During the late era of the German Empire and early Weimar Republic, he was considered to be one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Europe.

[1] After passing his graduating examination from a secondary school (Realschule), young Stinnes was placed in an office at Koblenz where he received business training.

They carried coal, wood, grain and iron ore. By the age of 23, Stinnes was heavily invested in the steel industry.

As soon as Stinnes recognized RWE's potential he and steel magnate Fritz Thyssen bought shares to become the majority shareholder.

The secret of his success was vertical integration and an essential unity of direction and coordination of aims in all branches of his enterprises.

But, apart from the regular indemnification paid by the German government, he was richly compensated when he was called in by Erich Ludendorff, as the most competent expert to give advice, to organize the coal and the industrial production of occupied Belgium and to help to set in motion the gigantic production of war material which the German general headquarters demanded.

[1] During the war, Stinnes extended his activities in Hamburg, and in 1916 he bought up the Woermann and the East African steamship lines.

Captain Waldemar Pabst, who was responsible for the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, is said to have been financed through one of his confidants.

It is assumed that it was his donations to the Nazi party treasury that created the financial base of the Beer Hall Putsch.

[4] About the time of his election to the Reichstag, Stinnes began to buy up leading German newspapers, one of his main objects being to organize a solid and powerful bloc of opinion in Germany in support of law and order and the promotion of the highest industrial and commercial efficiency.

In 1923, the American magazine Time called him "The New Emperor of Germany" to describe his far-reaching political influence and wealth.

His son Edmund Stinnes was a financier who left Germany and gave his home for the Secret Surrender negotiations in 1945 which brought WW2 to an end in Italy.