of her life doing. Um. 891 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:06,279 Speaker 1: She's almost never home, only did for like appearance's sake. 892 00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:08,440 Speaker 1: Every now and then Alfred would visit her, but it's 893 00:46:08,480 --> 00:46:11,759 Speaker 1: incredibly awkward and she clearly doesn't want him there. Um, 894 00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:16,120 Speaker 1: And I mean fair enough horseshit. Yeah, it's not unfair 895 00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:19,239 Speaker 1: on her part, but it is very sad because Alfred 896 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:22,000 Speaker 1: never stopped being in love with her. He wrote her 897 00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,200 Speaker 1: constantly laying out every detail of his life in business 898 00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:28,799 Speaker 1: and agonizing, like granular detail, which is why we know 899 00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:32,759 Speaker 1: so much about him everything everything. Question, do we know 900 00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:35,000 Speaker 1: what she did? She smell like horseship? Like what's my 901 00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:38,640 Speaker 1: what's the Like? No, I don't think so, would you 902 00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:40,640 Speaker 1: mean like, oh, I got you a new candle, and 903 00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:43,200 Speaker 1: it would just be like a horse can. He just 904 00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,960 Speaker 1: liked having horses all around wherever he lived, so that 905 00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:47,879 Speaker 1: they would ship around where he lived and it would 906 00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:51,759 Speaker 1: smell like horseship because that was his favorite thing. It's 907 00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:55,560 Speaker 1: very strange you're saying things, but I'm still stuck on 908 00:46:55,600 --> 00:46:58,359 Speaker 1: the horse ship. It's it's kind of impossible not to 909 00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:00,560 Speaker 1: think about because I've never heard of any one having 910 00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:02,759 Speaker 1: that particular I mean, it seems like a kink at 911 00:47:02,760 --> 00:47:06,680 Speaker 1: this point, right, it's got to be like his biographer 912 00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:09,719 Speaker 1: even described it as a fetishistic devotion to poop, like 913 00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:15,040 Speaker 1: it's very weird. Um now, uh So, Alfred again wrote 914 00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,040 Speaker 1: out every detail of his life to his wife, and 915 00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:20,319 Speaker 1: these this constant stream of letters, and Bertha clearly did 916 00:47:20,360 --> 00:47:24,399 Speaker 1: not care and barely responded. She would occasionally justify her 917 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:26,960 Speaker 1: lack of response by saying she was too exhausted by 918 00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:30,120 Speaker 1: her illness to write. Alfred solved this problem for her 919 00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,719 Speaker 1: by providing her with a series of form letters that 920 00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:34,799 Speaker 1: she could just fill in the blanks on in order 921 00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:37,920 Speaker 1: to respond to him. And we have these form letters 922 00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,200 Speaker 1: and they are the cringeest documents I've ever read in 923 00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:44,040 Speaker 1: my entire life. Oh my god. Yeah, here's one of 924 00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:47,560 Speaker 1: the form letters that he gave his wife. I received 925 00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:51,000 Speaker 1: your note of blank and note they're from with parentheses 926 00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:53,560 Speaker 1: pleasure dash sorrow, and she could just kind of check 927 00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:57,600 Speaker 1: whichever one she was feeling that things are going not well. 928 00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:00,759 Speaker 1: As for myself, I am very well, thank goodness, and 929 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:04,160 Speaker 1: yet certainly uh and certainly not yet plump and fat, 930 00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:07,080 Speaker 1: but hope this will remain so soon