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Hjalmar Schacht

1877 – 1970 German President of the Reichsbank (1923-1930, 1933-1939) and Minister of Economics (1934-1937)

The German financier who tamed hyperinflation and then funded Hitler's rearmament before falling from favor.

Religion
Protestant
Affiliations
Stopped the 1923 hyperinflation and later financed Nazi rearmament through the Mefo bills; acquitted at Nuremberg.

Hjalmar Schacht managed the currency reform that ended Germany's 1923 hyperinflation and became President of the Reichsbank. He formed close ties with Montagu Norman and other central bankers in the 1920s. After Hitler took power he returned to the Reichsbank and, as economics minister, devised the Mefo bills and the New Plan to finance rearmament. He was dismissed in 1939 after warning about inflation and was later tried and acquitted at Nuremberg.

Connections

  • associate of Benjamin Strong — Cooperated on stabilizing European currencies in the 1920s.
  • associate of Charles G. Dawes — His plan was negotiated with the Reichsbank under Schacht.
  • associate of Montagu Norman — Close working relationship between the two central bankers.
  • associate of Montagu Norman — Worked closely with Schacht on central bank matters and the BIS.
  • associate of Owen D. Young — Negotiated German reparations with Schacht at the Reichsbank.

In the timeline

Wikipedia