"I personally regard everything connected with money as transitory." "Money is borrowed for someones lifetime and then it goes on to other people." "I inherited mine." "As you know, I've not worked very much for it." "And when I die it'll go to someone else." "It's a transitory process." "I don't understand why people become slaves to money." "After all it's not that important." "Morning everybody." "I'm a bit late." "Sorry." "We're making a documentary which really isn't one." "A feature film which isn't a feature film." "It's about the life of Arndt von Bohlen and Halbach." "And we want to make it clear from the start that our archive footage isn't really archive footage." "Our film "reality" takes place in 1978 where a reporter is following Arndt von Bohlen around." "Everything Arndt von Bohlen says is compiled from his original quotes." "It would be great if you could try to put yourself in his position." "Who's next, André?" "Arnd Klawitter." "You're 40." "You're gay and proud of it." "You even look the part." "You're worth millions and hated by the German tabloids." "People find you impossible." "I've been wondering how and why he became like this." "Why did he live in a palace with a staff of 70 in his heyday?" "Why did he wear that awful fur coat?" "L, Arndt Friedrich Alfried von Bohlen and Halbach, was born on 24." "January 1938 in Berlin." "Until I was 28 I was one of the leading steel barons in the Ruhr region." "I was supposed to take over the company from my father and his predecessors... forefathers..." "Sorry." "Can I do it again?" "I was supposed to inherit my father and his forefather's company... the Krupps, whose name I was never allowed to carry." "I was prepared for this inheritance at various public schools in Switzerland and Bavaria." "But it never particularly interested me." "And work -that was the last thing I needed." "In 1967 I waived my inheritance of approximately 3 billion German marks." "That was very difficult for me." "Do you know what hurt me the most?" "Do you know what hurt me the most?" "Do you know what hurt me most of all?" "Do you know?" "That even the serious press described me as Germany's wealthiest early pensioner." "Even the serious press described me as Germany's wealthiest early pensioner." "I didn't feel old at the time nor as if I'd retired early." "I feel neither old nor in early retirement." "I've experienced a lot." "I've experienced almost everything anyone could ever experience." "In my life I've experienced really all there is for a person to experience." "I regret nothing." "Believe me." "But sometimes I just wish I'd been a little harder." "He was the sparkling sapphire in a grey dynasty." "For me he was an exceptional person." "A bird of paradise - in a positive sense." "He was a lonely person constantly searching for love and acceptance." "A well-educated man, very well-groom ed, who placed huge value on good manners." "He had a soft, endearing manner." "He was an almost feminine being, tender." "He never dreamt of breaking into a trot, not to mention a gallop." "The boat was burning, and Arndt moved with the same stoical calm to rescue most of the jewellery out of the laundry just five minutes before the main tank exploded." "There's no one like him anymore." "People with personalities like his." "His fussiness, he was always so camp." "He wasn't effeminate, but so..." "Yes, but that's how it was then." "No, well, no, no, no." "It's like this..." "this handbag, this look, and what I've just seen, it's like an old aunt all buttoned-up with a long necklace." "L, Arndt Friedrich Alfried von Bohlen and Halbach, was born on 24." "January 1938 in Berlin." "I was one of the leading steel barons in the Ruhr region until 28." "I was supposed to inherit my father's business-the Krupp company, whose name I was never allowed to carry." "I was prepared for this inheritance at various public schools in Switzerland and Bavaria." "But it never particularly interested me." "And work - that's really the last thing I need." "Watch out for the flower border please." "I can show you the garden in it's full splendour." "With that terrible shower earlier it wouldn't have been possible." "And now it almost feels like one could take one's jacket off again." "So..." "Herr von Bohlen, what does money mean to you?" "Personally, I see money, castles, houses and material goods as transitory things." "I think people are given money in their hands for the time they live." "In my case I've inherited everything and have never had to work very much for it, as I'm sure you know." "And when I die it'll go into someone else's hand." "It's a constant transitory process if you like." "L never understand people who make themselves slaves to money." "It's not that important after all." "Money never played a major role." "You should never forget he spent it as though there was no tomorrow." "Expenditure for the budget year 1984, '85 is 9,9 million and expenditure for '85, '86 is 9,1 million." "Tax 2,5 million." "Blühnbach 350,000 upkeep a year - without food." "Overheads Palm Beach, he already owned it then, 250." "Three marks a dollar at the time." "Car costs and overheads 100,000." "Anneliese von Bohlen 130,000." "Mrs Henriette von Bohlen, married to him after all, 230,000." "Office expenses, a modest 50,000." "Then much later the ship, which sank" " I almost said "thank God" it did - because the costs were out of the budget again." "We did have a budget." "He wasn't the financial wastrel who had no idea where left or right was." "Perhaps just a little when he'd had too much to drink but I'd be the same." "He was generous to his employees." "Arndt was "over-staffed" - too many people." "There were too many of them and not enough to do." "The Christmas gifts and lists of presents." "When he died, there were still Christmas presents to be paid for at Promenadenplatz in Munich, worth 400,000 marks." "Insurances - the man was never insured." "Insurance is boring." "Insurance isn't boring at all." "Insurance was the number one hit, because we had two claims." "We had a claim at the Hilton Hotel for 2,3 million and we had a claim