Todt, Adolf

Businessman

Born: 29.03.1886 in Oestrich

died: 10.08.1960 in Wiesbaden

Adolf Todt had lived in Wiesbaden since 1892 and attended elementary school until 1895. From 1895 to 1901, he attended grammar school, from which he graduated with a secondary school leaving certificate. Todt then worked as an apprentice and correspondent at the Wiesbaden chemicals and drugs wholesaler Gottfried Glaser. From 1906, Todt was employed as an assistant at the Wiesbaden-based chemical company Kalle and rose to become head of an export group.

The assignment of the license to produce cellophane from Farbwerke Hoechst to the Kalle company in the 1920s had a major influence on his career. The further development, marketing and sale of Cellophane became Todt's main task at Kalle. He was largely responsible for setting up the company's "cellophane" and "artificial casings" departments. Thanks to Todt, the cellophane produced by Kalle became a commercial success at home and abroad.

He was granted power of attorney in 1923. During the Weimar Republic, Todt was a member of the national-liberal German People's Party (DVP) and represented the party before 1926 as a city councillor in Biebrich, which was not yet part of Wiesbaden at the time.
In 1934, he became commercial director as head of the "Cellophane" division at Kalle. Todt joined the National Socialist People's Welfare and the German Labor Front in 1937 and applied for admission to the NSDAP on March 29, 1939, when the ban on admission was relaxed. According to the NSDAP central file, he was admitted to the party on January 1, 1940. In addition to Todt, the directors Anderhub and Schmidt also joined the party in 1941 and 1942 respectively. However, not all of the company's leading managers were party members.

Todt owned several houses in Wiesbaden during the Nazi era. He acquired one of them in 1936 from the Jewish merchant Josef Sender. There is no evidence that this or any of the other properties were "Aryanized". Todt used the house in Wielandstraße as a rental property. Two Jewish tenants, the psychiatrist Erich Friedländer and the businessman Karl Daniel, lived in this house. After the war, Todt testified that he had protected them and was on friendly terms with them until their emigration in 1939. Both families emigrated in 1939 and lived in the house in Wielandstraße until then. A friendly relationship and the circumstances of their emigration are not known.

During the Second World War, a large number of forced laborers were deployed at the Kalle company: In addition to at least 105 French prisoners of war, workers from other occupied territories were also forced to work. The number of so-called Eastern workers at Kalle was at least 609.

Adolf Todt was well informed about the use of these forced laborers and used forced laborers in his department himself. In a report from 1941, he emphasized the wartime importance of cellophane for the high-quality preservation of food at the front.

He also stated that during a so-called Auskammkommission, Todt's area of responsibility had been reviewed and cellophane had been classified as "crucial to the war effort", whereupon he had been promised the appropriate manpower to support him.

However, Todt used the forced laborers under his command not only for business purposes, but also privately. After the war, for example, he told the Wiesbaden court that French prisoners of war, who had been made available to him by Kalle for clean-up work after bomb damage, were working in his house. He also stated that the forced laborers had been treated well. They had been well looked after and had eaten together with them.

In 1941, Todt was awarded the War Merit Cross II Class for his work at the Kalle company.

After the end of the Second World War and the occupation of Wiesbaden, Todt was dismissed by order of the American occupying forces due to his party membership at Kalle. In the following months, he prepared himself for his trial and submitted numerous affidavits to confirm his integrity during the "Third Reich". He explained his membership of the party, for example, with the united accession of the entire management with the intention of averting danger from the company.

The Spruchkammer followed the arguments of Todt and his lawyer and placed Todt in Group 5 ("exonerated"). The proceedings against him were dropped. Todt had been working for Kalle again since 1946 and was a member of the management.

In 1952, he was promoted to the company's Management Board and later became a member of the Supervisory Board. In addition to his work at Kalle, Todt was chairman of the employers' association for the chemical and related industries in the state of Hesse and a member of the extended board of the Association of the Chemical Industry in Hesse. He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1953. The University of Mainz awarded Todt an honorary doctorate in 1956. For six years, he served on the board of trustees of the Wiesbaden Eye Hospital (opens in a new tab).

By resolution of the city council on May 25, 1972, a street in the Biebrich district was named after the commercial director of the Kalle company. This was extended in 1974 to include Adolfsplatz. In memory of her husband, Helene Todt established the Adolf Todt Foundation at the University of Mainz in 1973, which awards scholarships to doctoral students in chemistry and pharmacy for outstanding scientific achievements

In 2020, the Historical Commission appointed by the City Council to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended renaming Adolf-Todt-Straße due to Todt's membership of various National Socialist organizations (NSDAP, NSV, DAF, RKB). As head of the cellophane department within the Kalle company, which was important to the war effort, Adolf Todt was also involved in the use of forced labor. In total, the company employed at least 105 French prisoners of war and 609 so-called Eastern workers. Adolf Todt also used an unknown number of French prisoners of war for clearing work on his private house. He was thus involved in the deliberate harming of people between 1933 and 1945.

[This text was created in 2012 for the printed version of the Wiesbadener Stadtlexikon by Dr. Rolf Faber and supplemented in 2024 by Dr. Katherine Lukat].