I should like to thank the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung (Foundation) for financial support for the research involved in producing this book. Professor Berthold Beitz, the chairman and executive member of its board of trustees, kindly received me for some agreeable conversations. I had full access to the important historical archive of the company and the family, beautifully housed in a wing of the Villa Hügel in Essen, the historic home of the Krupp business dynasty. Especially I should like to thank Dr. Ralf Stremmel of the Krupp archive for his invaluable assistance in locating archival and pictorial material. Dr. Detlef Felken and Dr. Stefanie Hölscher of the Beck Verlag Munich and Brigitta van Rheinberg of Princeton University Press have assisted with their customary care and acumen. In addition, this book reflects insights that I have been developing in the course of working on a European Union research project on corporate governance and family firms (MEXC-CT-2005-024362). The resulting book reflects solely the views and interpretations of the author.
Princeton, New Jersey, September 2011