Like these are 931 00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,719 Speaker 1: all like different fill in blanks and stuff, and then 932 00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:11,879 Speaker 1: it continues for like, since my last letter, I've been 933 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:14,520 Speaker 1: for a drive regularly every day through the delightful Tier 934 00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:16,479 Speaker 1: Garden and go twice a day for one hour walking 935 00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:18,439 Speaker 1: there in the most charmful company, which a king would 936 00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:20,759 Speaker 1: give millions to see. And again, this was not what 937 00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:23,080 Speaker 1: she had actually done. This is what Alfred had written 938 00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,200 Speaker 1: out for her to send back to him, because this 939 00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:27,200 Speaker 1: is what he assumed she was doing every day. He 940 00:48:27,239 --> 00:48:29,239 Speaker 1: was kind of trying to direct her life by having 941 00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:31,680 Speaker 1: this letter and the hope that she would do exactly 942 00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:33,440 Speaker 1: what he'd written in the letter if she was going 943 00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:36,320 Speaker 1: to be sending the letter back to him. It's very straight, 944 00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:40,960 Speaker 1: it's very strange. Yeah. The letter ended with I am 945 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:43,080 Speaker 1: longing to be back with my dear husband and hope 946 00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:47,080 Speaker 1: above all else that he will be pleased with me. That. Yeah, 947 00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:50,080 Speaker 1: he wrote that for her, and then he ended it 948 00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:52,920 Speaker 1: with only do not write me too often. That embarrasses 949 00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:57,040 Speaker 1: me because I cannot reply yours has ever birtha That 950 00:48:57,239 --> 00:49:00,680 Speaker 1: is one of the saddest things I've ever read, old man. Yeah, 951 00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:03,960 Speaker 1: that's pathetic. It's really a bummer, Robert. You know what 952 00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:06,360 Speaker 1: isn't one of the saddest things you've ever read? The 953 00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:11,239 Speaker 1: products and services that support this podcast. Yes, yeah, they 954 00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:14,960 Speaker 1: are fully devoted to their husbands, which happened also to 955 00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:17,760 Speaker 1: be Alfred Krupp. But thankfully he's been dead for decades, 956 00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:28,240 Speaker 1: so more than a century. Really products, all right, we're back, Okay. 957 00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:30,880 Speaker 1: So Alfred's cannon business at this point was going no 958 00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:33,560 Speaker 1: better than his marriage. By eighteen fifty two, he still 959 00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:36,440 Speaker 1: had not received a single contract for his new artillery, 960 00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:40,759 Speaker 1: and so Alfred experimented with another revolutionary advertising tactic, the 961 00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:44,200 Speaker 1: freeze sample, better known for little plastic cups of snacks 962 00:49:44,200 --> 00:49:46,319 Speaker 1: at Sam's Club and we little coffee cups a trader 963 00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:48,960 Speaker 1: Joe's crupt did the same thing with field cannons. He 964 00:49:49,040 --> 00:49:51,040 Speaker 1: sent the whole cannon for free to the King of 965 00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:53,359 Speaker 1: Prussia because he couldn't sell it, and he also had 966 00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:56,960 Speaker 1: another one made and sent off to Czar Alexander of Russia. Well, 967 00:49:57,000 --> 00:49:59,080 Speaker 1: the King of Prussia couldn't have cared less. The Czar 968 00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,480 Speaker 1: immediately se to testing the cannon, firing thousands of shots 969 00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:05,480 Speaker 1: through it and then example examining the barrel for imperfections. 