Anton Loibl GmbH was a company owned by the SS which was a funding source for the Ahnenerbe research branch and the Lebensborn eugenics programme. It was created to market a bicycle reflector invented by Anton Loibl, a chauffeur for Hitler. It employed slave labour.
| Industry | Bicycle reflectors |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 1936 |
| Founder | Himmler's Personal Office |
| Owner | Anton Loibl |
Anton Loibl, a former long-term chauffeur for Hitler and a decorated SS-Hauptsturmführer (Ernst Röhm had obtained the driver's job for him in the early 1920s, and he had spent time in prison after participating in the Beerhall Putsch in 1923),[1] was a part-time inventor; while working as a machinist and driving instructor, he invented a reflector for bicycle pedals which incorporated glass chips.[2][3] Heinrich Himmler, who was acquainted with Loibl, ensured that he was awarded the patent in preference to an earlier applicant,[3] and the company was established in September 1936 in Berlin by Himmler's Personal Office in order to market it.[2][4] In his capacity as police chief of the Reich, Himmler had a requirement added to the traffic code on 13 November 1937 which required all newly manufactured bicycles to incorporate these reflectors.[2][5] The bicycle manufacturers had to pay a licence fee, which amounted to 600,000 ℛℳ in 1939.[2]
Loibl was initially a co-director and co-owner of the company, and received 50% of the income, altogether approximately 500,000 ℛℳ;[2] he was removed for incompetence at the end of 1939 or early in 1940.[4][6] (An internal report dated June 1939 pointed out Himmler's use of his power for the benefit of the company and criticised Loibl's personally profiting from it.[2][7]) Additionally, Himmler directed the company to pay substantial sums (290,000 ℛℳ a year) to the Ahnenerbe and the Lebensborn; financing these had been the primary purpose of its establishment.[2] The Ahnenerbe had chronic financing problems for some years and in 1937 the Reichsnährstand had reduced its funding and Himmler set up a foundation to channel funds to it, including from the Loibl concern.[8] The Ahnenerbe's share of the Loibl funds was 77,740 ℛℳ in 1938;[3] the Lebensborn received from 100,000 to 150,000 per year from 1939 on.[9] At the Nuremberg Trials the Loibl company was described as "still earning considerable funds for 'Ahnenerbe'".[10]
Chartered to develop "technical articles of all kinds",[4][11] the company later diversified and also sold other products, such as a patented lamp.[2]
By the end of the 1930s, when Germany had achieved full employment, the SS enterprises were using slave labour, including from concentration camps.[12] In January 1938, Loibl showed a visitor around a testing laboratory for aircraft motors at Dachau.[13]
In December 1963 the reflectors were still required on German bicycles.[5]