of 4,5 million for jewellery on the ship." "Look at these instruments." "I designed this myself." "And may I reveal this tiny detail to you." "It's a ring which means a lot to me." "I just happened to notice it when I took it off- the following occurred by accident." "Look." "The Krupp symbol." "A constant reminder on my finger." "If only Mr Beitz knew." "Yes." "Where is he then the naughty boy?" "Come on in." "It's windy outside." " Come in you devil and close the door." " I've caught something." "You wanted a visitor and a little surprise." "Close your eyes." "So." "You haven't really earned this." "Thank you." "He was like Gottfried Keller said, a lad with ready money." "Which isn't intended to sound negative." "I could imagine that normal people wouldn't have understood him." "There'll always be people, who think like that about someone who has a lot of money." "Of course you're only human and if you're that rich you spend it and do certain things which make other people envious." "The question of what he could have done to justify the wealth he had never arose" "He just had money." "What was he supposed to do." "And he spent it." "Quite a few people lived off it too." "I think he set things things in motion." "And that's good for everyone." "Herr von Bohlen, how much property do you own?" "Blühnbach is the second largest private property in Austria." "It previously belonged to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne." "Two years after he died, my grandfather Gustav bought it from the Austrian government." "My grandmother Bertha paid for it." "The estate originally had 18,000 hectares of land, mountains and hunting lodges, a sawmill and water works and all that but unfortunately I had to sell a lot of it - not the castle of course." "It looks big to me." "Yes, there are 72 rooms and in my grandparents day it had up to 70 employees." "So, here I am again." "Here's a portrait of my grandfather Gustav in 1922." "Now we're going into the famous trophy room." "This is my grandfather's favourite room." "He was a passionate hunter." "No-one knows if he was a passionate lover or not." "My grandmother was twenty when they met in Rome, or rather were introduced to each other." "They needed a man in the house and she was the only heiress." "Even the Emperor played a part in introducing this dutiful Prussian civil servant Gustav to her." "They had 7 children and made Villa Hügel a model of order and discipline." "Even I've inherited Krupp punctuality." "And the proverbial "As hard as Krupp steel", have you inherited that too?" "No, others need to decide that, but I think, no, I'm not like that." "I've never done much sport or been very competitive or tough." "Those are things which have left me cold so far." "It's dead unfortunately." "Poor animal." "I can't look at it." "So, now I'll mix you a nice Martini." "He was difficult to get hold of." "He was on the run, like Dr. Richard Kimble." "We've listed 250 different places he lived during the last 6 years of his life." "Not different homes but changes of location." "Do you know this?" "Do you know what it is?" "It's a Bullshot." "Beefstock with ice and vodka." "Delicious." "You should try it." "If you've slept badly or spent a few nights out it's wonderful the next morning." "Is that the case today?" "Well, sort of, yes." "We had a small party last night which went on a bit longer and if you drink two of these." "Try it." "It's really wonderful." "If it's so obvious I need to put on my sunglasses." "So." "We can do it later." "Du you We SW?" "Sylt is the North Sea not Saint-Tropez and not Porto Cervo." "It's the North Sea, you have to appreciate it for what it is- and I like it." "Do you feel free here?" "Sylt has it's own way of relaxing you." "You get chased less here which is quite special." "It's different on the Federal Republic mainland." "My father had a house here too." "A lot of business was done here as well." "Berthold Beitz and Willy Brandt concocted business plans with the east here." "Even my inheritance waiver was probably planned here." "By failing for the tricks Beitz played on him he made possibly the worst mistake of his life." "Beitz totally ripped him off." "I've known Arndt von Bohlen a long time." "I first met him in 1952." "Arndt's inheritance waiver cleared the way for the foundation." "It should never go unrecognized that Arndt von Bohlen has made a huge sacrifice in the interest of the company." "Without waiving his inheritance, the foundation and the company would possibly no longer exist." "For someone who waived an estimated fortune of 3,5 billion marks to only receive an income..." "It was believed he was fully compensated or paid-off, but it wasn't like that." "They gave him something almost symbolic for it." "Arndt got 2 million a year." "A measly sum for his lifestyle." "The most dangerous thing was being given his father's private inheritance." "Not the Krupp company but Castle Blühnbach, the farm in South America, the house in Gutenreuth, Bavaria." "These things, as beautiful and valuable as they were, cost money to run." "Alfried Krupp von Bohlen, as owner of the company, paid the upkeep from the petty cash." "But Herr von Bohlen..." "I've decided to change the company into a corporate enterprise via a foundation for the common good, in the tradition of the Krupp family." "My son Arndt has made this possible by waiving his inheritance." "L would like to thank him publicly for showing such responsibility and understanding." "This is something of a social achievement." "When you do this you save 110,000 people." "You secure their jobs." "He was obviously told that." "Young people are very susceptible to arguments like these." "From who?" "From who?" "Well, from his environment." "From those who initiated the waiver." "Who it was is here in the files." "Firstly Herr Berthold Beitz of course." "Do you regret never becoming a Krupp?" "First of all, that's a good question." "I've never regretted acting in the interests of the family and company history." "I was a little disappointed at the reaction." "And to be honest about the ridicule it has caused." "Was