In 1924, Hugo Boss started his clothing company in Metzingen, a small town south of Stuttgart, where it is still based. Due to the economic climate of Germany at the time, Boss was forced into bankruptcy. In 1931, he reached an agreement with his creditors, leaving him with six sewing machines to start again.
That same year, he became a member of the National Socialist party and a sponsoring member ("Förderndes Mitglied") of the Schutzstaffel (SS). With their help, his economic situation improved. He also joined the German Labour Front in 1936, the Reich Air Protection Association in 1939, and the National Socialist People's Welfare in 1941. After joining these organizations, his sales increased from 38,260 Reichsmarks (RM)-$26,993 U.S. dollars-in 1932 to over 3,300,000 RM in 1941. His profits also increased in the same time period from 5,000 RM to 241,000 RM. Though he claimed in a 1934-1935 advertisement that he had been a "supplier for National Socialist uniforms since 1924," it is probable that he did not begin to supply them until 1928 at the earliest. It is certain that he supplied them no later than 1934. This is the year he became an Reichszeugmeisterei-licensed (official) supplier of uniforms to the Sturmabteilung, Schutzstaffel, Hitler Youth, National Socialist Motor Corps, and other party organizations. To meet demand in later years of the war, Boss used an estimated 30 to 40 prisoners of war and 150 forced labourers, from the Baltic States, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union.[2] According to German historian Henning Kober, the company managers were avowed Nazis who were all great admirers of Adolf Hitler. In 1945 Hugo Boss had a photograph in his apartment of himself with Hitler taken at Hitler's Obersalzberg retreat.[3]
Because of his early Nazi party membership, his financial support of the SS and the uniforms delivered to the Nazi party, Boss was considered both an "activist" and a "supporter and beneficiary of National Socialism". In a 1946 judgement he was stripped of his voting rights, his capacity to run a business, and fined "a very heavy penalty" of 100,000 Deutschmarks (DM)-$70,553 U.S. dollars-.[2] He died in 1948, but his business survived.
In 1997, the company appeared in a list of Swiss dormant accounts in connection with reparations lawsuits, which stirred the publication of articles highlighting the involvement of Hugo Boss with the Nazis.[4][5][6] In 1999, American lawyers filed lawsuits in New Jersey on behalf of survivors and their families for the use of forced workers during the war.[7][8] The company did not comment on these lawsuits but reiterated an earlier statement that it would "not close its eyes to the past but rather deal with the issues in an open and forthright manner".[7] In doing so it sponsored research by German historian Elisabeth Timm.[2] Nevertheless, after Timm told the press of her findings, the company declined to publish them.[9] In December 1999, an agreement was reached between the German government and the United States government along with a group of American class-action lawyers and Jewish groups. A fund equivalent to $5,100,000,000 U.S. dollars was to be financed equally by German industry and the German government, to compensate slave labourers used by the Germans in World War II.[10] Hugo Boss agreed to participate in this fund,[11] for an amount which was estimated by some sources to be $1,037,690.[12]