Schacht, Hjalmar

Schacht, (Horace Greeley) Hjalmar

(born Jan. 22, 1877, Tinglev, Ger.—died June 4, 1970, Munich, W.Ger.) German financier. He served as vice director of the Dresdner Bank and director of the German National Bank before becoming a commissioner in the finance ministry (1923), where he developed a rigorous monetary program that halted German inflation and stabilized the mark. He became president of the Reichsbank (1923–30, 1933–39) and minister of economics (1934–37), but he was dismissed when he opposed Adolf Hitler's rearmament expenditure. Imprisoned after the July Plot against Hitler's life (1944), he was later captured by the Allies and acquitted at the Nürnberg trials. He later founded a bank in Düsseldorf and served as an international financial consultant.