Final solution Pre-Machtergreifung Post-Machtergreifung Parties Emil Kirdorf (8 April 1847 – 13 July 1938) was a German industrialist, one of the first important employers in the Ruhr industrial sectors.

Two years later, the entrepreneur Friedrich Grillo offered him the position of commercial director in the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG [de] (GBAG) company.

Under his direction, the GBAG became the largest coal mine enterprise in Europe, and Emil Kirdorf became known as the "Chimney Baron" (Schlotbaron).

Kirdorf then was one of the main founders of the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate employers union in 1893, member of its board of directors until 1913.

Kirdorf was also one of the founding members of the pangermanist Alldeutscher Verband league in 1891, which advocated imperialist policies.

After World War I, he was a co-founder of the Economic Association for the Promotion of the Forces of Spiritual Renewal [de] (German: Wirtschaftsvereinigung zur Förderung der geistigen Wiederaufbaukräfte), which subsidized Alfred Hugenberg's media empire.

Kirdorf then joined the NSDAP in 1927, but left it the following year, alleging as the reason the influence of Gregor Strasser on the party.

It was also at Kirdorf's instigation that Hitler wrote Der Weg zum Wiederaufstieg (The Road to Recovery) in 1927, intended for exclusive distribution to, and consumption by, the leading industrialists of Germany.

"Hitler personally awarded to him, on 10 April 1937, the date of Kirdorf's 90th birthday, the Order of the German Eagle, the highest distinction of the Third Reich.