Life Story of the Founder of Royal Dutch/Shell, Sir Henri Deterding

REVIEW BY JOHN DONOVAN OF THE BOOK:

Power and Powerlessness: The Life Story of the Founder of Royal Dutch/Shell, Sir Henri Deterding

Author: Jochen Thies

Please note: While preserving the integrity of the meaning, we have abbreviated longer extracts translated from the original German edition of the book.

Jochen Thies, a respected German historian, opens this biography by posing a provocative question: “How close was Deterding to Hitler? Did he help the Nazis rise to power?” Thies promises that his book provides an answer.

He also asserts that Shell has distanced itself from its founder’s legacy: “Henri Deterding deserves not to be forgotten.”

As the author of Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History of Royal Dutch Shell and owner of shellnazihistory.com, I agree. My own book, published in 2016, and my name appear in the bibliography of Power and Powerlessness.

Shell’s Dealings with Nazi Germany

Thies raises a fair question: Did Shell continue business with Hitler’s regime for too long—even after Deterding’s death?

He is also critical of A History of Royal Dutch Shell (2007), the official four-volume history commissioned by Shell and written by Dutch academics Jonker and van Zanden. According to Thies:

“Shell now tends to sideline its company founder… understandable perhaps, given the online fusion of the Shell emblem and the swastika—especially in the UK.”

In a section titled Hitler’s Plans, Thies critiques “the professors in Utrecht” for their treatment of Deterding:

“The power man that he was, Deterding could not cope with the new conditions in this age of fascism and dictators… The Utrecht authors see in him signs of personality change and rapid ageing.”

Despite their criticisms, the Utrecht authors ultimately praise Deterding as “a master builder of a great company” and place him “in the top rank of international business leaders of the 20th century.” Thies questions why Shell doesn’t echo this in its own public narratives.

He accuses the authors of relying too heavily on biased Nazi sources such as the diaries of Goebbels and Rosenberg, and criticises the decision to place a large photograph of Hitler next to the final images of Deterding:

“They claimed to want to redress the balance between critics and defenders of Deterding. But they missed that opportunity.”

Deterding’s Dealings with Dictators

Thies notes Deterding’s personal meetings with Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. Rosenberg, who met with Deterding many times, was later convicted and executed at the Nuremberg Trials.

Deterding’sMeetings with Hitler

There is conflicting evidence on whether and how often Deterding met Hitler. Thies writes:

“It is virtually impossible that Deterding stayed in Berchtesgaden for four days in the summer of 1934…”

(However, contemporary articles—including in the New York Times—reported such a meeting in the winter of 1934.)

Deterding himself claimed to have met Hitler in November 1933. Thies concedes:

“A personal meeting took place on July 11, 1934… focused on oil, which Hitler urgently needed.”

He adds that Deterding “sought further meetings” but was rebuffed:

“Hitler granted him a single appointment; his aides fended Deterding off afterwards.”

The date discrepancies and contradictions—particularly between Thies and primary sources like the New York Times—are, frankly, confusing. Only the newspaper reports provide contemporaneous evidence.

A Nazi Funeral

Thies describes Deterding’s funeral in Germany as a grand affair: numerous Shell directors attended, along with Nazi officers giving the Hitler salute. Wreaths were sent by Hitler and Göring. Film and photos confirm the scale of the event.

Thies insists that Deterding was never anti-Semitic. However, internal Shell correspondence suggests otherwise.

I was also surprised by Thies’s speculative remarks about Deterding’s inner thoughts on his own death and the coming war. Such conjecture seems out of place in a historical biography.

Donations to the Nazis

Thies acknowledges that Deterding negotiated with the Nazi Winter Relief Organisation about exchanging Dutch agricultural goods for frozen Reichsmark accounts, but claims the talks went nowhere and the eventual contributions were modest.

However, Reuters reported major donations, and Thies himself cites a Reich Chancellery memo listing Deterding among the three largest foreign donors to the Nazi Party. He suggests that the funds were technically from Deterding’s Russian wife—though the origin of her wealth is left unanswered.

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This well-researched, 340-page book is a compelling and controversial read. Thies writes with flair and doesn’t shy away from sensitive subjects. Power and Powerlessness is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in Shell’s history or the uneasy entanglements of oil and power in the 20th century.

A solid five-star read.

RELATED LINKS

The New York Times Oct 26, 1934: REICH OIL MONOPOLY SOUGHT BY DETERDING. Article with the sub-headline: “Hitler’s Terms for Control of Distribution Unsatisfactory to Royal Dutch and Shell,” reported the content and outcome of the four day summit meeting between Hitler and his guest, Sir “Henry” Deterding, held at Berchtesgaden, – Hitler’s mountain top retreat known as the “The Berghof.”

The Montreal Gazette and The Daily Gleaner also reported the same news story about the meeting. There was no subsequent retraction or correction by any of these newspapers.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.