Hermann Warmbold

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Eleonore Wagemann
​
(m. 1923)​
Hermann Warmbold
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R1230-505, Hermann Warmbold (cropped).jpg
Warmbold in 1932 at a meeting of Papen's cabinet.
Reich Minister of Economics
In office
10 October 1931 (1931-10-10) –6 May 1932 (1932-05-06)

Hermann Warmbold (21 April 1876 - 11 March 1976) was a German independent politician and academic who served as Reich Minister of Economics during the Weimar Republic from 1931 to 1933, with a brief break in 1932.

Contents

Initially a farmer, he eventually entered academia, specializing in agricultural economics. He initially entered politics for the Prussian state government as Minister of Agriculture. He was appointed Reich Minister of Economics in Heinrich Brüning's cabinet in 1931 upon pressure from I.G. Farben. During his time as minister, his primary focus was combatting the financial crisis in the republic as part of the Great Depression worldwide. After leaving the ministerial role, he served as provisional Reich Minister of Labour for 5 days. Warmbold then spent the rest of his career in obscurity, moving to Chile in 1945 to help the government led by Juan Antonio Ríos with agricultural affairs.

Early life

Warmbold was born on 21 April 1876 Klein Himstedt, a village then near Söhlde, in the Kingdom of Prussia. [1] He attended Gymnasium Andreanum, which was sponsored by the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover. [2] He then studied at the universities of Göttingen and Bonn. [3] From 1907 to 1911 he was the Secretary General of the Agricultural and Forestry Association in Lüneburg, [4] and also worked as head of the Chamber of Agriculture in Hanover. [5] After this, in 1911, he went to Estonia as an agricultural organizer [6] and financial expert [7] working for the Estonian Knighthood in Reval. [8] During this time he also worked on an experimental farm in Reval. [4] He returned to Germany in 1913, becoming the head of the Department of Economic Administration at the Agricultural University of Berlin. [9]

Warmbold was a reserve soldier for the 7th Guards Infantry Regiment during World War One. [10]

He was the director of the University of Hohenheim for two years from 1917 to 1919. [11] Alongside this he was a Full Professor of Agricultural Economics from 1915 to 1919. [12] [13] During his time as director, he brought Margarete von Wrangell, the first female full professor at a German university, to the university after she fled due to the October Revolution. [14] At the university he also set up an advisory service for farmers and developed a more efficient system for grassland, which became famous internationally. [15]

Political career

Early political career

From 1919 to 1921 he was Ministerial Director in the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, Estates and Forestry. [16] Warmbold was then from 21 April to 7 November 1921 Minister of Agriculture in Adam Stegerwald's ministry of the Prussian state government. [17] [18] [a] After leaving he became a member of the board of Anilin-und Sodafabrik. [19] He was also a board member of I.G. Farben from 1926 to 1931. [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] Carl Bosch released Warmbold from the board of Farben in order for him to become minister. [25]

Minister of Economics

First term

On 10 October 1931 he was appointed Minister of Economics for the first time in Heinrich Brüning's cabinet. [26] Warmbold was appointed because of IG Farben, who pressured Brüning to respond to the collapse of Germany's banks by providing credit-financed relief to the German industry. [27] He was appointed during the financial crisis in the Weimar Republic as part of the Great Depression. In a meeting with the Economic Advisory Council soon after he said it was "difficult to determine whether the crisis had its causes on the money side or on the goods side", and he stated a main priority was to prevent the turnover of goods from shrinking due to contractions with trade in foreign countries as a result of the depression. [28]

Prior to this, on 3 August 1931, he proposed stimulating the economy with short-term domestic loans. [29] He also responded with ideas similar to that of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of the United States, saying there needed to be immediate loans to the industry out of the treasury, which Paul von Hindenburg approved on 1 October. [30]

He officially resigned on 6 May 1932, and it was speculated that he resigned due to ill health and to make way for Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, a member of the then opposition party of Alfred Hugenberg. [31] [32] However, he officially stated that it was a difference in opinion with Brüning over working hours and the planned savings premium bond. [33]

