Hermann Dietrich Explained

Hermann Dietrich
Term Start1:30 March 1930
Term End1:1 June 1932
Predecessor1:Oskar Hergt (1928)
Successor1:Franz von Papen (1933)
Term Start2:26 June 1930
Term End2:1 June 1932
Chancellor2:Heinrich Brüning
Predecessor2:Heinrich Brüning (acting)
Term Start3:1920
Term End3:1933
Constituency3:National List (1932-1933)
Baden (1920-1932)
Birth Name:Hermann Robert Dietrich
Birth Date:14 December 1879
Occupation:Politician

Hermann Robert Dietrich (14 December 1879 – 6 March 1954) was a German politician of the liberal German Democratic Party and served as a minister during the Weimar Republic.[1]

Finance Minister of Germany

In 1930, Dietrich succeeded Paul Moldenhauer as Finance Minister of the Weimar Republic. In the midst of the Great Depression, Dietrich became the "chief proponent" of government contracts in 1930 in an attempt to offset the drastic increase in unemployment. Because the contracts were contingent on the reduction of prices, he and the Provisional National Economic Council had to authorise the reduction of wages in the German industrial community.[2]

Dietrich, along with the economists Heinrich Brüning and Adam Stegerwald, firmly believed that accelerating the pace of the agricultural sector at the cost of Germany's industrial capacity would solve unemployment.

During President Paul von Hindenburg's bid for re-election, Dietrich was one of few elites in the cabinet barred from speaking at the president's candidacy campaigns for allegedly being "too far left".[3]

Notes and References

  1. Jürgen . Frölich . 'He served the German people well'. Der politische Weg Hermann Dietrichs vom badischen Nationalliberalen zum baden-württembergischen Freidemokraten . Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins . 153 . 2005 . 619–640 . 0044-2607 . de.
  2. Book: Mommsen . Hans . The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy . 1 March 1998 . UNC Press Books . 369 .
  3. Book: Mommsen . Hans . The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy . 1 March 1998 . UNC Press Books . 407 .