970 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,080 Speaker 1: When he saw it was untouched, the Tsar declared the 971 00:50:08,080 --> 00:50:10,120 Speaker 1: cannon a freak of nature and ordered his men to 972 00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:13,320 Speaker 1: preserve it in the National Artillery Museum rather than ordering 973 00:50:13,320 --> 00:50:16,080 Speaker 1: more or something. Which is a bit of a bummer. 974 00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:18,880 Speaker 1: So like he can't catch your break and selling people 975 00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:23,799 Speaker 1: killing machines, which really fucks up. Um, starting to feel 976 00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:27,560 Speaker 1: bad for this guy. Am I supposed to hate him? Yeah, eventually, 977 00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:31,520 Speaker 1: but he is a sad character. Yeah. So there was 978 00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:34,960 Speaker 1: clearly no money in guns, but Alfred couldn't stop making guns. 979 00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:36,960 Speaker 1: He and his team designed and built a new twelve 980 00:50:36,960 --> 00:50:39,319 Speaker 1: pound cannon, and they brought three of these. And when 981 00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:41,600 Speaker 1: I say a twelve pound cannon, that's the size of 982 00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:43,680 Speaker 1: the weapon at fire of the ball that it fires 983 00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:46,160 Speaker 1: is twelve pounds, like the gun is hundreds and hundreds 984 00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:49,759 Speaker 1: of pounds um. So they brought three of these gargantuan 985 00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:53,239 Speaker 1: weapons to Paris for eighteen fifty five for the Universal Exposition, 986 00:50:53,280 --> 00:50:56,279 Speaker 1: which is another one of these big technology expositions. And 987 00:50:56,320 --> 00:50:58,200 Speaker 1: again at this point Krup had made a grand total 988 00:50:58,239 --> 00:51:01,080 Speaker 1: of zero dollars on cannons. The company made its money 989 00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:04,040 Speaker 1: by this point selling revolutionary railway tires for which Krup 990 00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:06,960 Speaker 1: had a patent, and by making machine tools. Krup brought 991 00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:10,000 Speaker 1: another gigantic steel ingot to this exhibition two, and this 992 00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:12,239 Speaker 1: one was so large that it collapsed the floor it 993 00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:16,040 Speaker 1: was standing on and nearly killed all the judges because 994 00:51:16,080 --> 00:51:18,840 Speaker 1: it's like tens of thousands of pounds. And he won again, 995 00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:24,040 Speaker 1: of course his tet one again. Yeah, yeah, well I 996 00:51:24,080 --> 00:51:26,680 Speaker 1: almost killed everybody, like that's got like clearly this is 997 00:51:26,719 --> 00:51:28,920 Speaker 1: the best piece of metal. It nearly killed us all. 998 00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:31,600 Speaker 1: Yet oddly enough, they're not at all interested in the 999 00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:34,240 Speaker 1: killing machines that he makes. But of course, as usual, 1000 00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:37,040 Speaker 1: the press and the actual people who attend the show 1001 00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:40,240 Speaker 1: are fascinated by his guns, and Alfred had divined devised 1002 00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:42,680 Speaker 1: like a beautiful way to show them off. A special 1003 00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:46,600 Speaker 1: display with three steel cannons and six polished steel breastplates. 1004 00:51:46,880 --> 00:51:49,160 Speaker 1: It was the talk of the exhibition, but after six 1005 00:51:49,200 --> 00:51:52,600 Speaker 1: months on display only one order came through, twenty six 1006 00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:56,759 Speaker 1: steel cannons for said Pasha, the Wally of Egypt. And 1007 00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:58,120 Speaker 1: this is what I was talking about at the beginning. 1008 00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:00,840 Speaker 1: This is the start of the Germans selling arms to Egypt, 1009 00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:04,279 Speaker 1: and it continues in twenty Egypt imports more German guns 1010 00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:06,520 Speaker 1: than any other country. So the starts under Alfred Rupp 1011 00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:09,680 Speaker 1: and it has not ended since. But selling a few, yeah, 1012 00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:13,040 Speaker 1: it's it's weird, how how and it's the same company. 