During his time at Krupp AG, Hugenberg was known for his "inflexibility", "stubbornness", and "self-righteousness" as he constantly fought with the two unions representing the workers, one allied with the SPD and the other with the "Zentrum". Hugenberg did not approve of either union and instead sponsored an "yellow" union representing the management, making his tenure a time of endless disputes with the workers. Hugenberg favored the idea of a "Werksgemeinschaft" (economic community), where the Krupp family would act as the patriarchal authority to their workers, granting them higher wages and even junior shares in Krupp AG, in exchange for the workers would be subservient and loyal to "die Firma" ("the firm") as Krupp AG was always called. Very little came of his plans for a "Werksgemeinschaft", and living conditions and wages for the workers at "die Firma" did not change very much during Hugenberg's time. Hugenberg's interest in having the workers own their own houses stemmed only from his interest in stopping demands for democracy and socialism as he had very strong Social Darwinist views, which led to argue that the problem of poverty was a genetic problem with the poor inheriting bad genes that made them unsuccessful in life-improving their life standards for him was only necessary to halt demands for political and social change.