Siegfried von Deitememellinger photographed in 1940, just after a meeting with Hitler in which he advocated an increase in bombing raids made on British industrial centres, together with the use of larger bombs to produce greater shock waves in the blast zone.
Recruited by Jotham Selman-Troytt (the youngest member of the Secondary Triumvirate1 ) in 1930, Siegfried proved himself an invaluable ally in the infiltration of the German domestic glazing market, having used his political expertise and influence to back Hitler's National Socialist Party and guide it towards increasing power.
He had done much to stimulate the demand for new glass within Germany, including striking the actual match with which the Reichstag fire was started in 1933. Prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, with its attendant widespread devastation and damage to property, his most successful coup had been Kristallnacht in 1938, an event of such coordinated destruction that German domestic glazing demand jumped 8% in one week and supplies needed to be shipped in from abroad to keep pace.
Keen to keep their involvement hidden because the family were still based in Britain (where they were confidants and frequent house guests of Neville Chamberlain) the Selman-Troytt conglomerate covertly supplied over 98% of the German glass requirement via 'front' companies registered in Liechtenstein.
Details of the next stage of Selman-Troytt foreign expansion are here.
