Friedrich Minoux - Early Life

Early Life

Born in the Pfalz region to Michael and Margaretha (née Reffert) Minoux, Friedrich Minoux attended Gymnasien in Speyer and Mannheim as was customary for boys at the time. After fulfilling his military obligations in 1893, he married Maria Karoline Hente, and took a job at the Essen Gas and Water Works company, where he would rise to the position of Financial Vice President. In 1912, Minoux became an employee of Hugo Stinnes, a prominent German industrialist of the time.

Minoux achieved considerable financial success while working for Stinnes, at one point earning as much as 350,000 gold marks per year — a substantial sum at the time. In 1919 Minoux became a member of the board of the United Citizens of Berlin Coal Dealers AG, and began to diversify his business interests to paper production, automobile manufacturing and coal and steel production. In 1923 Minoux left the Stinnes conglomerate to build his own industrial empire. In 1926 he acquired half of the shares of the German-Romanian Petroleum Company AG (Derupag). His main source of income at the time became The Friedrich Minoux Society for Trade and Industry, which was a coal wholesale business. Minoux was also one of the founders of the Citizens of Berlin Urban Power Stations AG, an electric company. By 1938, in his last major business deal, Minoux purchased the Jewish-owned Offenheimer Cellulose and Paper Works company for less than 1 million reichsmarks. The actual value was more than RM12 million, but by that time Nazi actions against Jewish businesses had intensified, and the owner of the mill was forced to sell to Minoux for a pittance. Throughout those years, Minoux and his wife became notable figures in German political and social circles.