August Thyssen

August Thyssen (German: [ˈaʊɡʊst ˈtʏsn̩]; 17 May 1842 – 4 April 1926) was a German industrialist, founder and controlling shareholder of Thyssen & Co (presently ThyssenKrupp). He was a prominent member of the Thyssen family.

Thyssen was born 17 May 1842 in Eschweiler, Kingdom of Prussia, the third of nine children, to Friedrich Thyssen, a private banker and progenitor of the Thyssen family, and Katharina Thyssen. His parents were first cousins. He studied mechanical engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and economics in Antwerp, Belgium.

After he had completed his studies at the RWTH Aachen University, University of Karlsruhe and a commercial school (Institut Supérieur du Commerce de l’État) at Antwerp he like his brother Joseph Thyssen joined the bank of his father Friedrich Thyssen.

In 1867 Thyssen and several members of his family founded the iron works "Thyssen-Foussol & Co" in Duisburg. When this company was dissolved in 1870, he used the new capital to establish with his father the "Walzwerk Thyssen & Co" that would become the base of an industrial empire in the industrialized Mülheim an der Ruhr, where the high of iron and steel prizes contributed to the making of his fortune. Initially he managed different companies separately in a decentralized fashion, but eventually he united them through a holding company. The largest company of his was the coal mining company "Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser" in Hamborn (now part of Duisburg) that he had acquired in 1891.

He built the first 500-ton blast furnace in Germany, the first 100-ton Martin furnace, and the first large tube (iron pipe size) works. Together with Hugo Stinnes Thyssen was a cofounder of RWE. The Thyssen conglomerate became the nucleus of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, the biggest mining and steel cartel in the world, prior to World War II. Thyssen was refounded in 1953 and joined with KruppHoesch to become ThyssenKrupp AG in 1997.

Thyssen purchased most of Beeckerwerth, including Haus Knipp, in the early 20th century. He was the first in his family to start acquiring a collection of works of art, including six pieces by his friend sculptor Auguste Rodin. Thyssen's firm was a vertically integrated company, controlling all aspects of the steelmaking process. He owned his own fleet of ships, a network of docks and a railroad. Although he was one of the richest men in Germany, to the day he died his ethos was "If I rest, I rust." He lived a simple life; he ran his empire from a dingy office in Mülheim, drove an old car, wore off-the-peg suits, and was known to drink and eat with his workers. He was also an ardent republican.

In the winter of 1916-1917 (during the first World War) August Thyssen stayed at a health resort in Switzerland in seclusion. A rumor floated that he was unhappy with Germany's conduct of the war. Shortly after a pamphlet circulated in neutral countries, and a few weeks later in England and the United States. It was considered the most sensational document of the war.

The pamphlet contained terrible accusations against the Kaiser and the German government, dating back to 1912 when Wilhelm II submitted war plans from the General Staff to a section of German big business asking financial and economic support for the war in exchange for expansion opportunities after the war. The war was not supposed to last more than a year, and subsequently the General Staff kept asking for more money as time dragged on and the war wasn't over, and never offered the expansion that was promised.