Sosthenes Behn

Who was Sosthenes Behn?

Sosthenes Behn was an American businessman widely known for founding ITT. He held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army.

Sosthenes Behn was born in the island of St. Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies. His ancestry was German on his paternal side, and French on his maternal side.

Behn served in the United States Army and was commissioned a Captain, Signal Corps, on June 19, 1917. He later achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, having served with distinction during World War I. Behn served with the American Expeditionary Force in France until February 1919. He was given command of the 232nd Field Signal Battalion, Chatteau Thierry, St. Mihiel, Argonne. In recognition of his meritorious service during the war he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

After his return from military service, Colonel Behn co-founded the Puerto Rico Telephone Company which eventually spawned ITT Under his direction ITT was granted the monopoly of telephone service in Spain in 1924, and purchased the international division of Western Electric.

According to Anthony Sampson's book The Sovereign State of ITT, one of the first American businessmen Hitler received after taking power in 1933 was Sosthenes Behn, then the CEO of ITT and his German representative, Henry Mann. Antony C. Sutton, in his book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, makes the claim that ITT subsidiaries made cash payments to SS leader Heinrich Himmler.