1013 00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:15,680 Speaker 1: It's Krupp in the modern era selling them submarines. It's 1014 00:52:15,719 --> 00:52:22,800 Speaker 1: crupt selling them cannons in the eighteen fifty two. Uh yeah, yeah, interesting. 1015 00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:25,200 Speaker 1: But selling a few guns to Egypt was not enough 1016 00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:27,200 Speaker 1: to make a meaningful amount of money for a company 1017 00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:29,400 Speaker 1: the size of CRP. As the eighteen fifties drew to 1018 00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:32,279 Speaker 1: a close, Alfred was still subsidizing his canon habit by 1019 00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,160 Speaker 1: selling train parts. He nearly sold an order of three 1020 00:52:35,239 --> 00:52:37,839 Speaker 1: hundred twelve pound guns to the Emperor Napoleon the Third, 1021 00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:40,080 Speaker 1: but the deal fell through because a French family, the 1022 00:52:40,120 --> 00:52:43,280 Speaker 1: Schneider's had just started a new gun works at the Crusoe. 1023 00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:46,000 Speaker 1: They lobbied the king to not buy German guns, and 1024 00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:49,440 Speaker 1: the first salvo would would become an incredibly competitive international 1025 00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:53,799 Speaker 1: arms market. So yeah, the three big gun companies in 1026 00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:57,320 Speaker 1: World War One and World War Two are Krupp, Schneider, Crusoe, 1027 00:52:57,400 --> 00:53:01,480 Speaker 1: and UM Armstrong, which becomes Vickers. And like that's all cut. 1028 00:53:01,520 --> 00:53:03,759 Speaker 1: Like Krupp is the first of them, Schneider forms next, 1029 00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:05,480 Speaker 1: and we're about to get to Armstrong. But like, these 1030 00:53:05,520 --> 00:53:08,120 Speaker 1: are the companies whose arms race is why we have 1031 00:53:08,160 --> 00:53:10,759 Speaker 1: World War One, because they're all selling guns to each other. 1032 00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:13,960 Speaker 1: And like, the thing that makes World War One happen 1033 00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:17,120 Speaker 1: more than almost anything else is there's a provocation. You know, 1034 00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:19,640 Speaker 1: the archstud gets shot, but that stuff like that had 1035 00:53:19,640 --> 00:53:21,960 Speaker 1: happened before. The reason that they actually wound up fighting 1036 00:53:22,000 --> 00:53:25,560 Speaker 1: is that there was this interlocking series of rearming schedules 1037 00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:28,160 Speaker 1: and everyone was convinced that they were in the best 1038 00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:30,200 Speaker 1: position as opposed to their rivals, and then if they 1039 00:53:30,239 --> 00:53:32,200 Speaker 1: waited to have a war in another couple of years, 1040 00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:34,680 Speaker 1: their rivals would have better guns. So that's like why 1041 00:53:34,719 --> 00:53:37,040 Speaker 1: the fucking war happens. And this is this is the 1042 00:53:37,080 --> 00:53:41,480 Speaker 1: start of that process. So Krup's first major international success 1043 00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:45,080 Speaker 1: came courtesy of Russia. After years of admiring Krup's cannon 1044 00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:47,640 Speaker 1: in his museum, the z Are finally started buying crupt 1045 00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:50,400 Speaker 1: guns in bulk. They started buying thousands of these weapons. 1046 00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:53,319 Speaker 1: And this sets international arms dealers of fire trying to 1047 00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:56,480 Speaker 1: crop copy Krup steel cannons. And it sets there the 1048 00:53:56,520 --> 00:53:59,000 Speaker 1: governments of these countries equally on edge out of fear 1049 00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:02,080 Speaker 1: of falling behind. Alfred designs a breach loading cannon in 1050 00:54:02,080 --> 00:54:03,879 Speaker 1: the late eighteen fifties, and when he tries to sell 1051 00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:06,040 Speaker 1: it to the English because his own company didn't want it, 1052 00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:09,000 Speaker 1: another firm called Armstrong edges him out and promises the 1053 00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:11,440 Speaker 1: Crown they can make the same gun, but better in English. 