Hjalmar Schacht
| Hjalmar Schacht | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Reich Minister of Economics | |
|
In office 3 August 1934 – 26 November 1937 |
|
| President |
Adolf Hitler |
| Chancellor | Adolf Hitler |
| Preceded by | Kurt Schmitt |
| Succeeded by | Hermann Göring |
| President of the Reichsbank | |
|
In office 12 November 1923 – 7 March 1930 |
|
| Preceded by | Rudolf E. A. Havenstein |
| Succeeded by | Hans Luther |
|
In office 17 March 1933 – 20 January 1939 |
|
| Preceded by | Hans Luther |
| Succeeded by | Walther Funk |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht 22 January 1877 Tinglev, then Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire, now Denmark |
| Died | 3 June 1970 (aged 93) Munich, Federal Republic of Germany |
| Resting place | Munich Ostfriedhof Plot 55—Row 19—Grave 7 |
| Political party |
German Democratic Party (1918–1926) Independent (1926–1970) Nazi (1934–1943, honorary member) |
| Spouse(s) | Luise Sowa (1903–her death 1940) Manci (1941–1970) †1999 |
| Children | Cordula Schacht |
| Profession | Banker, Economist |
Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht (22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970) was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder in 1918 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 reparation obligations.
While he never joined the NSDAP, he became a supporter of Adolf Hitler, and served in Hitler's government as President of the Reichsbank (1933–1939) and Minister of Economics (August 1934 – November 1937). As such, Schacht played a key role in implementing the policies attributed to Hitler.
While Schacht was for a time feted for his role in the German "economic miracle," he opposed 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 Goering. He was dismissed as President of the Reichsbank in January 1939. He remained as a minister without portfolio, and received the same salary, until he was fully dismissed from the government in January 1943. After the war, he was tried at Nuremberg but acquitted.
In 1953, he founded a private banking house in Düsseldorf. He also advised developing countries on economic development.
Schacht was born in Tingleff, Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia, German Empire (now in Denmark) to William Leonhard Ludwig Maximillian Schacht and baroness Constanze Justine Sophie von Eggers, a native of Denmark. His parents, who had spent years in the United States, originally decided on the name Horace Greeley Schacht, in honor of the American journalist Horace Greeley. However, they yielded to the insistence of the Schacht family grandmother, who firmly believed the child's given name should be Danish. After completing his [abitur] at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, Schacht studied medicine, philology and political science at the Universities of Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Paris and Kiel before earning a doctorate at Kiel in 1899 – his thesis was on mercantilism.
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