Second term

He was appointed against minister later that same year under Franz von Papen. [34] He was also the acting Reich Minister of Labour for 5 days until 6 June when Hugo Schäffer was appointed minister. [35] Soon after, he was part of the delegation to the Lausanne Conference of 1932. [36] In order to fund Papen's employment bill, which in the end cost $500,000,000, he embraced a reduction on interest rates on internal debt. [37] He also criticized reparations payments from World War One as having hurt the agriculture of Germany. [38] It was generally predicted that Warmbold would lost his spot as minister upon Papen resigning, but he retained his ministerial role in Kurt von Schleicher's cabinet starting 3 December 1932. [39] [40]

He said in January 1933 that he thought the Great Depression was nearly over, as evidenced by the gain in long-term German loans abroad. [41] [42] He resigned on 28 January 1933 upon Adolf Hitler becoming chancellor. [43]

Later work

Upon the end of World War Two, Warmbold immigrated to Chile, working as an expert in agricultural economics. [44] He was in the faculty of economic sciences at the University of Santiago, Chile. [45]

Personal life

He married Eleonore Wagemann, who was German Chilean, in December 1923. [9] [46] Wagemann was the sister of Ernst Wagemann, making him his brother-in-law, who proposed the Wagemann Plan in response to the Great Depression. [47]

Death

Warmbold died on 11 March 1976 in Tegernsee, West Germany at the age of 99. [48] [49]

Honours and awards

Notes

  1. ↑ The ministry collapsed and resigned on 1 November 1921, but business was continued until Otto Braun's ministry took over.

