Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk

Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
1932 photo by Robert Sennecke
Leading Minister of the German Reich
In office 1 May 1945 – 23 May 1945
President	Karl Dönitz
Preceded by	Joseph Goebbels as Reich Chancellor
Succeeded by	Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
German Foreign Minister
In office 2 May 1945 – 23 May 1945
President	Karl Dönitz
Preceded by	Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Succeeded by	Office abolished
German Finance Minister
In office 1 June 1932 – 23 May 1945
President	Paul von Hindenburg (to 1934) Karl Dönitz (1945)
Führer	Adolf Hitler
Chancellor	Franz von Papen Kurt von Schleicher Adolf Hitler Joseph Goebbels
Preceded by	Hermann R. Dietrich
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Personal details
Born	Johann Ludwig von Krosigk 22 August 1887 Rathmannsdorf, Anhalt, Germany
Died	4 March 1977 (aged 89) Essen, West Germany
Political party	None
Spouse(s)	Ehrengard von Plettenberg
Children	9
Alma mater	University of Halle University of Lausanne Oriel College, Oxford
Occupation	Officer Jurist Minister
Religion	Lutheran[1]

Johann Ludwig Graf^[2] Schwerin von Krosigk, born Johann Ludwig von Krosigk and known as Lutz von Krosigk (22 August 1887 – 4 March 1977) was a German senior government official who served as Minister of Finance of Germany from 1932 to 1945 and Leading Minister of the German Reich (Chancellor) in May 1945.

A non-partisan moderate conservative, he was appointed to the post by Franz von Papen in 1932. At the request of President Paul von Hindenburg, he continued in that office under Kurt von Schleicher and Adolf Hitler. During May 1945, after the suicides of Hitler and his designated successor Josef Goebbels, he also served in the historically unique position of Leading Minister of the German Reich, the equivalent of a Chancellorship, in the short-lived Flensburg government of President Karl Dönitz. Schwerin von Krosigk also held the essentially nominal offices of Foreign Minister and Finance Minister in the provisional government that controlled only a small, progressively shrinking portion of Germany, due to the rapid advance of the Allied forces who finally dissolved it and arrested its members.

Besides Adolf Hitler himself, Schwerin von Krosigk and Wilhelm Frick were the only members of the Third Reich's cabinet to serve continuously from Hitler's appointment as Chancellor until his death. By receiving the golden NSDAP Party Badge from Adolf Hitler, given for honor on January 30, 1937, he became a member of the NSDAP (membership number: 3,805,231). He also joined the academy of German Law [4] in 1937.

At the 1949 Ministries Trial, he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to 10 years in jail, but was granted amnesty in 1951. He later worked as an author and publicist.

Early life and education

Count Schwerin von Krosigk was born Johann Ludwig von Krosigk in Rathmannsdorf, Anhalt, Germany, to a father from an old noble family of Anhalt and a mother who was a daughter and heiress of a Count (Graf) von Schwerin, a member of the same family as Richardis of Schwerin, Queen of Sweden, queen consort of Sweden from 1365 until 1377.

Krosigk studied law and political science at Halle and Lausanne and then, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Oriel College, Oxford.

During the First World War, Krosigk served in the German Army, attaining the rank of Lieutenant, and was awarded the Iron Cross. On 7 February 1918, during the war, he had married Baroness Ehrengard von Plettenberg (1895–1979), with whom he had four sons and five daughters. In 1922, he became an Oberregierungsrat (senior government official) and in 1929, a ministerial director and head of the budget department at the finance ministry. In 1931, he joined the department of reparations payments, formed to deal with the reparations Germany still owed the Allied Powers after the Great War.

Nazi years

Pre-World War II

The cabinet in February 1934, with Krosigk second from left.

In 1932 Franz von Papen appointed Krosigk as national Minister of Finance, and at the request of President Paul von Hindenburg he continued in that office under Kurt von Schleicher and throughout the period of Nazi rule. Several members of his family took part in assassination attempts against Adolf Hitler, but not Krosigk himself. He was rarely seen in public, and Hitler did not hold regular cabinet meetings; indeed, the cabinet did not meet at all after 1938. Krosigk was thus more of an administrator of the finance ministry than a political figure.

