German Leadership

Oh where are you now, that we need you ?

Dr Hjalmar Schacht, looking surprisingly well, in the circumstances, in his cell at Nuremberg, 1946. Schacht served as President of the Reichsbank under Weimar and and the Nazis (to 1939) and as Hitler's Economics Minister from 1934 to 1937. Under Hitler, he bore major responsibility for the financing of the delusory Nazi "economic miracle", which he did by the exercise of financial jiggery-pokery beyond the imagination even of a Greek budget secretary. His loss of economic power (he continued in government as a Minister without Portfolio until 1943) resulted from disagreements wit Goering (and, indirectly) with Hitler) on increasing levels of military spending which, he thought, would derail the "economic miracle" in a storm of inflation. He was probably right but, from Hitler's viewpoint, he also seems to have missed the main point of the whole exercise. Schacht was at Nuremberg to answer a charge of "crimes against peace" (he was not indicted on the more serious charges available). His low-level resistance activity after 1937, together with the relatively narrow scope of his involvement with the Nazis (confined to economic questions) probably secured his acquittal - although the importance of his contribution to keeping the ricketty Nazi "economic miracle" on the tracks for so long might have argued for a different outcome. After the war, Schacht developed a career as a development banker. He died in Munich, aged 93. Hjalmar Schacht wrote more than 20 books on economic topics. One was titled, "Confessions of an Old Wizard" ; another, "The Magic of Money". As more and more work is done elucidating the murky economic history of the Third Reich, Shacht's credentials for the titles of "wizard" seem stronger than ever. They are certainly better than those that might be claimed for the pampered bureaucrats of Brussels and Frankfurt and the cowardly and uninspired politicians who "control" Europe's economy today. Best regards, JR.