KRUPP, ALFRED (1812 1887), German metallurgist, was born at Essen on April 26, 1812. His father, Friedrich Krupp (1787-1826), had purchased a small forge in that town about 1810 and worked on the problem of manufacturing cast steel; but the product put on the mar ket by him in 1815 commanded but little sale. After his death the works were carried on by his widow, and Alfred, as the eldest son, left school at 14 to under take their direction. For many years the concern, which in 1845 employed only 122 workmen, did scarcely more than pay its way. But in 1847 Krupp made a 3-pdr. muzzle-loading gun of cast steel, and at the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 he exhibited a solid flawless ingot of cast steel weighing two tons. This exhibit caused a sensation in the industrial world, and the Essen works sprang into fame. Another successful invention, the manufacture of weldless steel tyres for railway vehicles, was introduced soon afterwards. The profits derived from these and other steel manufactures were devoted to the expansion of the works and to the development of the artillery with which the name of Krupp is especially associated. (See ORDNANCE.) The model settlement, which is one of the best known features of the Krupp works, was started in the '6os, when difficulty began to be found in housing the increasing number of workmen ; and now there are various "colonies," practically separate villages, dotted about to the south and south-west of the town, with schools, libraries, recreation grounds, clubs, stores, etc. The policy also was adopted of acquiring iron and coal mines, so that the firm might have command of supplies of raw materials.
Alfred Krupp, who was known as the "Cannon King," died at Essen on July 14, 1887, and was succeeded by his only son, Friedrich Alfred Krupp (1854-1902) who was born at Essen on Feb. 17, 1854. The latter devoted himself to the financial rather than to the technical side of the business, and under him it again underwent enormous expansion. Among other things he in 1896
leased the "Germania" shipbuilding yard at Kiel, and in 1902 it passed into the complete ownership of the firm. The total number of men employed at Essen and its associated works at the time of his death was over 40,000. His elder daughter Bertha, who succeeded him, married, in Oct. 1906, Dr. Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, who took the name Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and became head of the firm (Friedrich Krupp Akt. Ges.). The enormous increase in the German navy involved further expansion in the operations of the Krupp firm as manufacturers of the armour plates and guns required for the new ships, and in 1908 its capital, then standing at £9,000,000, was augmented by L2,500,000.
During the World War, the firm acquired an international significance for its manufacture of armaments, of which it had a virtual monopoly in Germany. This was enhanced by its con struction of a new model of a long distance range gun ("die Dicke Berta") which was of great importance to the German armies. The number of persons employed in the Krupp works rose from 8o,000 before the war to 167,000 in 1918. After 1918, however, the firm has turned its attention to the manufacture of locomotives, agricultural implements and to smaller steel manu factures of various kinds. It has acquired a controlling interest in many iron and steel works in Germany, as well as in mines, and formed close relationship with the other allied industries in Westphalia and elsewhere. With its branch concerns, the Krupp company employed about 65,000 persons in 1927.
See F. Krupp, Krupp (1912) ; W. Berdrow, Friedrich Krupp, der Griinder der Gussstahlfabrik, in Briefen and Urkunden (1915), and Alfred Krupp (1926).