Kurt Schmitt
Encyclopedia
Kurt Paul Schmitt was a German
economic leader and the Reich Economy Minister.
The jurist
Kurt Schmitt graduated in 1911 in Munich
with the thesis "The Ongoing Information File, in Particular the Information Convention". and then went into the service of the Allianz AG
insurance
company. From 1914 to 1917 he participated in the First World War and was discharged having reached the rank of captain. In 1917, he became a member of the Allianz board of directors, leading the company from 1921 to 1933 as Chairman of the Board. During these years, he made a name for himself as one of the most gifted leaders when it came to organization in the Weimar Republic
's insurance industry. (1)
Allianz's leadership, represented by directors Kurt Schmitt and Eduard Hilgard, led a policy of drawing nearer to the Nazis, even before they seized power
. Already in October 1930, ties were forged with Hermann Göring
. These contacts were realized through company dinners and by providing private financial loans. Heinrich Brüning
and Franz von Papen
tried without success to get Schmitt a ministerial office.
Schmitt, who was also General Director of the Stuttgart
Social Insurance Corporation (Stuttgarter Verein-Versicherungs AG) by 1931 (5), was included in Hjalmar Schacht
's objectives in mid-1931.
On 18 December 1932 he participated in a meeting of the Circle of Friends of the Economy (Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft
), or Circle of Twelve (Zwölferkreis) at the Berlin Kaiserhof, where the Nazi Party agreed to lend its support. Schmitt now had closer relations with the Nazi leadership and on 20 February 1933, he, along with Hermann Göring, took part in a meeting that Adolf Hitler
had with German industrialists, at which Schmitt made an election campaign donation to the Nazis of RM
10,000. In early 1933, Schmitt joined the Nazi Party (membership no. 2 651 252). He likewise took over the posts of Vice President of the Berlin
Chamber of Industry and of the Chamber of Commerce in 1933.
Meanwhile, Schmitt was convinced that the National Socialists could deal with the problem of joblessness if the economy was led by people like him. Furthermore, he held Hitler to be a great statesman and believed that over time, the Führer would grow to become less radical. Moreover, he had a latent anti-Semitic
attitude, which Gerald D. Feldmann describes as follows: "Schmitt shared the belief that Jews were overrepresented within the academic professions, and that the rôle that they played in politics
, law
, and the art
s would have to be greatly limited, if not utterly eliminated. He believed, however, that they were entitled to a place in German economic life, and made it into a maxim of his year in office as Reich Economy Minister that there was no "Jewish question in the economy".(2)
On 30 June 1933 Schmitt was appointed Reich Economy Minister, succeeding Alfred Hugenberg
, and he also took on honorary membership in the SS
(no. 101 346). In August 1933 he took the function of Prussia
n Plenipotentiary in the Reich Government. In October of the same year he was appointed to the Prussian State Council. The Academy for German Law also took him on as a member.
On 13 March 1934 Schmitt made known what the new arrangement would be for the industrial economy. The leader of the overall organization of the industrial economy was to be Philipp Kessler, as leader of the Reich Federation of the Electrical Industry. When Schmitt wanted to replace the Reich Federation of German Industry with overall state control, he ran up against concentrated resistance from business leaders. Furthermore, Hjalmar Schacht
undertook efforts to oust Schmitt from his ministerial office so that he could take it over himself. (3) During a speech on 28 June 1934 Schmitt had a heart attack
and collapsed. He used this opportunity to go on a long recuperative holiday, and later, on 31 January 1935, Hitler approved his dismissal from ministerial office. On 30 July 1934 Schacht became Schmitt's successor as Reich Economy Minister.
After coming back from his extended leave in 1935, he took over the chairmanship in the supervisory board of AEG
AG and the Deutsche Continental Gasgesellschaft (a gas company) in Dessau
. In 1937, and until 1945, he held the board chairmanship of Münchener Rückversicherung AG
. He was also on Allianz AG's supervisory board until 1945. As a member of the Freundeskreis Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler
promoted him to SS brigadeführer
on 15 September 1935. (4) Since Schmitt was functioning as AEG supervisory board chairman, they donated to Himmler between RM
12,000 and 15,000 yearly, and Münchner Rückversicherung and Continental Gasgesellschaft between RM 6,000 and 8,000. (6)
From 1945 to 1949, Schmitt had to undergo Denazification
, administered by the United States Army
. He lost all his offices, and he was barred from practising his profession. In 1946 he was classified as a Hauptschuldiger (literally "main culprit"). This designation was reviewed in several court proceedings, and was overturned in 1949. He would now only be classified as a Mitläufer, or follower. He nevertheless still had to pay a fine and the court costs.
2nd class. He also received the Verwundetenabzeichen in black, an award given wounded soldiers. Further decorations: the War Merit Cross
first class without swords, the War Merit Cross 2nd class without swords. From the SS he received the "Reichsführer-SS Sword of Honour" and the "Totenkopfring der SS" (SS Death's Head Ring).
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
economic leader and the Reich Economy Minister.
The jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
Kurt Schmitt graduated in 1911 in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
with the thesis "The Ongoing Information File, in Particular the Information Convention". and then went into the service of the Allianz AG
Allianz
SE is a global financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core business and focus is insurance. As of 2010, it was the world's 12th-largest financial services group and 23rd-largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine.Its Allianz Global Investors...
insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
company. From 1914 to 1917 he participated in the First World War and was discharged having reached the rank of captain. In 1917, he became a member of the Allianz board of directors, leading the company from 1921 to 1933 as Chairman of the Board. During these years, he made a name for himself as one of the most gifted leaders when it came to organization in the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
's insurance industry. (1)
Allianz's leadership, represented by directors Kurt Schmitt and Eduard Hilgard, led a policy of drawing nearer to the Nazis, even before they seized power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
. Already in October 1930, ties were forged with Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
. These contacts were realized through company dinners and by providing private financial loans. Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning
Heinrich Brüning was Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932, during the Weimar Republic. He was the longest serving Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, and remains a controversial figure in German politics....
and Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...
tried without success to get Schmitt a ministerial office.
