Fromms: How Julis Fromm's Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis by Michael Sontheimer, Götz Aly, Shelley Frisch
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(called Schlesinger in the novel) is here the imperious “company president from Frankfurt … who buys up everything” and recklessly modernizes it: “Tear down the portal, remove bearing walls, a couple of crossbeams, concrete floor, done!” His plans are thwarted by “an alliance between Berlin and Vienna,” which makes people like Glesinger “disappear at very short notice” and ensures that “an end is put to the bankers of the other race who are worth millions.” In Gösing (called Hinterburg in the novel) “something was actually being done for the good of the community.” 49
February 1939 was the last time Elisabeth Epenstein visited the man who had helped her acquire the rubber factories and the country estate. He proudly showed her around Carinhall, his hunting lodge in Schorfheide, a vast forest north of Berlin. She then instructed her lawyer to transfer the ownership of Castle Veldenstein to Göring and his younger sister Edda as her gift to them.
Shortly thereafter she traveled to Chicago to visit her stepbrother. Before her departure, her lover, Otto Metz-Randa, persuaded her to draw up her will. The will named him executor of her estate. This document, which contained twenty-seven clauses, stated that Mauterndorf Castle was also to go to Hermann Göring.Clause 14 read: “I bequeath my factory (Fromms Act Rubber Works), that is, the property and business as well as the property and business of the Fromms Act Rubber Works, Inc. in Danzig, to Colonel Otto Metz-Randa, Vienna V, Schönbrunnerstrasse 12.” The country estate in Gösing also went to Metz-Randa.
Elisabeth Epenstein with her lover and adviser Otto Metz-Randa, 1937
He was not the only one slated to profit from the condom business. Elisabeth Epenstein directed that even if “the factories lacked the raw materials to continue operations, Frau Olga Rigele would be paid 1,000 Reichsmarks a month; Frau Göring, Berlin, 500 Reichsmarks a month; and Frau Paula Hueber 500 Reichsmarks a month” from the “rubber works” profits. These three beneficiaries were Göring’s two married sisters and an unspecified “Frau Göring.”
During the war, Hermann Göring spent most of his time at the grandiose hunting lodge of Carinhall. He rarely visited Mauterndorf, but he did have a swimming pool built there. He lavished more attention on Castle Veldenstein, and in 1942 hadan air-raid shelter constructed under the manor, with its own air, water, and electric supply. He also had the driveway paved with asphalt. On Easter 1945—with the Red Army already at the outskirts of Berlin—he paid a visit to Veldenstein in his
Schienenzeppelin
(a Zeppelin-shaped railcar). “Here he dressed down the contractors busy with the renovations,” Eitel Lange, his personal photographer, later reported. “He said to the supervisor: ‘I demand the fastest possible work from you and from every man in the contracting firm—now! If I return to find anything not in order, right down to the last nail, I will get nasty.’” 50
No sooner had Elisabeth Epenstein returned to Mauterndorf from America on September 4, 1939, than she was found dead in her bed. Her niece, who still resides in Mauterndorf, attributes this sudden death at the age of fifty-three to her “chain smoking and constant coffee drinking to keep from getting fat.”
8.
E XILE : H ELPLESS IN L ONDON
JULIUS FROMM WAS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS OLD when, in October 1938, he had to leave the country that had become his homeland. He and his wife traveled to Paris to visit their son Max, and a few weeks later they went on to London, where Herbert and his wife, Ellen (née Friedländer), were already living. Back in Berlin, Ellen’s father had owned Friedländer & Grunwald, a company that made feather dusters; the factory was located in the same industrial complex on Elisabethstrasse where Fromm had for a time manufactured his condoms. Fromm had established excellent business contacts in the British Empire,
February 1939 was the last time Elisabeth Epenstein visited the man who had helped her acquire the rubber factories and the country estate. He proudly showed her around Carinhall, his hunting lodge in Schorfheide, a vast forest north of Berlin. She then instructed her lawyer to transfer the ownership of Castle Veldenstein to Göring and his younger sister Edda as her gift to them.
Shortly thereafter she traveled to Chicago to visit her stepbrother. Before her departure, her lover, Otto Metz-Randa, persuaded her to draw up her will. The will named him executor of her estate. This document, which contained twenty-seven clauses, stated that Mauterndorf Castle was also to go to Hermann Göring.Clause 14 read: “I bequeath my factory (Fromms Act Rubber Works), that is, the property and business as well as the property and business of the Fromms Act Rubber Works, Inc. in Danzig, to Colonel Otto Metz-Randa, Vienna V, Schönbrunnerstrasse 12.” The country estate in Gösing also went to Metz-Randa.
Elisabeth Epenstein with her lover and adviser Otto Metz-Randa, 1937
He was not the only one slated to profit from the condom business. Elisabeth Epenstein directed that even if “the factories lacked the raw materials to continue operations, Frau Olga Rigele would be paid 1,000 Reichsmarks a month; Frau Göring, Berlin, 500 Reichsmarks a month; and Frau Paula Hueber 500 Reichsmarks a month” from the “rubber works” profits. These three beneficiaries were Göring’s two married sisters and an unspecified “Frau Göring.”
During the war, Hermann Göring spent most of his time at the grandiose hunting lodge of Carinhall. He rarely visited Mauterndorf, but he did have a swimming pool built there. He lavished more attention on Castle Veldenstein, and in 1942 hadan air-raid shelter constructed under the manor, with its own air, water, and electric supply. He also had the driveway paved with asphalt. On Easter 1945—with the Red Army already at the outskirts of Berlin—he paid a visit to Veldenstein in his
Schienenzeppelin
(a Zeppelin-shaped railcar). “Here he dressed down the contractors busy with the renovations,” Eitel Lange, his personal photographer, later reported. “He said to the supervisor: ‘I demand the fastest possible work from you and from every man in the contracting firm—now! If I return to find anything not in order, right down to the last nail, I will get nasty.’” 50
No sooner had Elisabeth Epenstein returned to Mauterndorf from America on September 4, 1939, than she was found dead in her bed. Her niece, who still resides in Mauterndorf, attributes this sudden death at the age of fifty-three to her “chain smoking and constant coffee drinking to keep from getting fat.”
8.
E XILE : H ELPLESS IN L ONDON
JULIUS FROMM WAS FIFTY-FIVE YEARS OLD when, in October 1938, he had to leave the country that had become his homeland. He and his wife traveled to Paris to visit their son Max, and a few weeks later they went on to London, where Herbert and his wife, Ellen (née Friedländer), were already living. Back in Berlin, Ellen’s father had owned Friedländer & Grunwald, a company that made feather dusters; the factory was located in the same industrial complex on Elisabethstrasse where Fromm had for a time manufactured his condoms. Fromm had established excellent business contacts in the British Empire,
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