Gustav Krupp [Gustav von Bohlen]
born The Hague, Aug 7, 1870, died Austria, Jan 16, 1950
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German arms manufacturer in the two World Wars.
Gustav Krupp took control of the armaments firm of Friedrich Krupp AG in 1909, producing for World War I the celebrated high-angle heavy-caliber howitzer "Big Bertha" (named after his wife) that did so much damage when Germany pushed into Belgium at the beginning of the war, the long-barrelled Paris Canone, which had a range of up to 120 km, and other weapons. After the Versailles Treaty in 1919, Krupp turned to the manufacture of agricultural machinery, but after 1933 under Hitler he began producing tanks, and built factories for the production of arms, many of them using slave labor from the concentration camps. After suffering a stroke, he relinquished control of the firm in 1941, was indicted for trial at Nuremberg in 1945, but charges were dropped on account of his poor health.