it difficult deciding to waive your inheritance?" "Berthold Beitz talked me into it, as you know." "He was more or less my second father." "I always called him F2, father two, F1 was of course Alfried." "I never wanted the company." "Arndt was almost like my son, he saw me as a fatherly friend." "He said he didn't want the company." "It's not for me." "I want my freedom, I've got other interests." "He bought freedom by waiving his inheritance." "I'd like to say it's right for someone who buys their freedom to be compensated for it." "Berthold Beitz was a very untypical Krupp." "I remember my father telling me he was the boss of a large insurance company in Hamburg, who met my father for dinner and thought our smelting works BV was a football club." "It amused us for years." "When he became chief representative in Essen, the first thing he did was to tell the caretaker to increase the speed of the paternoster lift in the main building." "That was Beitz." "They wouldn't have trusted me with a company like my father's in the mid 60s." "Not even my father." "I wasn't welcome in the company or the family." "A homosexual Krupp wouldn't have worked in the 60's would it?" "In Arndt's case they possibly used that, and said look, you are who you are." "It could be one of the reasons." "I was recently insulted by a neighbour when I was out with the dog." "She told her dog, 'Don't go near that pug, you're not gay.'" "I said, 'What exactly do you mean?" "'" "She replied, 'Herr von Bohlen and Halbach sends his best wishes.'" "My mother, my brother, all of us, already had doubts about whether Arndt's upbringing," "My mother, my brother, all of us, already had doubts about whether Arndt's upbringing, education and his nature, his character, would be able to take on the responsibility of such a gigantic company." "Apart from that there was the enormous tax problem." "The company changeover from Alfried to Arndt would have been so expensive that the company couldn't have coped with the tax they'd have to pay." "The richest early pensioner in Germany, the Krupp heir, yes, Krupp heir is true." "You should say "The person who waived his Krupp inheritance"." "But where's the wealth?" "Here, this is the inheritance waiver." "This is the actual inheritance waiver." "Not the photo of Herr Beitz peering over Arndt's shoulder to check if he's really signed it." "Beitz always played the sound and solid banker, as bankers still do today." "Always appearing as high and mighty gentlemen, likeable and conservative." "But they were robber-knights then as they still are today - with Beitz at the top." "Herr Beitz once jokingly said that Arndt von Bohlen had no idea what a billion was." "If that was true, it'd be easy to manipulate someone to waive this unknown amount of billions." "Sometimes Beitz came looking for him." "Whenever he knew Arndt was in Munich and probably with us." "Arndt always sort of knew and came in the kitchen and said," "'I have to quickly hide until Beitz has gone.'" "'Can you make me a sandwich, I'm starving.'" "Completely normal." "We often fell over laughing because Herr Beitz didn't find us." "He could get out here and then through the backdoor." "He didn't need to go through the dining room." "It was always possible for him to go through the kitchen and leave the building through the back exit." "He got out of the way when Beitz was after him when he realised Beitz had taken him for a ride." "Hetti was absolutely right when she once said in a row about the whole issue," "'Arndt get it into your head at last!" "Beitz is Herr Krupp." "He's got the upper hand.'" "And I can rem ember Arndt half whispering in his office when Hetti wasn't there," "'I can't be treated this way by an ex-employee of my father.'" "Arndt was trapped between these two poles." "And ever since the ink had dried on his waiver he'd become dependent." "And it took him a long time to realise it." "Shortly before the inheritance waiver there was a rendezvous between the heir to the throne of Thurn and Taxis and the still relatively young Herr von Bohlen." "The prince told him the following, 'You can't and shouldn't sign any waiver." "'Who talked you into it?" "Who's this fortune destroyer?" "'" "'You can't relinquish something you've never earned.'" "Not because his royal highness was looking after Arndt but because the thought of it disturbed him," "'Eat it away, drink it away, whore it away but don't just give it away!" "'" "But of course a born prince thinks differently to a Krupp heir even in the fourth or fifth generation." "Hetti and I mixed in the same circles." "She was friends with Johannes von Thurn and Taxis, who I didn't particularly like and I think it was mutual." "On a plane for example he would stick drinking straws into each other so that he could blow into the ears of passengers six rows away." "Or he'd spray hair remover onto the furs of women he didn't know in the opera." "That's totally outrageous as far as I'm concerned." "You don't do things like that." "No." "Prince von Thurn and Taxis was on the same aristocratic level as Arndt von Bohlen." "They were friendly foes." "They liked each other and they didn't like each other." "Were they a couple then?" "Oh, no, no." "Heck no." "So he wasn't gay, Thurn and Taxis?" "He swung both ways." "Johannes von Thurn and Taxis was a very elegant, wise and well-educated two way swinger." "He was a cynic when something or other didn't suit him." "One day Arndt drove his Rolls Royce Phantom 5 to visit someone in Munich." "Johannes said, 'Come to the window everyone." "You'll soon see a big car drive up, the chauffeur will get out and let down the small steps, the door will open and a tiny little man dressed in a fur coat will come out.'" "And the one who really enjoyed that was his highness." "But he didn't like everything and above all he didn't appreciate how Arndt avoided the demands of life." "The Prince avoided them as well but differently." "We're here." "We aren't allowed to film." "We can't go in." "The Krupp Foundation has forbidden it." "That's how it is." "Come with me." "Let's take a look at least." "I've already told