1054 00:54:11,719 --> 00:54:14,160 Speaker 1: And this was this is really the start the first 1055 00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:17,880 Speaker 1: arms race. Is this like like Alfred starts selling guns 1056 00:54:17,880 --> 00:54:20,200 Speaker 1: to the Russians. That freaks out the English and the French. 1057 00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:22,160 Speaker 1: He's trying to sell guns to those governments, but they 1058 00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:24,200 Speaker 1: build up their own firms and they all start competing 1059 00:54:24,239 --> 00:54:26,600 Speaker 1: as to who can get the best guns fastest. That 1060 00:54:26,760 --> 00:54:30,640 Speaker 1: starts now, um, yeah, from the arms of quote, the 1061 00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:34,239 Speaker 1: arrival of Armstrong completed Europe's deadly triumphranate krupt, Schneider and 1062 00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:36,680 Speaker 1: Armstrong over the next eighty years, were to be celebrated 1063 00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:39,239 Speaker 1: first as shields of national honor and later, after their 1064 00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:42,560 Speaker 1: slaughtering machines were hopelessly out of control, as merchants of death. 1065 00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:47,360 Speaker 1: So that's pretty cool. But yeah, that's good stuff. And 1066 00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:49,759 Speaker 1: it all comes from this guy who just like is 1067 00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:53,200 Speaker 1: obsessed with making cannons and wants people to like his cannons, 1068 00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:56,120 Speaker 1: and it it leads to the killing fields of World 1069 00:54:56,120 --> 00:55:01,919 Speaker 1: War One. It's pretty sweet. It's like a real admirable, 1070 00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:05,680 Speaker 1: Like I could see me in like a classic American movie. 1071 00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:08,920 Speaker 1: Yeah he is. He's this bootstraps figure, you know, his 1072 00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:12,120 Speaker 1: dad leaves him in debt and like nobody takes him seriously. 1073 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:14,560 Speaker 1: Everybody laughs at his guns, and then his guns wind 1074 00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:20,279 Speaker 1: up killing people. Yeah, and it's funny. In World War One, 1075 00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:22,760 Speaker 1: a bunch of the shells that the British were firing 1076 00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:26,720 Speaker 1: at Germans and killing German boys with um had Krupp 1077 00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:30,160 Speaker 1: markings on them because they Krupp had the patent on 1078 00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:32,400 Speaker 1: the type of explosive shell that was most common in 1079 00:55:32,440 --> 00:55:34,719 Speaker 1: World War One. So all of the foreign countries who 1080 00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:39,040 Speaker 1: were using like shells with Crupp patented like explosives in 1081 00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:41,960 Speaker 1: order to kill German kids. Those shells had Krupp written 1082 00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:44,200 Speaker 1: on them because that was part of the legal contract 1083 00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:49,600 Speaker 1: they signed. Damn, isn't that fucking cool? I don't know 1084 00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:52,799 Speaker 1: if that's the word i'd use, but I think it's 1085 00:55:52,800 --> 00:55:56,200 Speaker 1: fucking sweet. I think it's awesome. I think that's that's 1086 00:55:56,280 --> 00:55:59,799 Speaker 1: just great because again, you know, people talk about the 1087 00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:03,120 Speaker 1: deep state, this is an actual example of that kind 1088 00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:05,600 Speaker 1: of thing. You've got, you know, these different governments. You've 1089 00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:08,320 Speaker 1: got the French king in the war that we're about 1090 00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:10,960 Speaker 1: to talk about, You've got the Republic of France and 1091 00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:14,280 Speaker 1: World War One. You've got you know, the Great Britain, 1092 00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:17,840 Speaker 1: and you've got