After research at his own request Klaus-Michael Kühne covers up his company's Nazi history

What is Klaus-Michael Kühne trying to hide? Switzerland's richest man commissioned researchers to compile a study on his company during the Nazi era. But he is not making it public.

Klaus-Michael Kühne, Switzerland's richest resident with an estimated fortune of 34 billion Swiss francs, has been criticized for the Nazi past of his family business Kühne + Nagel, as the Tages Anzeiger newspaper writes.

The 87-year-old Hamburg native built the company into a global logistics giant with headquarters in Schindellegi SZ. Today, he is the largest shareholder in the Lufthansa Group and the shipping company Hapag-Lloyd. Now historical revelations are casting a shadow over the company's legacy.

Kühne + Nagel played a central role in the so-called M-Aktion during the Second World War. This was the name given to the looting of furniture and property from Jewish families who had been deported or fled by the Nazis. Kühne + Nagel had a monopoly on the removal of these goods from around 70,000 homes in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands between 1942 and 1944.

Past in the Nazi era

The company's involvement goes back deep into the Third Reich era. After the NSDAP came to power in 1933, Klaus-Michael Kühne's father Alfred and his brother Werner joined the party. This was only possible after they had forced the Jewish majority shareholder Adolf Maass out of the company without compensation.

Maass and his wife were later murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Since these connections became public, there have been repeated negative headlines about Kühne + Nagel. However, Klaus-Michael Kühne has always refused to allow the history of his company during the Nazi era to be fully investigated.

In its 125th anniversary book from 2015, the company mentioned Adolf Maass as well as its reliance on Nazi contracts and support in the looting of Jewish property. However, Maass' departure was presented as a friendly act. The commemorative publication was not publicly accessible.

Kühne wants to cover up the study

Klaus-Michael Kühne had the commemorative publication printed in a very small edition, so that only a few copies existed, including one for Olaf Scholz, who was the first mayor of Hamburg at the time. Even the management of Kühne + Nagel did not all receive a copy.

According to an investigation by the US magazine "Vanity Fair", Klaus-Michael Kühne suppressed a study that he himself had commissioned. According to the author - historian and journalist David de Jong - he commissioned the Handelsblatt Research Institute to conduct a study on the entire history of the company to mark its 125th anniversary in early 2014, as the Tages Anzeiger newspaper writes.

However, when the researchers presented their findings to Kühne in early 2015, with all the details about the activities of his father, his uncle and the company during the Second World War, Kühne refused to publish the study. During a conference call, the billionaire said: "My father was not a Nazi."

The researchers refused to delete the "Second World War" chapter. Kühne then replied that the study would not be published and ended the call.

Questions remain unanswered

It remains unclear exactly what the study reveals. It is possible that Kuehne + Nagel, the company that was honored as a "model National Socialist company", was more involved in Nazi crimes than was previously known. Questions remain unanswered. For example, whether the company was also active in Eastern Europe and how Adolf Maass actually left the company.

The central question remains: Why did Klaus-Michael Kühne conceal the research results? De Jong suspects that this was due to his strong emotional ties to his revered father, who died decades ago. A spokesperson for Kühne does not comment on this, but confirms the factual presentation by "Vanity Fair".

Another controversy concerns the company archives, which were allegedly destroyed in air raids in 1944. However, there are indications that business documents still exist and are kept strictly under lock and key. Historians such as David de Jong have also discovered that Kühne + Nagel also transported looted art from Jewish ownership. Alfred and Werner Kühne became rich from the looted art. However, the Kühnes not only became rich through their business with the Nazi state, but their company also became networked throughout Europe for the first time.

According to US intelligence reports, a consignment of artworks by Picasso, Matisse and other important artists was lost in 1944. The profits that the Kühne brothers made during the Nazi era, with looted art and business with the Nazis, laid the foundation for the company's global success.