Historians have argued that the membership of the group was not particularly influential, with few members from large industry. Motivations for group members may have included strong anti-labor and anti-socialist positions, rather than pro-Hitler positions as such. However, even scholars who are skeptical of the influence of the group note them as part of late-
Weimar industrial leadership’s “opposition to parliamentary democracy”. From 1936 to 1944, the members of the circle donated approximately 1 million
Reichsmark a year to Himmler for uses "outside the budget". which helped incentivize action by the otherwise-underpaid SS. At least some members of the group, such as
Friedrich Flick, later benefited from the NSDAP's policy of
aryanization of Jewish-owned competitors. Membership in the group may have also played a role in allocation of concentration camp labor to industrial concerns. It also sponsored the
Jewish skull collection, when 86 victims were selected at
Auschwitz, then murdered using
Zyklon B gas at
Natzweiler concentration camp and the corpses shipped to
Reichsuniversität Straßburg for defleshing and ultimately public display by Professor
August Hirt. The project stopped at this stage when Germany lost the war. during the
Nuremberg Trials in charge at
Monowitz works testifies at the
Einsatzgruppen trial, 9 October 1947. receives his sentence of death by hanging at
Nuremberg trials. == Members ==