World War II

Krosigk and Goebbels salute at the Reichstag

On 1 May 1945, after Goebbels's suicide, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz asked Schwerin von Krosigk to become the Chancellor (Reichskanzler) of the Acting Government. He declined but did accept the position of "Leading Minister".

Rapidly advancing Allied forces limited the jurisdiction of the new German government to an area around Flensburg near the Danish border, where Dönitz's headquarters were located, along with Mürwik. Accordingly, this administration was referred to as the Flensburg government. Dönitz and Schwerin von Krosigk attempted to negotiate an armistice with the Western allies while continuing to resist the Soviet Army. On 7 May 1945, Dönitz authorized the signature of the German Instrument of Surrender to the Allies, which took place in Rheims before General Dwight D. Eisenhower; Dönitz would later authorize the German military to sign another instrument of surrender in Berlin, in a ceremony presided over by the Soviets. The speech by Winston Churchill announcing victory to the British people is evidence of a de facto recognition of the Flensburg Government's authority, for Churchill stated that the surrender was authorized by "Grand Admiral Dönitz, the designated Head of the German State". However, after the unconditional surrender, the Flensburg government was mostly treated as inconsequential by the western military command. On 23 May 1945, the Flensburg Government was dissolved by order of the Supreme Allied Commander and its members arrested as prisoners of war.

Krosigk was put on trial at Nuremberg, along with other leading members of the German government during the time of the Nazi government. Found guilty in the Ministries Trial in 1949, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, but was released during an amnesty in 1951.

After World War II

Graf Schwerin von Krosigk on trial in Nürnberg

In later years, Schwerin von Krosigk wrote several books on economic policy and two versions of his memoirs. In a broadcast to the German people on 2 May 1945, he became one of the first commentators to refer to an "Iron Curtain" across Europe, a phrase he had picked up from an article by Joseph Goebbels^[3] and which was later made famous by Winston Churchill.

Schwerin von Krosigk died in 1977 in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany, aged 89.

His elder daughter, Felicitas-Anita Grafin Schwerin von Krosigk, is the mother of Alternative for Germany Member of the European Parliament Beatrix von Storch.

Works

• Es geschah in Deutschland, 1951.
• Die große Zeit des Feuers – Der Weg der deutschen Industrie, 3 volumes, 1959.
• Alles auf Wagnis – der Kaufmann gestern, heute und morgen, 1963.
• Persönliche Erinnerungen, memoirs, 3 volumes, 1974.
• Staatsbankrott (Studie über die deutsche Finanzpolitik von 1920 bis 1945), 1975.
• Memoiren (short version of Persönliche Erinnerungen), 1977.

References

1. Johannes Hürter, "Schwerin von Krosigk, Johann Ludwig Graf", Neue Deutsche Biographie 24 (2010), pp. 79–80.
2. Regarding personal names, Graf is a German noble title, usually translated as "Count", but, since the end of the German monarchy in 1918, has been seen as part of the person's family name. The feminine form is Gräfin.
3. "Das Jahr 2000", Das Reich, 25 February 1945, pp. 1–2

Sources

• Klee, Ernst (2005). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 (Zweite Auflage ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. p. 574. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8.
• Götz Aly: Hitlers Volksstaat. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 2005. ISBN 3-10-000420-5.
• Friedenberger, Martin: Die Reichsfinanzverwaltung im Nationalsozialismus. Darstellung und Dokumente, Ed. Temmen, Veröffentlichungen der Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz 1, Bremen 2002. ISBN 3-86108-377-9.
• Johnson, Eric A.: Terror: Gestapo, Juden und gewöhnliche Deutsche, Siedler, Berlin 2001. ISBN 3-88680-619-7.

External links

• Media related to Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk at Wikimedia Commons
• Biography (Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin)