Hugo Boss (businessman): Difference between revisions

| name = Hugo Boss

| image = Hugo-boss.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Hugo in 1933

| birth_name = Hugo Ferdinand Boss

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1885|07|08|df=y}}

| birth_place = [[Metzingen]], [[Kingdom of Württemberg|Württemberg]], [[German Empire]]

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1948|08|09|1885|07|08|df=yes}}

| death_place = Metzingen, [[Württemberg-Hohenzollern]], [[Allied-occupied Germany]]

'''Hugo Ferdinand Boss''' (8 July 1885 – 9 August 1948)<ref name="Geneall">{{cite web|title=Hugo Ferdinand Boss|website=Geneall.net|url=http://www.geneall.net/D/per_page.php?id=481001}}</ref> was a German fashion designerbusinessman and businessmanan early member of the [[Nazi Party]]. He was the founder of the fashion house [[Hugo Boss]] AG.

He was an active member of the [[Nazi Party]] from 1931, and remained so until [[Nazi Germany#Turning point and collapse|Nazi Germany's capitulation]]. His clothing company also utilized [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour drawn from German-occupied territories]] and [[POW]] camps, to manufacture uniforms for the ''[[SS]]'' and later the [[Wehrmacht]].

Boss was born in [[Metzingen]], [[Kingdom of Württemberg]], to Luise (née Münzenmayer) and Heinrich Boss,<ref name="Geneall"/> the youngest of five children. He [[apprenticeship|apprenticed]] as a merchant, did his military service from 1903 to 1905, and then worked in a weaving mill in [[Konstanz]]. He took over his parents' lingerie shop in Metzingen in 1908, as heir.{{cncitation needed|date=April 2020}} In 1914, he was mobilized into the army and served through [[World War I]], ending it as a [[corporal]].{{cncitation needed|date=April 2020}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2008-0276, Hans Heinrich Lammers.jpg|thumb|225px|upright|[[SS-Gruppenführer]] [[Hans Heinrich Lammers]] in black ''[[Allgemeine-SS]]'' uniform 1938]]

Boss joined the Nazi Party in 1931, two years before [[Adolf Hitler]] came to power.<ref name=abcarticledirectory-Hugo-Boss-Biography>{{cite news|url=http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Hugo-Boss-Biography/933303|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729010534/http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/Hugo-Boss-Biography/933303|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 July 2010|title=Hugo Boss Biography}}</ref> By the third quarter of 1932, the all-black [[Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel|SS uniform]] (to replace the [[Uniforms and insignia of the Sturmabteilung|SA brown shirts]]) was designed by ''[[SS-Oberführer]]'' Prof. [[Karl Diebitsch]], and graphic designer [[Walter Heck]], who had no affiliation with the company.<ref>McNab, Chris. ''Hitler's Elite: The SS 1939–45'', Osprey 2013, p 90.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Hugo Boss apology for Nazi past as book is published |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15008682 |website=BBC News |publisher=BBC |access-date=2 October 2018 |date=21 September 2011}}</ref> The Hugo Boss company produced these black uniforms along with the brown [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] shirts and the black-and-brown uniforms of the [[Hitler Youth]].<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E4DF153FF936A2575BC0A961958260 |title=Hugo Boss Acknowledges Link to Nazi Regime |date=15 August 1997|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=25 September 2008}}</ref><ref>White, Constance C. R. "Patterns: Dealing with Hugo Boss's Nazi tie." ''The New York Times'' 19 August 1997: A20.</ref> Some workers were French and Polish [[prisoners of war]] [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced into labour]].<ref>{{cite news|url=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/1997archives/la-xpm-1997-aug/-15/news/-ls-22533-story.html|title=Clothier Made Nazi Uniforms|last=Givhan|first=Robin |author-link=Robin Givhan|date=15 August 1997|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=8 November 2008}}</ref><ref name="7 Die Firma Hugo Boss">{{in lang|de}} Zwangsarbeit in Metzingen (Forced Work in Metzingen), [http://www.metzingen-zwangsarbeit.de/Kober-Studie/7_Die_Firma_Hugo_Boss/body_7_die_firma_hugo_boss.html Ch.7: Die Firma Hugo Boss]</ref> In 1999, US lawyers acting on behalf of [[Holocaust survivors]] started legal proceedings against the Hugo Boss company over the use of slave labour during the war.<ref>{{cite news

After [[World War II]], the [[denazification]] process saw Boss initially labeled as an "activist, supporter and beneficiary" of [[national-socialismNazism]], which resulted in a heavy fine, also stripping him of his voting rights and capacity to run a business.{{citation However,needed|date=September 2022}} thisThis initial ruling was appealed, and Boss was re-labeled as a "''[[Mitläufer|follower]]'' ("fellow traveller"), a category with a less severe punishment.<ref name=abcarticledirectory-Hugo-Boss-Biography/> Nevertheless, the effects of the ban led to Boss's son-in-law, Eugen Holy, taking over both the ownership and the running of the company.{{cncitation needed|date=July 2021}}

Boss died inAugust 9, 1948 of a tooth abscess<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harding |first=A. F. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1232509044 |title=Bronze Age lives |date=2021 |others=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG |year=2021 |isbn=978-3-11-070580-5 |location=Berlin ; Boston |pages=20 |oclc=1232509044}}</ref> in [[Württemberg-Hohenzollern]], West[[Allied-occupied Germany]]. He was 63 years old at the time of his death.

*{{imdbIMDb name|0098069}}

[[Category:German militaryArmy personnel of World War I]]