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Event

Election fund of February 1933

The fund Schacht asked for after the meeting of 20 February 1933, to be shared between the Nazis and their coalition partners; pledged at three million Reichsmarks.

5 links, 3 backed by primary records

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Dates
20 Feb 1933 – 5 Apr 1933

Connections 5

led by

  • Hjalmar Schacht 20 Feb 1933 – 5 Apr 1933 Primary record 1234

    Turner says Schacht administered the fund, and the bank ledger is headed with his name. Schacht, interrogated in 1945, said he had nothing to do with the account and played the role of cashier at the meeting itself.

funded by

  • I. G. Farben 1 Mar 1933 400,000 RM Primary record 35

    The ledger printed at Nuremberg has this line. Karl Heinz Roth (Wollheim Memorial) writes that IG paid 400,000 to the party and 100,000 to Papen. Georg von Schnitzler swore in 1945 that he did not know at the time what IG had paid.

involved

caused by

Timeline 3 dates
  1. 20 Feb 1933 – 5 Apr 1933 Election fund of February 1933
  2. 20 Feb 1933 – 5 Apr 1933 Hjalmar Schacht leads Election fund of February 1933
  3. 1 Mar 1933 I. G. Farben funded Election fund of February 1933
Proof 6 sources
  1. German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler (Oxford University Press, 1985; page numbers come from the running heads of a scanned copy and may be off by one), Oxford University Press, 1985. Scholarship & press
    delivered it during the subsequent weeks to Schacht, who administered it
    to insist that Schacht assign a quarter of the yield to the Kampffront-Schwarz-Weiss-Rot, an election alliance formed by Vice-Chancellor Papen, the Stahlhelm veterans’ organization, and the DNVP.
  2. Interrogation of Hjalmar Schacht, 20 July 1945 (document NI-406, extract), Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Volume VII (U.S. Government Printing Office; Mazal Library copy), 20 Jul 1945. Primary record
    I just played the role of cashier or financial treasurer at the meeting itself.
  3. Entries in the account "National Trusteeship" in the files of Delbrueck, Schickler and Co. (document NI-391), Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Volume VII (U.S. Government Printing Office; Mazal Library copy). Primary record
    National Trusteeship Reichsbank President Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Berlin-Zehlendorf
    IG. Farbenindustrie A.G. Frankfurt/M Mar. 1 400,000.00
  4. Entries in the account "National Trusteeship" in the files of Delbrueck, Schickler and Co. (document NI-391), p. 568: the closing balance, Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Volume VII (U.S. Government Printing Office; Mazal Library copy). Primary record
    Balance carried over 2,021,404.50
  5. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (Viking, New York, 2007; quotes read from the text of the Penguin e-book, ISBN 978-1-101-56495-0, chapter 4), Viking, 2007. Scholarship & press
    The largest individual donations came from IG Farben (400,000 Reichsmarks)
    He proposed an election fund of 3 million Reichsmarks, to be shared between the Nazis and their nationalist coalition partners.
  6. Affidavit of Georg von Schnitzler, 10 November 1945 (document EC-439), Harvard Law School Library, Nuremberg Trials Project, 10 Nov 1945. Primary record
    After Hitler had left the room, Dr. Schacht proposed to the meeting the raising of an election fund of—as far as I remember—RM 3,000,000.
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