Krupp Foundation Gives Harvard $2 Million Gift

The Alfred Krupp Foundation has given Harvard $2 million to establish a permanent chair and a graduate fellowship program in European studies.

The gift, $1 million of which was presented on Thursday to President Bok by Berthold Beitz, the foundation's chairman, is the largest ever made to an American university by a German foundation.

The rest of the money will be paid in three to five years.

The Krupp Foundation owns all of the shares of the Krupp companies which manufactured "Big Bertha" and other weapons for Nazi Germany in World War II. The company now manufactures steel, trucks and other industrial products.

Guido Goldman '59, executive director of the Center for European Studies and professor of Government, negotiated the gift for Harvard. Goldman is a personal friend of Beitz and several other members of the Foundation.

Goldman said the donation is especially important because it offers the interest from $1 million of the endowment for use in granting graduate fellowships.

Dean Rosovsky and the Faculty will handle appointments for both the fellowships and the chair but the professorship need not be in any particular department.

Beitz told President Bok Thursday that the gift was intended to help strengthen the relations between America and Europe. The Foundation did not stipulate which countries the money is used to study.

Goldman, who helped establish the $30-million German Marshall Fund, announced two years ago by then German Chancellor Willy Brandt, said he hopes that more gifts from German Foundations can be arranged.

Goldman also said he has invited Brandt to return to Harvard in the near future as part of his own efforts to improve U.S.-German relations. He added that the German Marshall Fund and German corporate gifts to Harvard were not "repayment" for the Marshall plan, which was also announced at Harvard in 1947.

"It's merely a sign of goodwill and a gesture of friendship on the Germans' part. They [the Krupp Foundation] gave the money to Harvard because they felt that here is where they could get the highest return; where the most would be made of it," Goldman said.

Although $2-million gifts are not considered large in American foundation terms, Goldman said the sum represents nearly one third of Krupp's disbursements over a two-year period. The Krupp company has sales totaling about $3 billion annually and the foundation itself is second in size only to The Volkswagon Foundation in West Germany.

Alfred von Bohlen und Halback, who established the Foundation in 1967, was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Nuremberg tribunal after World War II, but his sentence was commuted in 1951.

Krupp reportedly established the Foundation to prevent control of the Krupp company from passing into the hands of his only son, who Krupp considered irresponsible.

Krupp died several months after setting up the foundation, and control passed into the hands of Beitz, Krupp's personal friend and diplomatic agent since 1953