you know, the fucking the Imperial Germany 1093 00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:20,640 Speaker 1: and the Nazi Germany. But behind it all are the 1094 00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:24,120 Speaker 1: same arms companies run by the same families that are 1095 00:56:24,239 --> 00:56:27,000 Speaker 1: to this day, in a lot of cases still selling 1096 00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:32,799 Speaker 1: guns to people. Jesus, it's awesome. It fucking rules. It's 1097 00:56:32,800 --> 00:56:34,880 Speaker 1: so good. Again, not the word I would use for 1098 00:56:35,160 --> 00:56:39,799 Speaker 1: but yeah. By eighteen sixty two, Krupp was at kind 1099 00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:42,480 Speaker 1: of almost the apex of his power, his dominance of 1100 00:56:42,520 --> 00:56:46,880 Speaker 1: London's eighteen sixty two Grand Exhibition was absolute. Past fairs 1101 00:56:46,880 --> 00:56:48,840 Speaker 1: had taught him that the mob doated on weapons, and 1102 00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:51,560 Speaker 1: he played to the gallery. An artist from the Illustrated 1103 00:56:51,560 --> 00:56:54,439 Speaker 1: London News sketched a group of objects exhibited by Mr 1104 00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:57,560 Speaker 1: Krupp of Essen, Prussia, and the sketch bristles with objects 1105 00:56:57,560 --> 00:57:00,000 Speaker 1: of murder. One journalist did find a pair of Royal 1106 00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:02,760 Speaker 1: road wheels, which have been run nearly seventy four thousand 1107 00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:05,200 Speaker 1: miles without having been again put into the lathe. But 1108 00:57:05,239 --> 00:57:07,799 Speaker 1: he was a digger and exception. His colleagues eyes were 1109 00:57:07,840 --> 00:57:10,640 Speaker 1: riveted on Alfred's artillery, and their speeches and their cheers 1110 00:57:10,640 --> 00:57:13,120 Speaker 1: were strident. The Morning Post, the Daily News, the News 1111 00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:16,280 Speaker 1: of the world were enthralled. The Spectator rapturously told of 1112 00:57:16,560 --> 00:57:19,680 Speaker 1: ladies standing in mute delight, and men dreaming of the 1113 00:57:19,720 --> 00:57:23,080 Speaker 1: battle music of the future. Even the Times saluted the 1114 00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:27,160 Speaker 1: almost military discipline which prevails in krupt steelworks at essence, 1115 00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:30,600 Speaker 1: and concluded, we congratulate Krupp on the pre eminent position 1116 00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:33,959 Speaker 1: which he occupies. And just like, oh man, I can't 1117 00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:36,960 Speaker 1: wait for this to kill me. They didn't you know, 1118 00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:40,320 Speaker 1: it's weird that they didn't. Really a lot of them 1119 00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:42,200 Speaker 1: didn't seem to be thinking about the fact that, like 1120 00:57:42,280 --> 00:57:45,480 Speaker 1: their grandchildren would be murdered by the tens of thousands 1121 00:57:45,560 --> 00:57:49,600 Speaker 1: by the descendants of these machines. And it does say 1122 00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:53,240 Speaker 1: a lot about human nature that like corrupt also invents 1123 00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:56,440 Speaker 1: railroad wheels which can go for tens of thousands of 1124 00:57:56,480 --> 00:57:59,640 Speaker 1: miles without having to be repaired, Like a revolutionary development 1125 00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:03,200 Speaker 1: that makes international trade possible, That makes it that criss 1126 00:58:03,240 --> 00:58:07,520 Speaker 1: crosses continents, that like makes so many wonderful things possible. Um, 1127 00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:10,640 Speaker 1: but nobody cares about that because Krupp brought guns and 1128 00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:14,320 Speaker 1: like all these women are just like it doesn't go boom, yeah, 1129 00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:16,919 Speaker 1: men dreaming of the battle music of the future, which 1130 00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:19,640 Speaker 1: is actually the death sounds of their grandchildren. Like there 1131 00:58:19,640 --> 00:58:22,040 Speaker 1: were babies born during this that would diet to the 1132 00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:24,960 Speaker 1: descendants of these guns. It's awesome. It says so many 1133 00:58:25,040 --> 00:58:28,400 Speaker 1: good things about people. Soon Krupp was selling arms all 1134 00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:31,600 Speaker 1: around the world. Prussia started buying his guns. Finally, after 1135 00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:34,360 Speaker 1: he gave some to uh, so he gave it, like 1136 00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:36,880 Speaker 1: he couldn't sell a big cannon he brought to this exhibition, 1137 00:58:37,080 --> 00:58:38,680 Speaker 1: so he gives it to the King of Prussia, and 1138 00:58:38,720 --> 00:58:41,040 Speaker 1: that convinces the King of Prussia to buy his guns again. 