Hjalmar Schacht war ein Finanzgenie und maßgeblich am Wirtschaftsaufschwung unter Hitler beteiligt. Er war Reichsbankpräsident und Wirtschaftsminister und wurde doch nie Mitglied der NSDAP. Er ermöglichte die Aufrüstung des Dritten Reichs und wurde doch wegen seiner offenen Kritik am Regime als Minister entlassen. Er wurde der Teilnahme am Attentat auf Hitler verdächtigt, ins Konzentrationslager geschickt und saß doch nach dem Krieg auf der Anklagebank in Nürnberg. John Weitz setzt sich in dieser Biographie mit der widersprüchlichen Persönlichkeit Schachts auseinander.
HITLER'S BANKER is a full-scale biography of Hjalmar Schacht, one of history's premier financial wizards. Chief Architect of the Nazi economy, Schacht's rampant inflation financed the creation of the most powerful war machine in Europe out of the rubble of a devastated Weimar Republic. Weitz chronicles Schacht's early life and his meteoric success in the international banking world, deftly juxtaposing the twentieth-century history of Germany itself. HITLER'S BANKER is the riveting life story of a man imprisoned by Hitler because of his anti-Nazi sentiments and charged as a war criminal by the Allies. Exonerated of all charges at Nuremberg, Schacht lived to become a successful author and economic adviser to foreign nations, and a wealthy private banker.
HITLER'S BANKER is a full-scale biography of Hjalmar Schacht, one of history's premier financial wizards. Chief Architect of the Nazi economy, Schacht's rampant inflation financed the creation of the most powerful war machine in Europe out of the rubble of a devastated Weimar Republic. Weitz chronicles Schacht's early life and his meteoric success in the international banking world, deftly juxtaposing the twentieth-century history of Germany itself. HITLER'S BANKER is the riveting life story of a man imprisoned by Hitler because of his anti-Nazi sentiments and charged as a war criminal by the Allies. Exonerated of all charges at Nuremberg, Schacht lived to become a successful author and economic adviser to foreign nations, and a wealthy private banker.
Weitz is perhaps at his best in the details of the floundering Deutschmark, when speculators played the interenational markets, and in the well placed reminders of the way in which the Americans, British and French were prepared to overlook the increasing thuggery of Nazi Germany so long as their own institutions were safe. DAILY TELEGRAPH