you that they're very hoity-toity with the..." "They probably don't want you here." "They don't want me...that's exactly it." "They don't want me here." "That's why they don't want us to film here." "But you can still see a little of it." "Growing up here was spared me thank goodness." "In contrast to my father who lived at the Villa Hügel with historic interruptions." "It was built by my great great grandfather, Alfred in 1873." "At the time I think it was the most modern villa in Europe." "It had the first air-conditioning which didn't really function very well." "It was always much too cold in the house, that's why people were ill all the time." "He had loads of fears, among other things building with wood wasn't allowed because he was scared of burning to death." "He was a man with a mania for modernity, who even introduced speed limits for horse riding." "It was a time of modernization, the place in the sun." "Wilhelm ll, I'd say was doom in person." "Wilhelm ll had a suite here in the villa." "One could think he was part of the family, which he sort of was." "Yes, our close relation." "My father was forced to grow up here in a "golden cage", which I'd say is really the best word for it." "With strict rules?" "Of course with strict regulations." "I can remember as a child walking through the house and not being able to just go into my grandfather's office." "I saw an application form for when the children wanted to speak with their father." "No-one was happy in that house." "You had to register and everything functioned through a servant, who requested permission for the grandson to enter." "Unimaginable today." "When we honour work, we are acting in the interests of the man standing at the forefront of the new Germany and who is showing us a glowing example of patriotic devotion." "So I ask all my factory comrades to join in with me in the call." "Our beloved leader and Reichs Chancellor Adolf Hitler:" "Sieg Heil!" "My grandfather Gustav was a loyal monarchist." "But he also arranged himself with various chancellors as he did with Adolf Hitler who visited Villa Hügel in 1933 and then in 1943 decreed that the Krupp concern remain a family business." "'It's my express wish that the company remains in family hands after everything they've done for me.'" "The German armament factories work day and night." "Gigantic furnaces harden iron to steel." "Steel for our guns, bombs and grenades, for MGs and cannons, for armoured cars and planes and the proud ships of our navy." "German youth of the future must be lithe and lissom, nimble as a greyhound, tough as leather and as hard as Krupp steel." "On 1st April 1945 my father was arrested by the allies, as you probably know." "He'd taken over the company from his father in '43, and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment during the Nuremberg Trials." "In the sentencing the accused was charged with the systematic plundering of foreign property and the degrading treatment of civilian workers and prisoners of war." "Alfried Krupp's entire fortune, including the Krupp works, were confiscated." "Do you think he deserved to be imprisoned in Landsberg?" "My father didn't think so, because he was representing his father." "From the allies and Americans point of view he did." "But they needed him again prematurely, otherwise they wouldn't have released him after 6 years." "In Landsberg on the Lech the prison gates opened for 33 form er inmates, who the American high commissioner had reprieved to restore Germany." "Under those released:" "Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach and 6 other members of the Krupp board of directors, who'd been given long sentences in Nuremberg." "I was at boarding school at the time which was not very nice to be called the war criminals son as you can well imagine." "Over here is the so-called post house where my grandfather Gustav was arrested by the Americans after the war." "They accused him of war crimes but then realised he was so rusty and old and no longer fit to stand trial." "But he was there for several years." "His mother had to work on a farm for a month." "His mother always reminded him later that she had kept him fed by working with her hands." "And the farmers must have been really objectionable." "Arndt commented:" "They were the most expensive four weeks of farm labour ever done." "Sometimes he had an awesome sense of hum our." "Welcome." "I'm so pleased you've come." "This is a small reminder of my father." "He had a wonderful bungalow built just after his release from prison, I told you." "It was stunning." "I first went there when I was 16 I think." "There were about 11 telephones in the house and a stereo system from Siemens, massive, the latest of the latest of course." "There was a bar equipped with all the frills, a fridge covered with pigskin." "Just a moment." "Hey Presto!" "You'll have to hurry up if you want to have a drink with me." "The camera lad as well, see that he doesn't trip up here." "Come on." "So, let's make ourselves a little more homely." "Do you like jazz?" "Yes." "Good, perfect." "My father was a passionate jazz lover." "Whoops." "He had thousands of records, I own some of them now." "I've always described my father as an outstanding man." "Look here." "It's a lovely picture which reflects the relationship really well." "I'm dressed very conservatively." "How old am I there?" "18, 19, 20?" "Alot younger than you, and then..." "Bucket-wheel excavator you were still going to be a Krupp then, right?" "That was the plan." "You got it." "And..." "I've no idea when it was exactly, I've really no idea anymore." "Did you like him at all?" "Yes, more than he liked me." "He was never really interested in me, something he expressed with every gesture." "He had an exceptionally strong and charismatic personality." "...make us something to drink, great." "He loved being alone and didn't like any hurly-burly going on or many people around him." "What still bothers me today is in all those years of my childhood and youth" "I never experienced any gesture of tenderness or intimacy from him." "Never." "I can't remember him