Bundesarchiv Bild 102-08458, Emil Georg von Strauss

Emil Georg von Stauss (often rendered Emil Georg von Stauß, 6 October 1877 in

Baiersbronn Baiersbronn is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality and a village in the district of Freudenstadt (district), Freudenstadt in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated in the Black Forest on the Murg (Northern Black Forest), Mu ...

– 11 December 1942 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

) was a German banker who served as Director-General of the board of the

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

Business career

As well as his banking interests von Stauss was also noted for his expertise in the petroleum industry, serving on the board of Deutsche Petroleum from 1920. He became a member of the board at

Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (abbreviated as DMG, also known as ''Daimler Motors Corporation'') was a German engineering company and later automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900) and ...

in 1925. He would continue his role at

Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group Aktiengesellschaft, AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It ...

, eventually serving as chairman of the board. In 1926 he also became chairman of BMW.Chandler & Hikino, ''Scale and Scope'', p. 529

Politics

A close friend of

Hjalmar Schacht Hjalmar Schacht (born Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht; 22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970, ) was a German economist, banker, centre-right politician, and co-founder in 1918 of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner a ...

, von Stauss had been cultivating close links to the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

since 1930. As well as holding several meetings with

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

he also knew

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

well and provided him with significant funding during the Nazi rise to power.Henry Ashby Turner (ed.), ''Hitler aus nächster Nähe, Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929-1932'', Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Vienna 1978, p. 456 ff Personally closer to Göring, he introduced the Nazi leader to a number of leading business figures at dinner parties, contacts that helped to ensure the smooth transfer of power to the Nazis and avoid the possibility of any opposition from business leaders fearing any socialist aspect to

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

Francis R. Nicosia Francis R. Nicosia (born October 29, 1944 in Philadelphia) works as a historian at the University of Vermont with a focus on modern history and Holocaust research. Life Francis R. Nicosia worked for the Peace Corps in Libya in 1968/69. In Germ ...

, Jonathan Huener, ''Business and Industry in Nazi Germany'', Berghahn Books, 2004, p. 20 Despite this von Stauss was a high-profile member of the

German People's Party The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...

(DVP) and represented the group in the Reichstag from 1930 to 1932. He had however been encouraged to retain his membership of the party by Göring, who felt he was more useful in that party, and tried to push the DVP more towards a pro-Nazi Party line in the run up to the Nazi takeover. With the dissolution of the DVP in 1933 he was elected to the Reichstag again in 1933 and served as

Vice-President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

of the body.Ernst Klee, ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Zweite aktualisierte Auflage'', Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, , p. 598 He was however one of the few members never to take up formal membership of the Nazi Party, sitting as an independent.

References

External links

* 1877 births 1942 deaths German bankers Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft Deutsche Bank people Directors of BMW Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany German People's Party politicians {{Nazi-stub