 | |  | | Hjalmar Schacht | | | context : | Nazi Germany  | | judgement place : | IMT - Nuremberg | | status : | Acquitted | | particulars : | Schacht was one of three accused to be acquitted by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal | | position : | President of the Reichsbank, Minister of the Economy |
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| | | | When Dachau was liberated at the end of the war, Hjalmar Schacht, who was a prisoner there, was detained by the Americans due to his role as a former minister to Hitler.
Charged by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal of counts 1 (concerted plan or conspiracy) and 2 (crimes against peace), he pleaded not guilty.
The Tribunal concluded that Schacht had played a major role in the re-armament policy desired by Hitler, by putting all the means available to the Reichsbank at the disposition of such policy. It was also ruled that Schacht had been an active participant in the organisation of the German war economy. Nevertheless in consideration of the fact that re-armament as such, was not a crime in terms of the Statute of the Tribunal, the judges acquitted Hjalmar Schacht on the first count.
Concerning the wars of aggression (count No. 2), the Tribunal allowed that Schacht had not been involved in their preparation. Not being a close collaborator of Hitler, he was even viewed with hostility by the group made up of those principally responsible for crimes against peace.
On 1st October 1946, the Tribunal therefore acquitted Hjalmar Schacht of the two charges brought against him. He was freed on the same day.
Following this Schacht was subjected to proceedings brought against him by the German authorities, and was sentenced to 8 years of forced labour in 1947. This ruling was nevertheless reversed on appeal in 1948.
He died on 3 June 1970 in Munich. | |     click for more... | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Germany | | | date of birth : | | | 22.01.1877 | | | judgement period : | | | 20.11.1945 - 01.10.1946 | | | charges : | | | Aggression
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 18.03.2010 |
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