hugging me or anything." "This is my son Arndt, who's 23 and not yet in the company." "He's studying business management in Cologne." " He'll take over the company then?" " I hope he will sometime." "Well, Herr von Bohlen what do you wish for the future?" "I hope we can continue to work in peace and strive for the aims of my forefathers who've always pursued the well-being of humanity." "This streets called "Schön Gelegen" and really is "beautifully situated" isn't it?" "We're on the Margarethenhöhe, named after my great grandmother." "Over there were the worker's flats." "Super apartments for ordinary workers." "You saw yourself as a factory family and a company town." "You were proud to be a Krupp." "You were not simply a worker, you were fused with the name Krupp." "You were employed here and lived here from cradle to the grave." "Even Bismarck was here to look at the Krupp social structure and then develop it into the social welfare law we know nowadays." "Let's move on a bit." "As a family we were really at the forefront." "My father managed to transform the Krupp company from a wartime economy into a peacetime economy." "We began constructing dams, cranes, people forget the spectacular things the company achieved." "For example the excavation by one of our giant cranes of a Pharaoh obelisk that had been submerged in Nile delta mud for 4,000 years." "From the beginning of his school days and so on he placed special importance on the fact that he was a Krupp son." "He really enjoyed that." "He wanted to impress a schoolfriend from Zuoz who always annoyed him with his snobbishness." "Arndt took him to Rheinhausen." "Rheinhausen was still working at the time." "I can just imagine what it must've looked like then, impressively steaming and hissing like a description of the devil's hell of Krupp." "But what upset Arndt, and I can't remember the name of the upstart now, was he just said, 'So what?" "' ls Martini your favourite drink?" "One of my favourite drinks, yes." "I've got a conservative taste." "What about your mother?" "My mother was always on my side." "My mother had to separate from my father in 1939." "My grandmother travelled to Munich and telegraphed my mother that she should go there too." "They met I think in the Hotel Continental and they made it perfectly clear to her that she had to sign the divorce papers, otherwise my father would've been disinherited." "She was given a settlement of 1 million Reichsmark in war bonds." "You can imagine what they were worth after the war." "Did you actually get to meet Anneliese?" "Yes, of course I met her." "Often." "Yes." "And did you meet his wife Henriette?" "No, I never met her." "His mother took care of that." "She was so obnoxious, Anneliese." "Hardly any of the staff suffered her for long." "Maybe a couple of weeks, and then they were thrown out." "A grand dame, a lot of people showed her respect because she was so volatile." "When she came to visit, all hell broke loose." "Between you and me - you had to move out." "Alarm everyone, she's coming - you once said." "Above all, Hetti had to get out beforehand, because both of them under one roof..." "It was like that sometimes, but it never went well." "His mother had the staff pack Hetti's things and put them in front of the door." "Then Hetti left and we had time for ourselves." "That didn't only happen once." "When these two ladies met it was every man for himself." "I usually left extremely quickly." "Although Henriette is your wife, and you're married." "I would've loved to have been at the wedding." "A comedy show in white." "Seriously, now that's impertinent." "After all she's Princess Henriette von Auersberg, 750 years of high Austrian nobility my young friend - you little blue-blooded lad." "She was a lively aristocratic lady who perfectly suited the moneyed nobility of Arndt." "When the couple appeared we had to take a deep breath at first in order to grasp the spectacle." "A real chum, Henriette von Auersperg, has persuaded the last Krupp that a life without women is boring." "After a two year engagement, one of the richest pensioners in Germany - with an annual 2 million mark apanage - is getting spliced to the 34 year old Austrian princess." "The couple said "I will" in Blühnbach chapel." "The first Catholic service for a Krupp." "Enough reason for some of the Krupps to get irritated by the playfully lovey bridegroom." "Europe's high-society swarmed to a party that Berthold Beitz," "Krupp manager and fatherly friend, commented with relief," "'I must say I had concerns about Arndt, but I'm getting less worried, they'll never go away though.'" "Mommy and I came up from down there." "She was dressed very regally, in something between a helmet and a flower vase on her head." "Me very serious." "She told me she was about to start training as a stewardess or something boring like that." "I asked why she wanted to do that, 'Why don't you just marry me?" "'" "I'm too scared of hunting and now we've got a smart, plucky, Austrian huntress in the house." "He really liked Hetti." "He loved her in his own way, but of course, she wasn't a man." "No-one was shocked." "He was plainly the personification of a playboy, but not like other playboys a la Gunter Sachs who were in it for the ladies, he was after lithe young men." "They married 1969 in Blühnbach, Arndt and Hetti." "And I was invited to fly to Marrakesh with them in their private jet and stay for almost 40 days where I painted a huge 8 sq.metres large painting." "And then his famous friends arrived." "There was Yves Saint Laurent, Mick Jagger," "Marianne Faithful, Jean Paul Getty with his beautiful young wife Talitha Getty." "They were all standing around my painting watching me or getting their noses painted gold or just having their bodies painted." "It was the hippie era, flower power and hash." "All of these things..." "It couldn't have been more beautiful." "It was a dream - like 1001 Nights." "It's simply glorious here." "At the end of the 60s it was a young St. Tropez in the middle of the desert with no tourists." "There was Adolfo De Velasco, who had a small boutique in the