Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach was known for many things including being the last of the Krups the 400 year old German dynasty who were the country’s largest weapons manufacturers. When he was born in 1938 in Berlin his family’s business was such a staunch supporter of Hitler’s war that the Fuhrer granted them special disposition from being nationalized like every every other company, and he allowed it to remain in their hands .
However it wasn’t just the end of WW2 and imprisonment of Arndt’s father Alfred for war crimes, or the Allies seizing Krups factories and dismantling them that signaled the beginning of the end of the dynasty’s enormous power. It was also the fact that Arndt the next heir was a very eccentric homosexual who had no interest at all in the family businesses. or work in general ‘that’s the very last thing I need’ he said.
This new hybrid of a documentary that sets out to tell Arndt’s intriguing story is made up of re-enactments of episodes of his life with actors but using Arndt’s actual words. Intermingled with interviews with people who remembered him, like his Estate Administrator and even a Gossip Columnist from that period, André Schäfer the filmmaker pieced together a profile of this extravagent and profligate billionaire who simply had no grasp at all of the reality of money.
It was Arndt said, something that is loaned to us during our lifetime, and then passed on to the next generation when you depart this earth. Fine words when you can afford to live in a 72 room Schloss with 70 servants, but in fact Arndt himself who was a ferocious alcoholic died, aged 48 years old and allegedly deeply in debt.
Schäfer paints a picture of an outrageously flamboyant hedonistic man who occasionally toed the family line, like when he married a well-connected Princess for her title, but he never bothered to even attempt to pretend that she was anything beyond his wife in title only. He much prefered the company of very young boys with whom he would travel to his rather opulent villa in Marrakech and act as decadent as he wanted.
When his father was released from Jail he perceived that the only way for Krups to survive as a going concern was to turn it into a charitable Foundation. This meant that Arndt would need to renounce his inheritance that consisted of several Billions of German Marks and the right to use the Krups name. He agreed too and even through his annual allowance was still a couple of million marks per year, it simply proved insufficient for him to maintain his outrageous lifestyle.
Ardnt never comes across as a very likable man, but nevertheless his rather unique story is fascinating if nothing more for the fact that other wealthy and well-born gay men of that era would have led totally closeted lives that we would never ever hear about, which makes Ardnt’s seem so much more interesting.
