Hjalmar Schacht

Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht (22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970) was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder in 1918 of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. He was a fierce critic of his country's post-World War I reparation obligations.

He became a supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and served in Hitler's government as President of the Reichsbank (1933-1939) and Minister of Economics (August 1934 - November 1937). As such, Schacht played a key role in implementing the policies attributed to Hitler.

Since he opposed the policy of German re-armament spearheaded by Hitler and other prominent Nazis, Schacht was first sidelined and then forced out of the Third Reich government beginning in December 1937; therefore he had no role during World War II. He became a fringe member of the German Resistance to Hitler and was imprisoned by the Nazis after the 20 July 1944 plot. After the war, he was tried at Nuremberg and acquitted.