hotel "La Mamounia", which everyone knows." "He sold kaftans and antiques and all sorts of brioa-brac." "When the newcomers arrived, he always handed the tasty titbits, as he called them, over to us." "Special people, beautiful people, intelligent people, glamorous people." "And in one swoop they were at our place and we had wonderful parties together." "It was like a community of destiny with a flow of people coming and going." "We were tog ether." "I always called it spiritual glam our." "What was the drug situation like?" "You mentioned Paul Getty, whose wife Talitha died near here from an overdose of heroin at the beginning of the 70s, right?" "Not only her." "She was a beautiful woman." "It's always very hard for me when someone so beautiful passes away." "We all experimented with drugs here of course, but Hetti didn't like it and was strictly anti." "Mostly it was harmless hash smoking." "Here in this house half the Rif mountains were smoked." "That's how it was then." "Hetti's wedding was a wonderful performance." "Their marriage was a rare event, which she didn't expect." "She thought she'd got him under control, but was very wrong." "She lives her life, I live mine and together we have an overlapping togetherness, which is really beautiful." "Stern Magazine has written about you." ""Of the Life of a Good-for-Nothing", is the headline." "Do you want to hear it?" "You'll read it anyway, what am I supposed to do now?" ""The last Krupp,Arndt von Bohlen and Halbach, is the first Krupp not to earn any money." "He just spends it with open hands. 2 million marks a year and sometimes even more." "How does he do it?"" "It's not so difficult!" "Well, please..." "It says here that you're not as hard as steel but soft as cotton wool." ""He likes to sit in front of an over-sized dressing table, which would make any Hollywood diva envious." "He brushes the long eyelashes above his green eyes with Estee Lauder." "Estée Lauder" "Lauder." "That's right, honey." "How do they know that?" "Who leaked that or did you tell them?" "No, it was Mosi, the traitor." "I was there recently." "I'm just reading that." ""His chauffeur drives him in his dark red Rolls Royce Phantom..." "Wine-red." "...to the Munich celebrity tailor Rudolph Moshammer in Maximilianstrafie." "He sits on a stool and gossips with the boss about the customers and his latest fashion tips."" "He also discovered the fashion designer to-be, Moshammer, when he was errand-boy for the gentleman's tailor Max Dietel, who obligingly financed his Boutique Carnaval de Venise with a smooth transaction via the back door." "Moshammer didn't have his signature hairstyle at the time but he certainly was Arndt's kind of guy." "Moshammer could then shine." "One day he strolled up and down Maximilianstrafie with a cheetah on a lead paid for and encouraged by Arndt." "And here's another quote from you to finish:" ""I need a thousand marks a day in small change."" "Well me too!" "That's just how it is." "So, I'm going to take a bath." "What they've written about the long silky eyelashes, I like that." "I always have to teach Hetti's friends how to make them selves up as well as tips." "In one of the magazines they wrote that my favourite place was under the hairdryer." "That's of course rubbish." "L like wearing eyeliner as well as mascara on my lashes." "So, I think I'm ready." "My family is protestant." "Cheerlessly protestant." "No-one ever put make-up on." "Neither my great grandmother or my great grandfather wore any jewellery." "Is that too much?" "No, it looks really good." "It was considered vain and frowned upon." "Well, that's how it is, you may have noticed that" "I like preparing myself, it's just part of me." "I make myself up and perhaps it's a sort of transformation as well, sometimes I think I'm not that different from an actor." "It's often said I could do it professionally, but I've always said no." "Even though I can see a certain fascination in it." "I don't think it's anything for me." "I was given a role which I was supposed to play in my family" "but they never trusted me with it, they took it away from me." "I have to deal with that." "Looking back I never wanted it anyway." "The role I've got now, my second role, I've chosen myself." "And the second role has to do with make-up." "With transformation and jewellery." "I feel naked without makeup and jewellery." "In a certain sense unloved." "I'm so relieved I didn't grow up in that dark villa like my father." "Because the search for beauty, charm and glam our, fired by costume, make-up and jewellery," "has no value if it's not lit." "You need to get out." "I need to get out into the world, into the light." "I'm similar to an actor, who goes out into the spotlights." "I have to go through the curtain and then everything begins to radiate and becomes beautiful and glamorous" "around me." "Beauty is often perceived as profane, as superficial." "It's not true, it's not like that." "So now here:" "Attention!" "Factory premises, increased risk!" "There we are, you can see our winding tower." "Rossenray coal mine, very modern for its time and because of the profits achieved here I can draw my commission based pension." "His fixed income was a so-called NOR-cash register pension, a fixed sum of a million from which 150,000 marks for inheritance tax were deducted." "And another, the commission based pension, which lay in God's hands." "Would the Essen CoalAG, or later the Ruhr Coal AG, produce enough to be able to deduct Arndt's commission after they'd mined and sold something." "They could've just tipped the coal in front of his front door." "It was always paid a year later which meant he had to finance himself in advance, and his whole career started on credit." "In 1968 he had to request an advance payment of 500,000 marks," "I say request because then his inheritance had already been waived." "The tax trial was also the reason for the heavy inheritance debts." "It made me prickly green with anger -to use a Hetti Bohlen term - prickly green, to read in the tabloids and all the other crappy newspapers," ""he died heavily in debt, I left nothing but