Karl Blessing (banker)

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The German representatives in the Transfer Commission in 1934, from left: Hjalmar Schacht, Blessing , Emil Puhl , v. Frond.
Blessing's signature (left) on a 5 DM banknote (1960)

Karl Blessing (born February 5, 1900 in Enzweihingen , Württemberg ; † April 25, 1971 in Rasteau , Département Vaucluse ) was a member of the board of directors of the Deutsche Reichsbank from 1937 to February 1939 and President of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 1958 to 1969 .

Professional background

Even before he graduated from the Berlin School of Commerce in 1925, Blessing started working for the Deutsche Reichsbank on September 1, 1920, where he was responsible for reparation issues under the Treaty of Versailles . As Hjalmar Schacht's assistant , Blessing took part in various important conferences, including the 1929 Young Conference in Paris , the Hague Reparations Conference and the conference on the establishment of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel . Blessing worked between 1930 and 1934 as a department head at the BIZ (delegated from the Reichsbank) and experienced the effects of the global economic crisis there .

After working as general advisor in the Reich Ministry of Economics from 1934 to 1937 , Blessing joined the NSDAP in 1937 . It was now possible for him to become a member of the board of directors of the Reichsbank. Shortly after the Reichskristallnacht on November 12, 1938 , in a meeting with Hermann Göring (who was, among other things, the commissioner for the four-year plan for arming the Wehrmacht and preparing for war), he raised concerns about setting the Jewish property tax as a contribution payment of one billion Reichsmarks by Jews. He argued that they would then have to sell the Reich bonds to the detriment of the German economy. He and Hjalmar Schacht were fired on February 1, 1939, after he had refused to continue to be responsible for inflationary armaments financing. mar Blessing retired into the private sector , worked from 1939 to 1941 as a board member at Margarine Union AG (later: Unilever ) and between 1941 and 1945 as a board member of Kontinentalen Öl AG . The main task of Konti Öl was to expand the Southeast European oil deposits for the needs of the Wehrmacht .

Blessing, who was a member of the Friends of the Reichsführer SS from 1939 to 1945 , made donations for the NSDAP and was appointed military economic leader. He was valued as an expert by Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and the conspirators of July 20, 1944 , and in the Beck / Goerdeler shadow cabinet, if the coup was successful, he was President of the Reichsbank and later Minister of Economics.

Blessing was interned after the war. After his dismissal, Blessing worked again at Margarine Union AG from 1948. From January 1, 1958, he was President of the Deutsche Bundesbank , founded on August 1, 1957 ; The then federal government ( Adenauer II cabinet ) had appointed him to this office . From August 1, 1957 to December 31, 1957, Karl Bernard and Wilhelm Vocke jointly performed the duties of the Bundesbank President.

He held this office until December 31, 1969. His successor as president of the Bundesbank after the appointed general election in 1969 resulting Brandt Karl Klasen (1909-1991).

In 1965, Blessing was awarded the Grand Cross of the Federal Order of Merit by Federal Chancellor Ludwig Erhard . In 1967 he received the Karl-Bräuer-Preis of the Association of Taxpayers and in 1969 the Alexander-Rüstow-Badge .

The "Blessing Letter"

Blessing wrote a letter (dated March 30, 1967) to William McChesney Martin , then long-time FED leader , in which he promised that Germany would neither now nor in the future exchange its dollar reserves for gold from the US Treasury. In 1971 he publicly expressed regret:

“I am telling you today that I personally feel guilty about the matter. I should have been more rigorous towards America at the time. The dollars that we had had to be rigorously exchanged for gold. "

Blessing justified his indulgence towards the wishes of the Americans with the fear of the withdrawal of American troops from Germany.

family

Karl Blessing was married to Ida Harden . From this marriage the sons Karl and Werner and three daughters emerged. Blessing died in 1971 on his vacation spot in the south of France.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945? . S. Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2003 p. 53.
  2. ↑ a b bundesbank.de ( Memento from May 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ The Gürzenich Bill . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1957 ( online ).
  4. ^ Bernard (bundesbank.de) ( Memento from May 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Vocke (bundesbank.de) ( Memento from May 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ See in detail Otmar Emminger : D-Mark, dollar, currency crises - a former Bundesbank president recalls . DVA 1986, ISBN 978-3-421-06333-5
  6. ^ Image of the award of the Federal Cross of Merit on spiegel.de
  7. ↑ From our archive: The “Blessing Brief” . bundesbank.de. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. (with a link to the letter, Martin’s reply and a letter from the then Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger - he supported Blessing’s course).
  8. ↑ a b Currency: "Unfortunately, the letter is still valid today" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1971 ( online interview with Karl Blessing).
  9. ↑ From our archive: The “Blessing Brief” . bundesbank.de. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Blessing, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION President of the Deutsche Bundesbank
DATE OF BIRTH 5th February 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Enzweihingen , Württemberg
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1971
Place of death Rasteau , Provence