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References

  1. ↑ Otto, Paul (1918). Technischer literaturkalender . München: R Oldenbourg. p. 739. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  2. ↑ Warmbold, Hermann (1905). Untersuchungen über die Biologie stickstoffbindender Bakterien: Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Veränderungen im Stickstoffgehalte des unbebauten Ackerbodens (in German). F. Stollberg. Retrieved 10 January 2025. Von Ostern 1889-1893 war ich Schuler des Konigl. Andreas-Realgymnasiums zu Hildesheim, das ich mit der Versetzung nach Obersekunda verliess, um mich der praktischen Landwirtschaft zu widmen.
  3. ↑ Killy, Walther; Vierhaus, Rudolf (30 November 2011). Thibaut - Zycha. Walter de Gruyter. p. 351. ISBN   978-3-11-096116-4 . Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Kurzbiographien der Personen in den "Akten der Reichskanzlei, Weimarer Republik"". www.bundesarchiv.de (in German). Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  5. ↑ 50 [i.e. Fünfzig] Jahre deutsches Wirtschaftsministerium (in German). Pressestelle d. Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft. 1967. p. 92. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  6. ↑ "De Beide Nieuwe Ministers". Het Vaderland. 10 October 1931. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  7. ↑ Klein, Ernst (1968). Die akademischen Lehrer der Universität Hohenheim (Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule) 1818-1968 (in German). W. Kohlhammer. p. 27. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  8. ↑ Zeitschrift für Agrargeschichte und Agrarsoziologie (in German). DLG-Verlag. 1970. p. 53. ISBN   978-3-7690-0283-6 . Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  9. 1 2 Fremdling, Rainer; Stäglin, Reiner (2020), "Wagemann, Ernst", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 27, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 183–185{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link); ( full text online )
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  11. ↑ "Direktoren, Rektoren und Präsidenten der Universität: Universitätsarchiv und Museum". 25 March 2017. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
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  14. ↑ Hirte, Katrin (22 October 2018). Die deutsche Agrarpolitik und Agrarökonomik: Entstehung und Wandel zweier ambivalenter Disziplinen (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 344. ISBN   978-3-658-21684-9 . Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  15. ↑ Harwood, Jonathan (2005). Technology's Dilemma: Agricultural Colleges Between Science and Practice in Germany, 1860-1934. Peter Lang. p. 153. ISBN   978-3-03910-299-0 . Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  16. ↑ Wirtschaftspolitik in der Krise: die (Geheim-)Konferenz der Friedrich List-Gesellschaft im September 1931 über Möglichkeiten und Folgen einer Kreditausweitung (in German). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. 1991. p. 60. ISBN   978-3-7890-2116-9 . Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  17. ↑ "Preußen: Die Staatsministerien 1918-1933". www.gonschior.de. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  18. ↑ Forster, Bernhard (2003). Adam Stegerwald (1874-1945): christlich-nationaler Gewerkschafter, Zentrumspolitiker, Mitbegründer der Unionsparteien (in German). Droste. p. 297. ISBN   978-3-7700-1889-5 . Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  19. ↑ "Das weite Kabinett Bruning". Bünder Tageblatt. 10 October 1931. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  20. ↑ "Die Fusion in der Groß-Chemie". Volksblatt. 25 January 1926. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  21. ↑ "Ordentliche Vorstandmitglieder". Berliner Börsen-Zeitun. 8 June 1927. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  22. ↑ "Ordentliche Vorstandsmitglieder". Berliner Börsen-Zeitung. 13 June 1928. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  23. ↑ "Preubische Bfandbrief-Bank in Berlin". Deutscher Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger. 11 May 1929. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  24. ↑ "Preubische Central-Bodenfredit und Biandbrief-Bank in Berlin". Deutscher Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger. 31 July 1930. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  25. ↑ Hughes, Thomas Parke (1969). "Technological Momentum in History: Hydrogenation in Germany 1898-1933". Past & Present (44): 106–132. doi:10.1093/past/44.1.106. ISSN   0031-2746. JSTOR   649734 . Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  26. ↑ "New Cabinet Formed". Hobart Mercury Newspaper. 12 October 1931. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  27. ↑ Tooze, J. Adam (1999). "Weimar's Statistical Economics: Ernst Wagemann, the Reich's Statistical Office, and the Institute for Business-Cycle Research, 1925-1933". The Economic History Review. 52 (3): 523–543. doi:10.1111/1468-0289.00135. ISSN   0013-0117. JSTOR   2599143 . Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  28. ↑ "Die Kabinette Brüning I und II. Band 3 (Edition "Akten der Reichskanzlei, Weimarer Republik")". www.bundesarchiv.de (in German). Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  29. ↑ Winkler, Heinrich August (2005). Weimar 1918 - 1933: die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie (in German). C.H.Beck. p. 421. ISBN   978-3-406-43884-4 . Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  30. ↑ Fay, Sidney B. (1932). "Hitler's Bid for Supreme Power". Current History. 37 (1): 101–106. ISSN   2641-080X. JSTOR   45339997 . Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  31. ↑ "German Drops Cabinet Post". Salt Lake Tribune. 7 May 1932. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  32. ↑ "German Minister to Resign". Lincoln Nebraska State Journal. 4 May 1932. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  33. ↑ "Die neuen Manner". Deutsche Reichs-Zeitung. 1 June 1932. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  34. ↑ "Mitglieder der neuen Reichsregierung". Bochumer Anzeiger und General-Anzeiger. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  35. ↑ "Das Kabinett von Papen. Band 2 (Edition "Akten der Reichskanzlei, Weimarer Republik")". www.bundesarchiv.de (in German). Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  36. ↑ Eyck, Erich (1963). A history of the Weimar Republic. 2, From the Locarno Conference to Hitlerʼs seizure of power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 402. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  37. ↑ "Germany May Reduce Rates". The Berkshire Evening Eagle. 27 August 1932. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  38. ↑ Francia: Forschungen zur Westeuropaischen Geschichte. Munich: Artemis Verlag. 1976. p. 526. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  39. ↑ "German Crisis". Galveston Daily News. 3 December 1932. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  40. ↑ "German Cabinet Is Completed Today By von Schleicher". New Castle News. 5 December 1932. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  41. ↑ "Reich Economics Head Sees Recovery On Way". Washington Evening Star. 12 January 1933. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  42. ↑ "Germany's Job Bill In Effect". Creston News Advertiser. 6 September 1932. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  43. ↑ Thoss, Hendrik (2008). Demokratie ohne Demokraten?: die Innenpolitik der Weimarer Republik (in German). Be.bra-Verlag. p. 177. ISBN   978-3-89809-406-1 . Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  44. ↑ Dufner, Georg (13 February 2014). Partner im Kalten Krieg: Die politischen Beziehungen zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und Chile (in German). Campus Verlag. p. 64. ISBN   978-3-593-50097-3 . Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  45. ↑ Curso Internacional de Reforma Agraria (in Brazilian Portuguese). IICA Biblioteca Venezuela. 1962. p. 104. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  46. ↑ "Bekanntmachung". Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. 16 December 1923. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
  47. ↑ Hayes, Peter (13 November 2000). Industry and Ideology: I. G. Farben in the Nazi Era. Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN   978-0-521-78638-6 . Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  48. ↑ DLG-Mitteilungen (in German). DLG-Verlag. 1976. p. 337. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  49. ↑ Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau (in German). Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft. 1976. p. 178. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
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