Summary The rise of Krupp steel group to world's leading arms manufacturer is told from the cardiac death bed of Bertha Krupp who believes a single firstborn Krupp should be its absolute chief; albeit for the general good of family and fatherland, and her son Alfried nor grandson Arndt are deemed good enough anymore. Her mother Margarethe's first husband Friedrich 'Fritz Krupp' inherited Ruhr iron works and rose as the emperor Wilhelm's trusted 'court supplier' of heavy arms, while building up a worldwide trade network. However her refusal to remain discrete about Fritz's predilection for handsome local boys on his Capri health holidays and yacht trips caused the emperor to inspire Margarethe's psychiatric internment, but after the press gets wind of it Friedrich's suicide and her returns as board chair, with an imperially picked second husband, restyled Prussian career diplomat Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. Ruthlessly-prepped heir Alfried and his near-discarded siblings grow up frustrated and confused during the Great War, which loses Krupp the imperial favor before wrecking his throne, but increases their fortune, even paid for licenses afterward by British rival Vickers, and modernizing, cynically also in custom-made prostheses. When the bankrupt state crumbles, red revolutionaries turn even on the Krupp capitalists.

• War
• Biography
• Drama
• History