The German Genius

look west and forced her into a closer association with the states separating her from France, to protect her interests. These economic factors had political consequences, aiding the eventual formation of the Reich itself and these events in turn affected Krupp. The ever-closer economic ties among the various German states, reflected in the customs union or Zollverein of 1834, made interstate travel, and interstate business, much easier. 3
    Krupp took advantage of these changed circumstances, traveling to the principal centers of Germany, securing orders for a variety of metal products, from coin dyes to cutlery. But the events of 1848 also played into his hands. He ordered his workers to have nothing to do with the revolutions across the country, and when these revolutions eventually collapsed, Prussia’s position within Germany was strengthened, since for the most part it was Prussian soldiers whom the German princes had called on to put down the disorders. “By and large the story of how Prussia came to swallow Germany between 1848 and 1871 is also the story of how Alfred Krupp came to dominate German industry.” 4
    The firm moved into armaments in 1843, albeit on a modest scale. His brother Hermann had alerted Alfred to the fact that iron musket barrels—then the staple of nineteenth-century armies—were less than satisfactory, and he therefore began to manufacture “the first mild-steel musket-barrel ever produced.” This was the beginning of Germany’s steel age, but even so Krupp had to overcome the prejudices of the generals who had grown accustomed to bronze or iron guns. 5 It was not until 1859 that he at last received a viable order—for 312 cannon—from the Prussian government.
    Although Krupp is known to history for his guns, Peter Batty says that his real genius was probably his understanding of railways. Railways had started in Germany in 1835, in Bavaria, and by 1850 there were already 6,000 miles of track. That figure was to snowball ten times within the next half century, and Krupp was one of the first to see the opportunities for steel. 6 He secured his first railway contract, for 500 steel springs and axles, in 1849. This sparked a series of experiments which eventually matured as the weldless steel railway tire, a brilliant innovation that almost certainly made Krupp more money than all his guns put together. An inherent weakness in the early railway tire was the point at which the outer wheel, which sat on the rail, was welded to the rim, which sank down below the rail on the inside to keep the locomotive and the carriages on the tracks. As trains got faster and heavier, this welding weakness became ever-more important. To overcome this, Krupp simply adapted the technique the firm had been using in their fork and spoon machines—namely rolling seamless steel tires on to the wheel rims while they were still hot. Instead of two pieces welded together, wheels were now one piece of metal with no join. Alfred had the part of the factory where the tires were assembled built so far from everywhere else that it was known to his employees as “Siberia.” The weldless wheel propelled Krupp to the front rank of industrialists.
    C HEAP S TEEL AND THE F IRST A RMS R ACE
     
    In the field of guns, Krupp began to realize that his future lay more with the military—the generals—than it did with the politicians. 7 Peter Batty observes that “few bureaucrats in Berlin could stand Alfred—his high-handedness and overbearing manner had made him intensely disliked among his fellow industrialists too.” Krupp began to court the officers surrounding the crown prince and “Thus began the spinning of that web of close threads between Essen and Berlin that characterised the Krupp saga.” It paid off. In October 1861, Wilhelm, then the prince regent, visited the Krupp works to see for himself “Fritz, the biggest hammer in the world.” A few months later, on becoming king of Prussia, Wilhelm made Alfred a privy councillor, and shortly afterward awarded him the Order of the Red Eagle with Oak Leaves, an honor usually reserved for victorious Prussian generals. All this coincided with the growth of the Krupp gun business; Alfred was now selling cannon “by the score” to Belgium, Holland, Spain, Egypt, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Austria, Russia, even Britain. The first great arms race was beginning and in the process the German press dubbed Krupp “the cannon king,” a title he