Reich Ministry of Economics
The Reich Economics Ministry emerged from the Reich Economics Office established in 1917 . It was the first independent department of the German Reich and was continued with the meeting of the first democratically elected government from March 21, 1919 under the name 'Reich Ministry of Economics'.
Also in 1919 the lawyer and economist Kurt Finkenwirth took over the duties of a commissioner for textile emergency supplies in the ministry, which had become necessary after the First World War .
The Reich Ministry of Economics was responsible for the economic policy interests of the German Reich . That is how it arranged the relationships between the newly founded Weimar Republic and its economy. It was entrusted with tasks such as demobilization, fighting inflation, making reparations to the victorious states and regaining export markets. The ministry quickly gained new skills in pricing policy, sectoral economic management, and foreign trade and exchange control. The latter gained special importance from 1929 (the Great Depression ).
From 1933 to 1945 (the time of National Socialism ) the Reich Ministry of Economics was a central institution with the help of which the Nazi regime put many of its political goals into practice, for example fighting unemployment, arming the Wehrmacht , promoting the armaments industry , preparing for the war economy as well as the aryanization of German economic life. The former economics ministers Hjalmar Schacht , Hermann Göring , Walther Funk and Albert Speer were later among the defendants in the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals .
successor
In post-war Germany , it was replaced by the administrative office for economy in the western occupation zones (from March 1948: administrative office of the united economic area ). When the Basic Law came into force, the Federal Ministry of Economics was created in the Federal Republic of Germany . On the territory of the GDR, an abundance of special ministries were created for the economic sector, each responsible for individual branches of the economy. For the list of the GDR ministries of the economic sectors, cf. Ministries of the GDR .
The Reich Economics Minister
| Name (life data) | Taking office | Term expires | Political party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rudolf Wissell (1869–1962) | February 13, 1919 | July 15, 1919 | SPD |
| Robert Schmidt (1864-1943) | July 16, 1919 | June 24, 1920 | SPD |
| Ernst Scholz (1874–1932) | June 25, 1920 | May 9, 1921 | DVP |
| Robert Schmidt (1864-1943) | May 10, 1921 | November 21, 1922 | SPD |
| Johann Becker (1869–1951) | November 22, 1922 | August 12, 1923 | DVP |
| Hans von Raumer (1870–1965) | August 13, 1923 | October 5, 1923 | DVP |
| Joseph Koeth (1870-1936) | October 6, 1923 | November 23, 1923 | independent |
| Eduard Hamm (1879–1944) | November 30, 1923 | December 15, 1924 | DDP |
| Albert Neuhaus (1873–1948) | January 15, 1925 | October 26, 1925 | DNVP |
| Rudolf Krohne (1876–1953) | October 27, 1925 | December 5, 1925 | DVP |
| Julius Curtius (1877-1948) | January 19, 1926 | November 11, 1929 | DVP |
| Paul Moldenhauer (1876–1947) | November 12, 1929 | December 23, 1929 | DVP |
| Robert Schmidt (1864-1943) | December 24, 1929 | March 29, 1930 | SPD |
| Hermann Dietrich (1879–1954) | March 30, 1930 | June 26, 1930 | DDP |
| Ernst Trendelenburg (1882–1945) | June 27, 1930 | October 8, 1931 | independent |
| Hermann Warmbold (1876–1976) | October 9, 1931 | April 28, 1932 | independent |
| Ernst Trendelenburg (1882–1945) | April 29, 1932 | May 30, 1932 | independent |
| Hermann Warmbold (1876–1976) | June 1, 1932 | January 28, 1933 | independent |
| Alfred Hugenberg (1865–1951) | January 30, 1933 | June 29, 1933 | DNVP |
| Kurt Schmitt (1886–1950) | June 29, 1933 | August 3, 1934 | NSDAP |
| Hjalmar Schacht (1877-1970) | August 3, 1934 | November 26, 1937 | independent |
| Hermann Göring (1893–1946) | November 26, 1937 | January 15, 1938 | NSDAP |
| Walther Funk (1890–1960) | February 5, 1938 | May 1, 1945 | NSDAP |
| Albert Speer (1905–1981) | May 2, 1945 | May 23, 1945 | NSDAP |
State Secretaries
| Surname | Taking office | Term expires | Political party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Julius Hirsch | 1919 | 1923 | Non-party |
| Ernst Trendelenburg | 1923 | 1932 | Non-party |
| Karl Schwarzkopf | 1932 | 1933 | Non-party |
| Paul Bang | 1933 | 1933 | DNVP |
| Hans Posse | 1933 | 1938 | Non-party |
| Rudolf Brinkmann | 1938 | 1939 | Non-party |
| Friedrich Landfried | 1939 | 1943 | Non-party |
| Franz Hayler | 1943 | 1945 | NSDAP |
| Otto Ohlendorf | 1943 | 1945 | NSDAP |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich (Ed.): Economic Policy in Germany 1917–1990. Volume 1: The Reich Ministry of Economics of the Weimar Republic and its predecessors. Structures, actors, fields of action. 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-046281-4 , Chapter IV: The emergence of the Reichswirtschaftsamt from the division of the Reichsamt des Interior in the crisis summer of 1917. ( jfki.fu-berlin.de ; pdf)
- ↑ Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Finkenwirth, Kurt. In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen : Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 117. (books.google.de)