For Fashion Heads supported Nazis. In a 1946 judgement, based on his early party membership, his financial support of the SS and the uniforms delivered to the Nazi party even before 1933, Boss was considered both an activist and a supporter and beneficiary of National Socialism. He was stripped of his voting rights and his capacity to run a business, and fined a very heavy penalty of 100,000 marks. He died in 1948 but his business survived. In 1997, the company appeared in a list of Swiss dormant accounts in connection with reparations lawsuits, which stirred the publication of articles highlighting the involvement of Hugo Boss with the Nazis. In 1999, American lawyers filed lawsuits in New Jersey, on behalf of survivors or their families, for the use of forced workers during the war. The company did not comment on these lawsuits but reiterated an earlier statement that it would not close its eyes to the past but rather deal with the issues in an open and forthright manner. It sponsored research by German historian Elisabeth Timm. Nevertheless, after Timm told the press of her findings, the company declined to publish them. In December 1999, an agreement was reached between the German government and a group of American class-action lawyers, Jewish groups, and the United States government to set a $5.1 billion fund, financed equally by German industry and the German government, to compensate slave laborers used by the Germans in World War II.[10] Hugo Boss agreed to participate in this fund,for an amount which was estimated by some sources to be about € 752 000. As a result of the ban on his being in business, Bosss son-in-law Eugen Holy took over the ownership and running of the company. After a period supplying work uniforms, in 1950 the company received its first order for mens suits, resulting in an expansion to 150 employees by the end of the year. By 1960 the company was producing off-the-peg suits, and in 1969 Eugen retired to leave the running of the firm to his sons Jochen and Uwe, who began the international development. In 1970 the first Boss branded suits were produced, with the brand becoming a registered trademark in 1977. This was followed by the start of the companys long association with motorsport, sponsoring Formula1 driver Nikki Lauda, and later the McLaren Racing team.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:25:00 +0000
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