Schmitt, who was also General Director of the Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
Social Insurance Corporation (Stuttgarter Verein-Versicherungs AG) by 1931 (5), was included in Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic...
's objectives in mid-1931.
On 18 December 1932 he participated in a meeting of the Circle of Friends of the Economy (Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft
Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft
The Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft, or Circle of Friends of the Economy was a group of German industrialists whose aim was to raise funds for racial research within the Third Reich...
), or Circle of Twelve (Zwölferkreis) at the Berlin Kaiserhof, where the Nazi Party agreed to lend its support. Schmitt now had closer relations with the Nazi leadership and on 20 February 1933, he, along with Hermann Göring, took part in a meeting that Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
had with German industrialists, at which Schmitt made an election campaign donation to the Nazis of RM
German reichsmark
The Reichsmark was the currency in Germany from 1924 until June 20, 1948. The Reichsmark was subdivided into 100 Reichspfennig.-History:...
10,000. In early 1933, Schmitt joined the Nazi Party (membership no. 2 651 252). He likewise took over the posts of Vice President of the Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
Chamber of Industry and of the Chamber of Commerce in 1933.
Meanwhile, Schmitt was convinced that the National Socialists could deal with the problem of joblessness if the economy was led by people like him. Furthermore, he held Hitler to be a great statesman and believed that over time, the Führer would grow to become less radical. Moreover, he had a latent anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
attitude, which Gerald D. Feldmann describes as follows: "Schmitt shared the belief that Jews were overrepresented within the academic professions, and that the rôle that they played in politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, and the art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
s would have to be greatly limited, if not utterly eliminated. He believed, however, that they were entitled to a place in German economic life, and made it into a maxim of his year in office as Reich Economy Minister that there was no "Jewish question in the economy".(2)
On 30 June 1933 Schmitt was appointed Reich Economy Minister, succeeding Alfred Hugenberg
Alfred Hugenberg
Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg was an influential German businessman and politician. Hugenberg, a leading figure within nationalist politics in Germany for the first few decades of the twentieth century, became the country's leading media proprietor within the inter-war period...
, and he also took on honorary membership in the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
(no. 101 346). In August 1933 he took the function of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Plenipotentiary in the Reich Government. In October of the same year he was appointed to the Prussian State Council. The Academy for German Law also took him on as a member.
On 13 March 1934 Schmitt made known what the new arrangement would be for the industrial economy. The leader of the overall organization of the industrial economy was to be Philipp Kessler, as leader of the Reich Federation of the Electrical Industry. When Schmitt wanted to replace the Reich Federation of German Industry with overall state control, he ran up against concentrated resistance from business leaders. Furthermore, Hjalmar Schacht
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic...
undertook efforts to oust Schmitt from his ministerial office so that he could take it over himself. (3) During a speech on 28 June 1934 Schmitt had a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
and collapsed. He used this opportunity to go on a long recuperative holiday, and later, on 31 January 1935, Hitler approved his dismissal from ministerial office. On 30 July 1934 Schacht became Schmitt's successor as Reich Economy Minister.
After coming back from his extended leave in 1935, he took over the chairmanship in the supervisory board of AEG
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau....
AG and the Deutsche Continental Gasgesellschaft (a gas company) in Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
. In 1937, and until 1945, he held the board chairmanship of Münchener Rückversicherung AG
Munich Re
Munich Re Group is a reinsurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is one of the world’s leading reinsurers. ERGO, a Munich Re subsidiary, is the Group’s primary insurance arm....
. He was also on Allianz AG's supervisory board until 1945. As a member of the Freundeskreis Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
promoted him to SS brigadeführer
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....
on 15 September 1935. (4) Since Schmitt was functioning as AEG supervisory board chairman, they donated to Himmler between RM
German reichsmark
The Reichsmark was the currency in Germany from 1924 until June 20, 1948. The Reichsmark was subdivided into 100 Reichspfennig.-History:...
12,000 and 15,000 yearly, and Münchner Rückversicherung and Continental Gasgesellschaft between RM 6,000 and 8,000. (6)
From 1945 to 1949, Schmitt had to undergo Denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
, administered by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. He lost all his offices, and he was barred from practising his profession. In 1946 he was classified as a Hauptschuldiger (literally "main culprit"). This designation was reviewed in several court proceedings, and was overturned in 1949. He would now only be classified as a Mitläufer, or follower. He nevertheless still had to pay a fine and the court costs.
Decorations
In 1914 Schmitt was awarded the Iron CrossIron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
2nd class. He also received the Verwundetenabzeichen in black, an award given wounded soldiers. Further decorations: the War Merit Cross
War Merit Cross
The War Merit Cross was a decoration of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, which could be awarded to civilians as well as military personnel...
first class without swords, the War Merit Cross 2nd class without swords. From the SS he received the "Reichsführer-SS Sword of Honour" and the "Totenkopfring der SS" (SS Death's Head Ring).
Literature
- (1) Gerald D. Feldman, Die Allianz und die deutsche Versicherungswirtschaft 1933 bis 1945, C.H. Beck Verlag, Munich 2001
- (5) August Heinrichsbauer, Schwerindistrie und Politik, Essen 1948
- (6) Ulrich Völklein, Geschäfte mit dem Feind, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-203-83700-5
