The military resurgence of the German Reich after the defeat of the First World War and the catastrophe of the Weimar Republic is one of the most astonishingly fatal events of the 20th century. Millions upon millions lost their lives after the resentment-driven German people rose again militarily from the ruins of the Treaty of Versailles. In charge of financing the gigantic German war machine was an economist and intellectual who was not initially suspected of harboring nationalist or even extremist thoughts: the president of the German Reichsbank at the time, Hjalmar Schacht.

Born in 1877 in Tingleff, in northern Germany, into a middle-class family, the economist turned himself into a top banker, starting out at Dresdner Bank and making decisive reforms at the height of the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. It is all amazing what happened later, considering that Schacht was a founding member of the ddp party, a social-liberal grouping that had no connection whatsoever towards the resentment driven extremist groups that lateron brought Weimar to its kneed.

Was it the plundering by the Treaty of Versailles that radicalized this man from the middle class of society and put him on the path of Adolf Hitler or was Schacht nothing more than the typical successful careerist and political hanger-on who recognized the opportunity and took advantage of it?

After Hitler’s ascent, Schacht was reappointed Reichsbank President (1933–1939) and named Minister of Economics (1934–1937). He engineered Germany’s economic recovery through innovative policies like the MEFO bills, which secretly financed rearmament, and public works programs that reduced unemployment. However, he clashed with Hitler and Hermann Göring over excessive military spending, which he believed destabilized the economy and violated the Treaty of Versailles (!!).

These tensions led to his resignation from the Reichsbank in 1939 and his dismissal as Minister without Portfolio in 1943. Of course, if you let the money printer run hot, things turned out as they had to: with the start of the Second World War and the invasion of Poland, Germany was faced with insolvency and hyperinflation, once again, which is why the Nazis consistently sought the gold reserves of the subjugated states first. Schacht’s relationship with the Nazi regime soured further as he opposed Hitler’s aggressive policies. In 1944, after the failed July 20 assassination attempt on Hitler, he was arrested by the Gestapo for alleged contacts with the resistance and interned in concentration camps, including Ravensbrück and Flossenbürg.

Liberated in 1945, he faced trial at Nuremberg but was acquitted in 1946, as the tribunal found insufficient evidence tying him to war crimes. German denazification courts later sentenced him to eight years in prison, but he was released in 1948 after an appeal.

Post-war, Schacht founded a private bank in Düsseldorf in 1953 and advised leaders like Egypt’s Gamal Nasser. A prolific writer, he authored 26 books, including The Stabilization of the Mark (1927) and Confessions of "The Old Wizard" (1956). Known for his high intellect—he scored 143 on an IQ test at Nuremberg—Schacht remains a controversial figure, celebrated for his economic genius yet criticized for his early Nazi collaboration.

This video from 'Slice Full Doc' takes an interesting look and angle at the events surrounding the Reichsbank before the second world war: https://shorturl.at/38ZmD