debts behind."" "Germ any hadn't started two world wars and then lost them for nothing as though there were no consequences to follow." "One of them was the destruction or rather disentanglement of Krupp." "You can have money, you can own property, but you can't participate in the economy." "Short and sweet:" "We don't care if you make tax on your sales, we're only interested in you disappearing as a major economic factor." "It was a law from the allies." "This isn't a case of someone not paying their taxes, or believing they don't need to pay their taxes, which seems to be the fashion today, but a positive law existed which stated" ""The income from coal-mines such and such are not liable for income tax"" "and when the German Federal Republic was founded, they had to adopt this and many other laws as standard." "All Germans like to forget that we were under someone's thumb!" "Alfried Krupp and his advisers said:" "Alright, this law won't last for ever, the allies will leave sometime, so what do I do?" "He went in and sacrificed half his rights in order to save the other half in the long run." "It was negotiated between the German financial administration on one hand and representatives of the Krupp concern on the other." "Both parties believed to have reached an agreement but in fact they hadn't." "Because it was:" ""Everything which Alfried Krupp and his heirs and successors receive"." "Arndt thought he'd get the tax he'd paid refunded and he'd get 18 million in tax back, after winning in the first instance." "That hope wasn't surprising after receiving positive letters from his tax lawyers." "His entire testament was built around this fact and not on the fact that 32 million were still to pay." ""My lawyers have informed me," writes Herr von Bohlen here to Herr Beitz," ""that the settlement talks between the head of the tax department at Krupp and the finance administration have failed." "You have the necessary connections and contacts and are therefore the only one who can submit the matter directly to the chief finance administrator in North Rhine-Westphalia." "In the case of a negative result of the finance court trial," "I'll not be in any position to pay the accrued tax debts." "In the worst case this would mean my complete ruin, which my father would certainly not have wanted and I don't think you would either, as my only way out would be to end my life."" "$0!" "Was there an answer to it?" "No, not as far as I know." "After his death there were massive disputes about his tax problems." "Roman Herzog brought it to an amicable settlement." "Roman Herzog: "In the above mentioned case" he wrote to the Minister, hopefully I'm allowed to read this without being sent to prison," ""allow me, to suggest a settlement which would almost halve the taxation in dispute."" "Just like a board game - go back to start!" ""The decision of the Supreme Tax Court has led to total taxation."" "To reach the point where Herr von Bohlen can just shoot himself because he's received no help whatsoever." ""The ruling has led to total taxation, which is on first examination under constitutional law not entirely unobjectionable."" "Under constitutional law!" "It stinks that it's not unobjectionable under constitutional law." "Hmm, super." "Herr Baron, what does a normal day in your life look like?" "Well I usually sleep till midday." "Then I get up and get dressed." "You know I love making myself up." "Sometimes I manage to drink 8 Martinis by midday." "These are the things you probably want to hear." "Well, then it's time for lunch, then relaxing where I tend to normally watch a bit of TV." "I love Star Trek." "I think they're great actors." "Then I take a rest or now and again give presents or award gold or diamond medals to my friends or hold a party here or there." "Basically, by and large." "I'm simply not made for sitting behind a desk everyday and having to concern myself with something or other." "I can't do that." "Earlier on it was different." "We used to do more." "We could relax more then and if we wanted we could just fly out of the window as high as kites." "It's different now but not too bad." "Well, after all the parties I've held in Saint-Tropez and Marrakesh," "I don't feel like doing them anymore." "Now I prefer to be in my alms house here on Sylt." "Hetti always says, 'Perhaps you don't want people to come round anymore because you're no longer feeling very glittery.'" "Perhaps she's right." "Maybe I have lost my glitter." "Arndt chose this painting for his boat and bought it for 10,000 dollars in 1982 at Menton harbour." "The boat was there and I was supposed to deliver the painting a month later." "Exactly on one particular day, because he wanted to leave from there to Porto Cervo." "I went proudly with my wife and the painting to Menton and was very disappointed that Arndt was not on board." "So I left the boat thinking, 'Going back to Munich now would be stupid with pockets full of money, so I thought, 'Let's make a slight detour somewhere in the direction of Venice.'" "Arndt von Bohlen was a very fussy person and since people do steal, he distributed his jewellery in all the cabins." "Something here, something there, under the underwear and so on." "But this wasn't the case with his mother." "She insisted that he slept on her jewelry." "And that was her mistake." "We were walking across St Mark's Square a couple of days later." "Where we saw a large kiosk selling German newspapers with the big headline:" ""KRUPP YACHT EXPLODES"" "I couldn't believe it." "We'd just been there." "Anyway, at four in the morning fire broke out on board." "It was a wooden boat built by Burmester." "It completely burned until the tank exploded." "Herr Bohlen was very brave to go back inside although the whole boat was ablaze." "I'd never seen anything burning so ferociously before." "Arndt went back inside to fetch this that and the other." "Otherwise the loss would've been much greater" "And the only thing I had with me in my night shirt was my briefcase." "Herr von Bohlen always joked about it," "'When he dies he'll be leaving with his briefcase.'" "Herr Baron, when