老奇才的自白：德国金融沙皇亚尔玛沙赫特自传

by [德]亚尔马·沙赫特(Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht), 赵晖 (Translator)

English, German (translation)

Genres: Economics, History, Germany

620 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hjalmar Schacht was perhaps the most competent person ever in the employ of the Nazis. He was President of the Reichsbank and Economic Minister. In 1938, he fell out with Hitler and was dismissed. Later, he participated in the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, for which he was arrested and sent to a concentration camp.

When the war ended, Schacht was charged at the War Crimes Trials in Nuremberg, at which he was acquitted.

Schacht’s views on a variety of subjects are of great interest, and his descriptions of conditions at Nuremberg will be of great value to me when I get to that section of my novel-in-progress. I am looking forward to inventing conversations between Schacht and my fictional character Berthold Becker, also a defendant at the same trial, in which Berthold will challenge some of Schacht’s actions and particularly what he says he knew (or didn’t know) about the holocaust.

Schacht’s knowledge of the holocaust … when I received the Bill of Indictment at Nuremberg in 1945 … I learnt for the first time of the monstrous crimes committed against humanity, above all the Jews, by Hitler himself and by his orders. LMW: I DON’T BELIEVE HIM !!!

Schacht on the Jews …

* Hitler promised that the laws relating to foreigners should apply to the Jews … that is that Jews should enjoy the same protection accorded to foreigners … (instead) he caused the Jews to be deprived of all rights and treated as outlaws …

* One of the most insidiously disruptive statements ever made is that religion is a private matter … religion cannot be a private matter … as exemplified in the church it is the foundation of every state and of every national community … a Christian country cannot permit non-Christians to exercise an influence which would admit of their directly the spiritual and moral life of the community along other than Christian lines … Religion is no private affair … It is the foundation stone of the State

* It seems to me that anti-Semitism is not based on religious factors even on the assertion that Jews crucified the Saviour … rather it is the fact that, owing to his ability … whenever he resides in a non-Jewish community that the Jew endeavors to insinuate himself into the intellectual and cultural leadership of that community … When, as a result, the legal and medical professions show an unusually high percentage of Jews … When most of the theaters, the press, the concerts were under Jewish management … Then this constitutes the incursion of a foreign element into the spirit of the hostess nation … All of the above-mentioned professions exercise a civilizing influence … a nation whose civilization is rooted in Christianity will therefore always be at pains to preserve Christianity as the basis of the civilization … and to discourage foreign elements in its cultural life … So long as the Jews fail to appreciate this fact they will come up against difficulties, as a history of many nations reveals

* I have always declared myself in favor of limiting Jewish activity to a certain extent in governmental, legal and cultural matters … based on a certain percentage

* At the 1938 Reichsbank Christmas party for the office boys … I referred to the events of November 9 (Krystallnacht) … the deliberate burning of Jewish synagogues … the destruction and looting of Jewish businesses … and the ill treatment of Jewish citizens … was such a wanton and outrageous undertaking as to make every decent German blush for shame … I hope none among you had any share in these goings on … If any of you did take part I advise you to get out of the Reischbank as quickly as possible … We have no room in the Reichsbank for people who do not respect the life property and convictions of others … Several party “pundits” were present during the speech

* Schacht’s dismissal by Hitler followed soon thereafter … I received a message letting me to come to the chancellery punctually at 9 o’clock the following morning (Jan 20) … scarcely had I entered the big drawing room looking out onto the garden of the old Chancellory … when the Fuhrer came in and the following conversation took place … Hitler: I sent for you, Herr Schacht, to hand you the written notice of dismissal from the office of president of the Reichsbank … You don’t fit in to the general National-Socialist scheme of things … You have refused to allow your staff to submit to political scrutiny by the Party … You have criticized and condemned the events of the 9th November to your employees … Finally Hitler said he was too upset to continue this conversation … I replied I can always come back when you have grown calmer …

Why did Schacht advocate for Hitler to be part of the government (1932), and why did Schacht later join that government (1933)?

* I had met Hitler at Goring’s house … subsequently I went to see Bruning … I urged him to include the NS in his cabinet because I believe that only in this way could one capture and chain the tremendous propagandist force that I had observed in Hitler … the NS must be gradually initiated into the practical duties of government … they must not be allowed to remain in opposition … Bruning would have none of my suggestion

* the Nazi’s “political economists” (Gottfried Feder and Karl Rower) would spell ruin for German economic policy … I felt it my duty to prevent such a disaster … I therefore gave Hitler to understand that if he came into power I would not refuse to collaborate with him

Repression of the German people under the Nazis

* Once Hitler took power … any possibility of political propaganda among the German people could be completely ruled out … there was no freedom of assembly, no freedom of speech, no freedom of authorship … it was not even possible to engage in conversation and small intimate circles … Every word uttered in the presence of more than one other person was liable to endanger one’s life

[Tulga G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I found this book about Hjalmar Schacht, former president of Central Bank during 1930s because my curiosity led me to thoughts that how World wars were funded financially. I was glad that his background was same as me with banking and that was a one reason that I quite enjoyed reading. Secondly, I am quite interested in autobiography books that were written by his/her own because I think that a person can only share his or her true wit and lessons without any additional feeling. Thirdly, I was quite inspired the way he acted as president of Central bank against the policies of Adolf Hitler and his war actions. Once, he decided to stop funding the companies that supported the war Hitler planned from Central bank and that was why Hitler decided to put him in a prison after making him quitting his position because Hitler told that Schacht was not fully understanding his policies. After World War 2, he was sent to a prison again by Allies in 1945 relating Hitler policies and pleaded not guilty in the end.