1139 00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:44,040 Speaker 1: It's a good tactic. Um Austria puts and orders his 1140 00:58:44,040 --> 00:58:47,280 Speaker 1: guns Russia, but brings buys more steel cannons, which inspires 1141 00:58:47,280 --> 00:58:50,160 Speaker 1: Turkey to start buying steel cannons. It had taken over 1142 00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:52,560 Speaker 1: a decade, but through a mix of savvy advertising and 1143 00:58:52,720 --> 00:58:55,840 Speaker 1: ingenious design, Alfred Krupp had succeeded in creating demand for 1144 00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:59,680 Speaker 1: his inventions. A local Berlin newspaper reported on one particularly 1145 00:58:59,760 --> 00:59:02,840 Speaker 1: large cannon deal with Russia by giving Alfred the nickname 1146 00:59:02,880 --> 00:59:04,680 Speaker 1: by which you would come to be known in history, 1147 00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:08,440 Speaker 1: the canon King. Wow. I mean I call him the 1148 00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:12,439 Speaker 1: horseship King. He loves himself some horseship he does, he does. 1149 00:59:13,560 --> 00:59:16,840 Speaker 1: So that's in the end of part one. How you feeling, Allison, 1150 00:59:17,400 --> 00:59:24,960 Speaker 1: I mean ship, I'm not. I can't get over at 1151 00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:26,440 Speaker 1: you guys. I don't know if I can be on 1152 00:59:26,520 --> 00:59:30,200 Speaker 1: part two. Yeah, it's very strange. There's more good horseship 1153 00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:35,200 Speaker 1: stuff in part two. Yeah, no, no, no, no, lots 1154 00:59:35,240 --> 00:59:39,800 Speaker 1: more horseship to come. So how we how we doing? 1155 00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:44,720 Speaker 1: How we feeling Allison? Fine? Good? Good? Yeah? Are you 1156 00:59:44,760 --> 00:59:49,480 Speaker 1: feeling optimistic about human nature. Uh, you know no, but 1157 00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:52,200 Speaker 1: I think that's the point, right, Yeah, it's so you're 1158 00:59:52,240 --> 00:59:55,080 Speaker 1: supposed to feel bad. I'm gonna go feel bad about 1159 00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:58,640 Speaker 1: the nature of humanity while I cradle uh my nineteen 1160 00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:03,640 Speaker 1: tin mouser um and enjoy you know the same thing 1161 01:00:03,680 --> 01:00:06,320 Speaker 1: that all of those people in eighteen sixty two. Can 1162 01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:09,680 Speaker 1: I have a cannon for for for for for a present, please, 1163 01:00:10,200 --> 01:00:12,360 Speaker 1: I will do my very best to find you a cannon. 1164 01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:17,080 Speaker 1: So not one of those shitty brass ones. I YEA 1165 01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:20,640 Speaker 1: with a good ship guys, the non worship version. Fucking 1166 01:00:20,680 --> 01:00:24,360 Speaker 1: crups stall baby, Alison, Do you have any plugs to 1167 01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:29,600 Speaker 1: plug by the way, I have my the daunible original 1168 01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:34,200 Speaker 1: Like Mother, Like Like Mother. It is nothing like what 1169 01:00:34,240 --> 01:00:38,480 Speaker 1: we've been talking about. It is a mother daughter comedy 1170 01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:43,600 Speaker 1: starring Ye and Susie Sman and we just argue a 1171 01:00:43,640 --> 01:00:47,840 Speaker 1: lot and it's very Jewish and fun. So yeah, if 1172 01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:52,400 Speaker 1: you yeah, check that out. No horship involved, There is 1173 01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:59,800 Speaker 1: no guarantee. Wait now, I'm Mike, wait is there Yeah, 1174 01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:03,200 Speaker 1: no horseship, but tune in for part two of this episode, 1175 01:01:03,680 --> 01:01:06,320 Speaker 1: in which there will be a tremendous amount of horseship. 1176 01:01:07,800 --> 01:01:12,080 Speaker 1: So strap in, buckle up, and prepare for the manure 1177 01:01:12,120 --> 01:01:16,160 Speaker 1: filled conclusion of the life of Alfred Krupp on Thursday. 1178 01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:19,520 Speaker 1: Yeah h