Ludger Westrick

Ludger Westrick   (businessman, politician)
Born	23 October 1894 Münster, Germany
Died	31 July 1990 (Age 95) Bonn, Germany
Nationality	German
Siblings	Gerhard Alois Westrick
Party	Christian Democratic Union
A Wehrwirtschaftsführer and close friend of Hermann Göring during World War 2, he attended the 1964 Bilderberg as German Chancellery Chief of Staff.  German Chancellery Chief of Staff In office 15 October 1963 - 1966 Preceded by Hans Globke 1964 Bilderberg

Ludger Westrick was a German business exeutive and politician (CDU). A Wehrwirtschaftsführer during the World War 2, where he led the German aluminium industry with slave labor, he became Chief of Staff of the Federal Chancellery from 1963 to 1966, since 1964 as Federal Minister for Special Tasks.

His older brother Gerhard Alois Westrick was chairman of the Supervisory Board of the German ITT holding from 1938, and kept up contact with ITT's head office in America during the war. Gerhard maintained intensive contacts with leading US businessmen and politicians, including the Cromwell & Sullivan lawyers John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles.

In 1945, Ludger worked with the US occupiers to remove factories from Thuringia before the area was given to the Soviet Occupation Zone.

He attended the 1964 Bilderberg meeting.

Education

After graduating from the Gymnasium Paulinum in Münster, Westrick took part in the First World War as a soldier. He completed a degree in law and commercial science. He was sales manager at the Vereinigte Stahlwerke from 1921 to 1933.

Early career

After 1933 Westrick became general director of the Vereinigte Aluminiumwerke AG Berlin (VAW), which belonged to the Vereinigte Industriewerke (VIAG), with which position he took over the management of the German rearmament, above all, for the Luftwaffe a very important industry. In the following period Westrick was prominent in the at first secret, and later open, war preparations. Particularly as he was a member of no less than 27 boards of directors or executive bodies, for example, in the Vereinigte Industriewerke AG, Berlin, Reichskreditgesellschaft AG Berlin and Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke AG, Frankfurt-am-Main.

The most brutal treatment was shown by director Westrick to the foreign forced labourers and prisoners of war in the VAW trust which he led. During the war they constituted over 75 per cent of the entire labour force of the VAW works. As can be seen from a letter of the camp doctor of the Lauta works of the VAW of 28 August 1942 children of 13 years of age and foreign women from 60 to 62 years of age were forced to work there. They suffered from chronic diseases and were exposed to the most inhuman living and working conditions. As can be seen from the death certificates in Lauta hundreds of deaths were registered there. As cause of death, along with the cynical formulations of "general debility".

In this directorial position, he was a member of the circle of Wehrwirtschaftsführer industrial leaders. In the autumn of 1941, he was appointed to the ten-member industrial Council for the development of Luftwaffe equipment under Hermann Göring as the successor to Heinrich Koppenberg. At the turn of the year 1944/1945, Westrick signed slogans to his staff: "With confidence and faith in the just German cause, we want to start the year 1945."

He was "a close friend" of Hermann Göring.

Family

His older brother Gerhard Alois Westrick was chairman of the Supervisory Board of the German ITT holding from 1938, and represented many American companies in Germany, including Ford Motors, General Motors, Standard Oi, the Texas Company, Sterling Products, and the Davis Oil Company, and maintained intensive contacts with leading US businessmen and politicians. This included the Cromwell & Sullivan lawyers John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles. During the war, Westrick remained in touch with ITT's head office in America through G. Edouard Hofer, the managing director of ISE in Switzerland. Around the end of 1944, Westrick and two other business leaders suggested to Walter Schellenberg that they could negotiate for him with Dulles in Switzerland.

His brother Julius Westrick was on the staff of Otto Abetz, who became German ambassador to France after the occupation of that country.

Post-war career

In 1945 the state of Thuringia was taken by US troops but designated to the Soviet Occupation Zone. In the short interval, Ludger Westrick, in coordination with the US occupiers, dismantled two factories of the C. Lorenz radio electrical company in Mühlhausen and took them to Nuremberg.

From 1948 to 1951 he was finance director at the German Coal Mining Management.

From 1951 to 1963, Westrick was state Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics headed by Ludwig Erhard. When Erhard became Federal Chancellor on 17 October 1963, Westrick succeeded him as State Secretary and head of the Federal Chancellery. Since he turned 70 in 1964 and was thus no longer able to remain an official state Secretary, he was appointed Federal Minister for Special Tasks on June 16, 1964, because there is no age limit for the office of a federal minister. On September 15, 1966, Westrick resigned, but continued to hold office until December 1, 1966, and then resigned from the federal government.

He went on consultation trips to the United States, where he among other met CIA director Allen Dulles.

In 1964 Westrick became a member of the CDU, he was accepted by the Berlin CDU as an honorary member.

Double pay

"Political scientist Theodor Eschenburg reports about Westrick in his memoirs. Eschenburg recalled that before his political career as a state secretary in the Ministry of Economy, Westrick was the general director of VIAG. With a simple search, he found out that VIAG had given a leave of absence for its General Director on full pay and that Westrick was additionally receiving his state secretary salary from the federal Treasury. However, the German government was still the sole shareholder of VIAG at that time.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1964	20 March 1964	22 March 1964	US Virginia Williamsburg	A year after this meeting, the post of GATT/Director-General was set up, and given Eric Wyndham White, who attended the '64 meeting. Several subsequent holders have been Bilderberg insiders, only 2 are not known to have attended the group.

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