[Sergei Shnitman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an exciting tale from one of Third Reich's top officials in charge of economic policy. Dr. Schacht tells his life story which is tightly knit with economic history of his country in XX century (as head of Dresdner bank during Wilhelmine era, tackling hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic and finally serving the needs of the militarist Nazi regime).

To warn a specific category of readers in advance: this book is not about self moral acquittal, regrets on one's own reluctance to resist the inhuman Nazi machine. Confessions Of The Old Wizard is a view of a professional economist on the course of events who like many other career-focused individuals in Germany tried to ignore the atrocities of the regime and focused on his own objectives. For an economist this book would be an invaluable source to enrich one's mental database of interesting real-life economic cases and applicable decisions. A historian of Third Reich would get an opportunity to switch to a different view of the well-known course of events.

I highly recommend reading this book if you have already read Adam Tooze's Wages of destruction to view the situation from a slightly different point of view. Despite severe criticism from Tooze's side, Schacht's story does not contradict with his chronicle of events but gives additional insight into actual circumstances.

[Serhii Kushchenko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is worth reading only if you have a compelling interest in the history of Germany and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. If you don't have such an interest, it’s probably better to spend your time reading other books. This book contains many interesting facts, but it lacks a coherent method for interpreting them.

If you do decide to read this book, consider this: what is the author leaving out? Perhaps he downplayed his role in Hitler's rise to power. However, since he was acquitted by several biased courts, who are we to re-try him now?

A couple of times throughout the text, Hjalmar Schacht hints that he is not enthusiastic about universal suffrage. However, he doesn't go into this further, trying not to provoke the leftists who were in power at the time of this book's writing and publication. They could have caused significant problems for him and his family.

Worst of all, the author avoids discussing the motivations of those who made key decisions. He achieved great success in his career precisely because he understood people's motivations and knew how to predict and influence their behavior. However, he was unwilling to share these secrets with his readers.

Why did everything turn out this way? How likely were other scenarios? These are the most important questions. However, Hjalmar Schacht devotes little attention to them in his book. He blames the massive reparations imposed on Germany by the victors after World War I for the radicalization of the German people. This radicalization created fertile ground for the development of Nazism. However, it would be too superficial to attribute everything that happened solely to reparations.

Those familiar with Bolshevism are deeply moved by the fact that Hjalmar Schacht, along with many other political prisoners, survived until Germany's capitulation in World War II. The Bolsheviks rigorously killed all their political prisoners before surrendering any cities to the Germans. They spared common criminals, however. The Bolsheviks would have called the Gestapo and SS's sparing of Hjalmar Schacht rotten liberalism and criminal appeasement of hostile elements.

[Ľuboš Barskto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keďže ma fascinuje obdobie Druhej svetovej vojny, a zároveň ma trochu zaujímajú aj financie, tak som sa dostal aj k tejto nezvyčajnej knihe. Postavu Hjalmara Schachta som prvý krát výraznejšie zaznamenal v knihe Norimberský Denník, kde ma zaujal svojou vysokou inteligenciou (spomedzi všetkých testovaných väzňov dosiahol najvyššie skóre, čo druhý v poradí, Herman Goering, nevedel rozdýchať). Zaujal ale hlavne tvrdeniami, že nikdy nebol členom nacistickej strany, a že konšpiroval proti nacistom za účelom atentátu na Hitlera a zvrhnutia jeho režimu. Počas čítania Norimberského denníku som si o ňom čosi naštudoval na Wikipédií, kde som sa dočítal, že ako prezident Ríšskej banky a ako Minister financií spravil veľa dôležitých rozhodnutí na stabilizáciu národnej meny, rozvoj ekonomiky alebo zníženie nezamestnanosti a chcel som o tom zistiť viac.

Toto je kniha iba pre naozajstných labužníkov, pravých kožmekerov, takzvaných kajšmentke. Schacht knihu zjavne písal sám, a tak to aj vyzerá. Autor je technický človek, matematik a ekonóm, bez výraznejšieho zmyslu pre umelecké písanie. Schacht je obdarený skvelou pamäťou a z nejakého dôvodu sa rozhodol opísať v knihe celý svoj život, vrátane detstva a dospievania, ktoré v zásade nebolo ničím výnimočné (kniha má 520 strán). Kniha tým pádom trochu pôsobí ako extrémne rozsiahla stránka o autorovi na Wikipédií.

Štýl autora mal aj svoje svetlé stránky. Pôsobenie v Ríšskej banke a na poste ministra opísal veľmi pragmaticky, takže mojej zvedavosti bolo v tomto učinené za dosť. Zároveň ma zaujali pasáže o jeho živote, o ktorých som dovtedy nemal takmer žiadne informácie, napríklad prechod medzi postom ministra do koncentračného tábora, následne prechod z koncentračného tábora do spojeneckého väzenia, prechod z Norimberského procesu do nemeckých denacifikačných procesov a celkovo nestabilnú politickú situáciu v Nemecku v povojnových rokoch, a život po skončení týchto procesov.

[Julia Simões · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Confessions Of The Old Wizard: The Autobiography Of Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht" may be my favourite autobiography. As an Economist and a history geek, I was fascinated to learn more about Schacht's personal and professional life, as well as his part in reconstructing Germany's economy before World War II.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject, but be aware there is a lot of Economics details that may be complex if you are unaware of the economy's situation in Europe at the time.