Battles & Wars › Industrial wars › Franco-Prussian War
Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King')
founded 1811; steel cannon from 1851; Germany's leading gunmaker until 1945· Arms maker, factory or program· Arms makers & war industry
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
The Essen steelmaker, run by one family, that was Germany's leading arms maker from the 1860s to 1945.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Friedrich Krupp founded the cast-steel works in 1811; his son Alfred took over at 14 and built it into an industrial empire. Seamless steel railway wheels made his fortune; at London's 1851 Great Exhibition he showed a flawless two-ton steel block and a steel cannon. Prussia bought his breech-loading steel guns, and he sold to dozens of countries. About 20,000 people worked for him by 1887, in company housing with hospitals and pensions, under strict rules against unions.
Why it matters
Krupp became the symbol of German military-industrial power and of an arms trade that sold widely, until its use of forced labor under the Nazis tied the name to war crimes.
How we know
The company's archives in Essen, Prussian and German army records, and the 1947–48 Nuremberg trial of Alfried Krupp and his directors, with its documents and testimony.
Still debated
Historians debate how far the Krupps drove German militarism rather than simply profiting from it.
Connections (7)
▸Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King') built the steel breech-loading guns that dominated Battle of SedanMostly agreed
The connection
Germany's steel, breech-loading Krupp field guns outranged French bronze muzzle-loaders and fired faster, with more reliable shells. At Sedan, with the French trapped in a river bend, German batteries on the surrounding heights pounded them while drawing little effective reply. Witnesses and later historians credit the guns with forcing the surrender of Napoleon III and his army.
When and how
Sedan, northeastern France, September 1, 1870; hundreds of German guns under Moltke's armies against MacMahon's French army.
How sure are we?
Eyewitness accounts from both sides and German artillery records; the guns' central role at Sedan is widely accepted.
Debates and open questions
How much credit belongs to the guns themselves rather than Moltke's encirclement and better-trained gunners is debated.
▸Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King') built 'Big Bertha' and other heavy guns for World War IWell documented
The connection
Krupp built the 42-cm 'Big Bertha' siege howitzers, nicknamed after the owner, Bertha Krupp, which smashed Belgian forts at Liège and Namur in August 1914. It also made the Paris Gun, which shelled Paris from about 120 km away in 1918, plus field guns, shells and armor plate on a vast scale.
When and how
Essen and other Krupp plants, 1914–18, run by Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach; the howitzers first fired at Liège, Belgium, August 1914.
How we know
German army records, Krupp's archives, and the ruins of Belgian forts such as Fort de Loncin, which still holds its dead.
Debates and open questions
How decisive the siege guns were, against forts already outdated, is debated; the Paris Gun was a terror weapon of little military value.
▸Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King') built U-boats at its Kiel yard for U-boats and unrestricted submarine warfareWell documented
The connection
Krupp's Germaniawerft shipyard in Kiel, fully owned by the firm from 1902, built the German navy's first U-boat, U-1, commissioned in 1906. During World War I it was one of the main U-boat builders, turning out dozens of boats for the campaigns against Allied and neutral shipping.
When and how
Kiel, on Germany's Baltic coast, 1906–18; Krupp's Germaniawerft yard, building for the Imperial German Navy.
How we know
Shipyard records and German naval lists record each boat's builder; U-1 itself survives in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Debates and open questions
Historians debate how far Krupp and other firms pushed for naval expansion for profit, rather than following the navy's lead.
▸Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King') secretly evaded the arms limits of the Treaty of VersaillesWell documented
The connection
The 1919 treaty banned Germany from building tanks and submarines and limited its guns. Krupp kept designers working in secret: it held a stake in Sweden's Bofors, helped back a Dutch front company that designed submarines, and developed tanks disguised as 'tractors', tested in the Soviet Union. Gustav Krupp later boasted of keeping Germany's arms capacity alive.
When and how
Essen, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Soviet Union, 1920s–1933; Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, with secret German army and navy support.
How we know
Krupp's own records, Gustav's later published boast, and evidence presented at the Nuremberg trials after World War II.
Debates and open questions
How much the secret work actually sped German rearmament after 1933 is debated, since the 1920s designs needed heavy revision.
▸Schneider of Le Creusot was France's answer to Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King')Mostly agreed
The connection
From the 1880s to 1914 Schneider and Krupp competed for gun orders worldwide. Krupp armed the Ottoman Empire and much of Latin America; Schneider armed Russia, Serbia, Greece and others. In the Balkan Wars of 1912–13, Serbian and Greek Schneider guns faced Ottoman Krupp guns, and both firms used the results in sales pitches.
When and how
Le Creusot and Essen; arms markets in Russia, the Balkans and Latin America, 1880s–1914; Henri and Eugène II Schneider against Friedrich Alfred Krupp.
How sure are we?
Sales contracts, diplomats' reports and histories of the prewar arms trade.
Debates and open questions
They were not only rivals: both joined patent pools for armor plate, so how fierce the competition really was is debated.
▸Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King') armed Prussia with steel cannon for the Franco-Prussian WarWell documented
The connection
Prussia adopted Krupp's steel breech-loading cannon in the 1860s, despite resistance from traditional officers. France, which kept bronze muzzle-loaders, reportedly turned down Krupp's offer to sell it guns in 1868. In the 1870 war German artillery outranged and outshot the French and became the most decisive arm of the German victory.
When and how
France, July 1870 – January 1871; Alfred Krupp's Essen works supplied Prussia and its German allies.
How we know
Prussian and French army records, Krupp's archives, and battlefield accounts from Wörth, Gravelotte and Sedan.
Debates and open questions
Prussian artillery had disappointed in 1866; how much the 1870 success owed to better guns rather than retrained gunners and new tactics is debated.
▸Krupp of Essen (Alfred Krupp, the 'Cannon King') used forced labor to arm Germany in World War IIWell documented
The connection
Under Gustav Krupp and, from 1943, his son Alfried, the firm built tanks, guns, U-boats and shells for Nazi Germany. With German men at the front, it used forced labor on a vast scale: foreign civilians, prisoners of war and concentration-camp inmates, including Jewish women from Auschwitz. Estimates vary, but up to about 100,000 forced workers passed through its plants.
When and how
Essen and Krupp plants across Germany and occupied Europe, 1939–45; Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, sole owner from 1943.
How we know
Company records and survivors' testimony at the 1947–48 Nuremberg Krupp trial, where Alfried was convicted of plunder and slave labor and sentenced to 12 years.
Debates and open questions
Alfried was released in 1951 and his property returned; whether that was justice or Cold War expediency is still argued.