I look at the young gentlemen here, have you got any friends?" "The question's already answered, so." "Look around, they're mine, he's my oldest," "Peter come over here to us." "Of course I've got friends." "Why certainly, Peter." "This is Peter." "Yes, there was a prince, who was always at hand." "Ruppi Hohenlohe." "His travel secretary Prince Rupprecht Hohenlohe-Langenburg followed him around faithfully." "You shouldn't forget that Herr von Bohlen always had an entourage of six or seven house staff behind him." "He wasn't like a normal member of staff." "He was a friend and employee." "He did everything for him." "A sophisticate who needed someone a little "coarse"." "And that was Ruppi." "Ruppi was charming and could pick people up when asked," "'Can you arrange for me to get to know him or her?" "'" "He very elegantly took care of it." "He had a long-term Asian partner." "He had Herr José Horstmann Omila as travel secretary." "Whether he was the friend of Herrn von Bohlen or not." "They sometimes had enormous rows." "José was a slob and Herr von Bohlen had all the Krupp-characteristics, very fussy, very exact." "As far as I could see, the weather was more frosty than fine between them." "Insofar as this topic has anything to do with me as a business employee." "I've always had a close friendship with the Thai royal family," "Queen Sirikit and King Bhumibol." "I got to know people on my Thailand travels and this charming royal couple," "who spent the whole day thinking about the well-being of their people and I supported Queen Sirikrit in her engagement." "If you view his extravagant lifestyle as negative, then look at the other side of him." "He donated over 300,00 euros a year to Thailand for good causes like old people's homes, children's hospitals and a leprosy clinic." "He donated such a lot of money for good causes." "He didn't only spend it, he was socially minded too." "There were lots of scroungers who wrote letters to Arndt." "They wanted some of his fortune, were needy and were begging him to help." "Or something he couldn't afford - 400,000 marks for the Catholic church in Manila." "We got up to 2,000 letters a year from people who needed help and he asked us to check individual cases to see if it was possible to help at all." "What could we do." "There were cases where Arndt dealt with it himself." "He gave 125,000 marks to the Melkite Greek Catholic church, who were shot dead in the Lebanon." "No-one was interested in this, it wasn't in any newspaper. it just said he'd eaten another soup in Kai's Bistro again." "This made me really furious because it's so ignorant." "Arndt did more things in secrecy, because it was no longer about presenting himself as someone who helps this or that cause." "He just didn't give it a public face any longer." "Arndt was in the news with something or other every second week or month and they were not very flattering. "Work?" "What?" "That's the last thing I need."" "Arndt found it all most amusing and entertaining." "By the time he noticed that his entertainment value for the press had already started to diminish, it was too late." "Because one thing counts in Germany:" "If you've been put through the media mill, you don't escape it during your lifetime." "It doesn't even help if you die prematurely or under dramatic circumstances." "They're all lying here." "My whole family are lying here." "I'm the only one missing." "Arndt Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach, doesn't exist." "I won't be lying there." "The last Krupp is dancing out of line." "But at least one of them is dancing." "Was he difficult to paint?" "Very." "He was a good-looking man when he was 18 or 19." "He had a strikingly handsome face." "Beautiful nose, good chin, a well-shaped head." "Avery attractive masculine looking man." "Afterwards he looked so cut-up." "That small stubby nose, swollen lips and cheekbones." "All looking unnatural and ghastly." "It was the beauty craze." "He had mouth cancer, as far as I know, which disfigured his whole face." "It almost cost him his life in America when he let a surgeon operate on him, which probably resulted in his mouth cancer getting worse." "But of course Arndt was to blame." "There are always two sides to everything." "He would've gone to someone else if that one hadn't operated." "He suffered enormously because he was such a vain person." "There was no beauty any more." "Just horror." "'When this third operation is behind me',Arndt said, 'I'll lock myself away in Blühnbach like the Man in the Iron Mask." "We'll close the windows and put bars up." "So no-one can see my face again apart from those I've sworn to secrecy with money.'" "I found it unbelievably tragic that he died so young." "He was 48 when he died." "Miserably alone in Munich." "We were all there and it was terrible." "Do you still miss him?" "Yes." "For a clerk for machinery breakage and assembly at a Munich insurance company the aura of the Bohlen and Halbach family and the life of a Krupp heir, the richest early pensioner in Germany with all his coming's and going's" "were really memorable." "So, shall I tell you the story about my great grandfather Friedrich Krupp?" "Yes!" "Do you want to hear it?" "In 1898 a plump man with a finely trimmed moustache was amusing himself in his bedroom on Capri with Italian younglings." "He was my great grandfather Friedrich Krupp." "He'd always been a pampered child." "He was sent from one spa town to another." "Towards the end of his life he left his wife and children and the hill in Essen and moved to Capri." "But then he went too far for the Italian government and they expelled him from the island." "As you can imagine, it created a huge scandal in the German Empire, and the social democratic press made a field day of it, comparable to the tabloids here." "I ask you." "Yes, I'll ask you too." "You who's been acting so friendly the whole day." "Why, why don't you just leave us in peace?" "Why, don't you just let us live our lives in peace?" "Why don't you let us be who we want to be?" "Why don't you just leave us in peace?" "The glitter's gone, yes, it's gone."