Karl Theodor Helfferich (22 July 1872 – 23 April 1924) was a German

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, and

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

from

Neustadt an der Weinstraße Neustadt an der Weinstraße (, formerly known as ; lb, Neustadt op der Wäistrooss ; pfl, Naischdadt) is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,300 inhabitants , it is the largest town called ''Neustadt''. Geography Location T ...

in the Palatinate.

Biography

Helfferich studied law and political science at the universities of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

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 ...

, and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. He taught at the University of Berlin and later at the government school for colonial politics and oriental languages. In 1902 he entered upon a diplomatic career. He soon became a leader in the German government's policy of

economic imperialism The theory of imperialism refers to a range of theoretical approaches to understanding the expansion of capitalism into new areas, the unequal development of different countries, and economic systems that may lead to the dominance of some count ...

, and in 1906 he was appointed director of the

Anatolian Railway The Chemins de Fer Ottomans d'Anatolie ( tr, Osmanlı Anadolu Demiryolları, en, Anatolian Railway), founded on 4 October 1888, was a railway company that operated in the Ottoman Empire.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 ...

. In 1908 he was made chairman of the directorship of the powerful

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 ...

in Berlin. At the close of the

Balkan War The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defea ...

, Helfferich was the German financial delegate to the international conference (1913). He was the secretary for the Treasury from 1916 to 1917, and was said to be responsible for financing expenses for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

through loans instead of taxes. He counted upon a final German victory and upon imposing heavy indemnities upon the Allies. He also served as the vice-chancellor for Chancellors

Georg Michaelis Georg Michaelis (8 September 1857 – 24 July 1936) was the chancellor of the German Empire for a few months in 1917. He was the first (and the only one of the German Empire) chancellor not of noble birth to hold the office. With an economic ba ...

and

Georg von Hertling Georg Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Hertling, from 1914 Count von Hertling, (31 August 1843 – 4 January 1919) was a German politician of the Catholic Centre Party. He was foreign minister and minister president of Bavaria, then chancellor of t ...

. During the November Revolution, Helfferich became an early supporter of the self proclaimed "national socialist" Eduard Stadtler and helped fund the founding of his

Anti-Bolshevist League The Anti-Bolshevist League ( German: Antibolschewistische Liga), later the League for the Protection of German Culture (Liga zum Schutze der deutschen Kultur), was a short-lived German far-right organization that initially opposed the November R ...

on December 1, 1918, receiving a cash donation of 5,000 marks from Paul Mankiewitz, the director of

. This was the nucleus of the 500-million-mark Anti-''Bolshevik Fund'' established by German industry on January 10, 1919 in Berlin. Money from this fund flowed into propagandistic anti-Bolshevik, later National Socialist projects, but also to violent groups such as

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regar ...

, which were intended to crush the socialist movement after the November Revolution. Stadtler, the founder and leader of the Anti-Bolshevist League, according to his own account, arranged for the murder of

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...

and

Karl Liebknecht Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from ...

on January 12, 1919, and broke "

Gustav Noske Gustav Noske (9 July 1868 – 30 November 1946) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He served as the first Minister of Defence (''Reichswehrminister'') of the Weimar Republic between 1919 and 1920. Noske has been a cont ...

's hesitance" about using the military in Berlin days before. After the

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (also known as the Treaty of Brest in Russia) was a separate peace, separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Russian SFSR, Russia and the Central Powers (German Empire, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Kingdom of ...

, Helfferich was sent to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

as the German Ambassador to Russia, succeeding

Wilhelm Mirbach Wilhelm Maria Theodor Ernst Richard Graf von Mirbach-Harff (2 July 1871 – 6 July 1918) was a German diplomat, and was assassinated while ambassador to Moscow. Biography Born in Bad Ischl in Upper Austria into a Catholic Rhenan aristocratic ...

, who was assassinated. Elected to the Reichstag of 1920, Helfferich led the conservative and monarchist right, known as the ''Deutsch-Nationalen'', and strongly opposed

reparations Reparation(s) may refer to: Christianity * Restitution (theology), the Christian doctrine calling for reparation * Acts of reparation, prayers for repairing the damages of sin History *War reparations **World War I reparations, made from G ...

and the economic fulfillment of the

Versailles Treaty The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

. In particular, he directed his denunciations against the democratic Catholic leader

Matthias Erzberger Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875 – 26 August 1921) was a German writer and politician (Centre Party), the minister of Finance from 1919 to 1920. Prominent in the Catholic Centre Party, he spoke out against World War I from 1917 and as a ...

, against whom he had a celebrated lawsuit in 1920. Helfferich was a prominent politician of the

German National People's Party The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...

(DNVP) and gave radical antirepublican speeches against politicians who supported reparations fulfilment. In June 1920 he was selected as spokesman in the Reichstag for the parliamentary committee of inquiry into policies during the war, which he defended. During the 1923

hyperinflation In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...

, Helfferich developed a plan for a new rye currency, indexed to the price (in paper marks) of rye and other agriculture products.. His plan was rejected because of the extreme variability in the price of rye compared to other commodities, but many of his plan elements were incorporated in the successful

RentenMark The Rentenmark (; RM) was a currency issued on 15 October 1923 to stop the hyperinflation of 1922 and 1923 in Weimar Germany, after the previously used "paper" Mark had become almost worthless. It was subdivided into 100 ''Rentenpfennig'' and ...

, which began circulation on 15 November 1923. At the end of 1923, when Helfferich applied for the post of Reichbank president, he was rejected in favor 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 ...

. Helfferich was killed in a railway wreck near

Bellinzona Bellinzona ( , , Ticinese ; french: Bellinzone ; german: Bellenz ; rm, Blizuna )is a municipality, a historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebell ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, on 23 April 1924.

Legacy

His publications comprise chiefly economic and political studies.

Works

* ''The Reform of German Finance'', 1897 * ''Studies on Money and Banking'', 1900 * ''Money'', 1903 * ''Germany's National Wealth 1888-1913'', (''Deutschlands Wohlstand, 1888-1913'') 1915 * ''Speeches and Essays from the War'', 1917 * ''Do Away with Erzberger!'', Verlag Scherl, Berlin, 1919, letters to the editor, the Berlin newspaper "Tag" * ''The World War'', (''Der Weltkrieg'') (3 vols.) published 1919 by Ullstein Berlin

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Helferrich, Karl 1872 births 1924 deaths People from Neustadt an der Weinstraße Finance ministers of Germany Government ministers of Germany People of the Weimar Republic German Protestants Germany–Soviet Union relations Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni University of Strasbourg alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Humboldt University of Berlin faculty People from the Palatinate (region) Ambassadors of Germany to Russia German National People's Party politicians Vice-Chancellors of Germany Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic German male writers German monarchists Accidental deaths in Switzerland

Biography

Legacy

Works

See also

References

Further reading

External links