Hjalmar schacht biography
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Schach was a German financial expert and politician. After receiving his doctorate in economics, Schacht was employed by the Dresdner Bank, where he became deputy director in From to he served as director of the private National Bank for Germany. In November he was appointed national currency commissioner and one month later, president of the Reichsbank. In these posts he helped to stabilize the German currency. After he played a leading role in negotiations on German war reparations, but resigned in due to differences with the Weimar government. His alienation from the financial policies of the Weimar government pushed Schacht increasingly to the political right. He helped to introduce Hitler to industrial and financial leaders and played a key role in persuading President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Reich chancellor in
As a reward for his assistance, Schacht was reappointed head of the Reichsbank (), named Minister of Economic Affairs (), and Plenipotentiary for the War Economy (). Schacht became the central figure in National socialist rearmament. Jurisdictional quarrels with Hermann Goering and disagreements over economic policy led to Schacht's gradual withdrawal. He remained Reich minister without portfolio until Schacht was implicated in the July plot to kill Hitler and was imprisoned for the remainder of the war. After the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg acquitted Schacht of all charges, he was tried and sentenced by a denazification court to eight years in a work camp. He was released in Absolved of all accusations r
Source:Encyclopedia of the Third Reich (Zentner & Beduerftig eds.
Photo: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
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Primary Sources
(1) Hjalmar Schacht wrote about meeting Adolf Hitler for the first time in his autobiography Confessions of an Old Wizard ()
After the many rumours that we had heard about Hitler and the published criticisms we had read about him, we were pleasantly impressed. His appearance was neither pretentious nor affected.
Our talk quickly turned to political and economic problems. His skill in exposition was most striking. Everything he said he stated as incontrovertible truth; nevertheless, his ideas were not unreasonable.
(2) Hjalmar Schacht, speech in Leipzig (4th March, )
My so-called foreign friends do neither me nor the situation nor themselves any good when they try to bring me into opposition to the allegedly impossible National Socialist economic theories and declare me to some extent the protector of economic reason. I can assure you that everything I say and do has the complete approval of the Fuehrer and that I would not say or do anything that does not have his approval.
(3) Hjalmar Schacht, speech in Koenigsberg (18th August, )
The Jews must realize that their influence in Germany has disappeared for all time. We wish to keep our people and our culture pure and distinctive, just as the Jews have always demanded this of themselves. But the solution of these problems must be brought about under state leadership, and cannot be left to unregulated individual actions, which have a disturbing influence on the national economy, and which have therefore been repeatedly forbidden by governmental as well as Party agencies.
The economy is a very sensitive organism. Every disturbance, from whatever direction it may come, acts as sand in the machine. Since our economy is closely allied with that of foreign countries, not one of us can be indifferent to what consequences these disturbances can have at home and abroad.
(4) Hjalmar Schacht, letter to Hermann Goering (November, )
The repeated announcements that the Rus
Hitler's Banker: Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht
January 18,Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a well-respected German banker who solved the hyper-inflation problem in He was head of the Reichsbank during the s.
Schacht had left that position when he supported Hitler's rise to the Chancellorship, stating that Hitler was the only one who could solve Germany's problems. He was asked by Hitler to return to the Reichsbank in and accepted, later saying he debated whether he could accept the offer from a leader whose political methods and individual actions he found difficult to accept, but that he overcame his scruples for the sake of the 6 1/2 million unemployed.
That sort of statement perhaps explains why he was one of three defendants who was acquitted at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. I also read his own memoir; it, like this book, shows a very smart man protecting himself at every juncture. Schacht, like Putzi Hanfstaengl, Speer, and many other Germans, cannot be considered a reliable narrator.
Schacht will be a co-defendant at Nuremberg with my fictional character in the novel I am currently writing.Hjalmar schacht death Hjalmar Schacht
German politician and economist (–)
Hjalmar Schacht (born Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht; 22 January – 3 June , German pronunciation:[ˈjalmaʁˈʃaxt]) was a German economist, banker, politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. He was a fierce critic of his country's post-World War I reparations obligations. He was also central in helping create the group of German industrialists and landowners that pushed Hindenburg to appoint the first NSDAP-led government.
He served in Adolf Hitler's government as President of the Central Bank (Reichsbank) – and as Minister of Economics (August – November ).
While Schacht was for a time feted for his role in the German "economic miracle", he opposed elements of Hitler's policy of German re-armament insofar as it violated the Treaty of Versailles and (in his view) disrupted the German economy. His views in this regard led Schacht to clash with Hitler and most notably with Hermann Göring. He resigned as President of the Reichsbank in January He remained as a Minister-without-portfolio, and received the same salary, until he left the government in January
In , Schacht was arrested by the Gestapo following the assassination attempt on Hitler on 20 July because he allegedly had contact with the assassins. Subsequently, he was interned in the concentration camps and later at Flossenbürg. In the final days of the war, he was one of the special and clan prisoners who were transported by the SS from Dachau to South Tyrol. This location is within the area named by Himmler the "Alpine Fortress", and it is speculated that the purpose of the prisoner transport was the intent of holding hostages. They were freed in Niederdorf, South Tyrol, in Italy, on 30 April
Schacht was tried at Nuremberg, but was acquitted despite Sov