Hjalmar Schacht

Hjalmar Schacht
Bain News Service, publisher · Public domain · source
Name	Hjalmar Schacht
Caption	Schacht in 1931
Birth name	Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht
Birth date	22 January 1877
Birth place	Tinglev, Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date	3 June 1970
Death place	Munich, West Germany
Occupation	Economist, banker, politician
Known for	President of the Reichsbank (1923–1930, 1933–1939), Minister of Economics (1934–1937)
Party	German Democratic Party (1918–1926), Independent (1926–1945)
Spouse	Luise Sowa (m. 1903; died 1940), Manci Vogler (m. 1941)

Hjalmar Schacht. Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht was a prominent German economist, banker, and political figure whose career spanned the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the early Federal Republic. He is best known for stabilizing the German Reichsmark during the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic and later serving as a key architect of Nazi Germany's early economic policy. His complex legacy is marked by his instrumental financial role in the Nazi regime's consolidation of power and his subsequent involvement in the German resistance and post-war acquittal at the Nuremberg trials.

Early life and education

Born in Tinglev, then part of the German Empire's Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Schacht was the son of a merchant who had lived in the United States. He studied medicine, philology, and political science at several universities, including the University of Kiel, the University of Berlin, and the University of Munich, before earning a doctorate in political economy from the University of Kiel in 1899. His early career included work as a journalist and a position at the Dresdner Bank, where he developed expertise in international finance and currency matters.

Career in banking and finance

Schacht rose to national prominence during the economic crises of the early Weimar Republic. In November 1923, he was appointed Currency Commissioner and soon after became President of the Reichsbank, tasked with ending the catastrophic hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic. He introduced the Rentenmark, a new currency backed by mortgage bonds on German land and industry, which successfully restored monetary stability. He played a significant role in negotiating the Dawes Plan in 1924 and the Young Plan in 1929, which restructured German reparations and facilitated foreign loans, primarily from the United States. He resigned from the Reichsbank in 1930 in protest against the Young Plan.

Role in Nazi Germany

Initially skeptical of Adolf Hitler, Schacht later used his connections among German industrialists and bankers, such as those in the Federation of German Industry, to help secure critical financial support for the Nazi Party. After Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Schacht was reappointed President of the Reichsbank and later named Minister of Economics. He devised the "Mefo bill" system, a form of deficit financing that funded the massive German rearmament program while concealing its scale from international observers. His policies were central to reducing unemployment and building the economic foundation for the Wehrmacht. However, conflicts over the pace of rearmament and the influence of figures like Hermann Göring led to his dismissal as Economics Minister in 1937 and later from the Reichsbank in 1939. He maintained informal contacts with resistance circles, including those around Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and Ludwig Beck, and was arrested after the July 20 plot in 1944, being imprisoned in Ravensbrück and Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Post-war life and legacy

Schacht was a defendant in the Nuremberg trials, specifically the Ministries Trial, where he was charged with crimes against peace and conspiracy to wage aggressive war. He was acquitted in 1946, with the tribunal citing his opposition to Hitler after 1936 and his imprisonment by the Gestapo. Denazification courts later classified him as a "fellow traveler," but he successfully resumed a career in international banking, founding the private bank Schacht & Co. in Düsseldorf. He advised developing nations, including the government of Iran under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and wrote extensively on economic policy until his death in Munich in 1970. His legacy remains deeply controversial, viewed both as a brilliant financial technician and a key enabler of the Nazi regime.

Publications and writings

Throughout his life, Schacht was a prolific author on economic and political subjects. His major works include *The Stabilization of the Mark* (1927), which detailed his role in ending hyperinflation, and *Account Settled* (1948), a memoir defending his actions during the Third Reich. Other notable publications are *The End of Reparations* (1931), *Abrechnung mit Hitler* (1948), and *76 Jahre meines Lebens* (1953), his full autobiography. His writings consistently argued for orthodox financial policies, criticized the Treaty of Versailles, and later sought to justify his complex relationship with the Nazi Party.

Category:German economists Category:German bankers Category:People of the Weimar Republic Category:People of Nazi Germany Category:German resistance to Nazism Category:1877 births Category:1970 deaths