Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, born Johann Ludwig von Krosigk and known
as Lutz von Krosigk 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 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. 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 He 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 von Schwerin, a
member of the same family as Richardis of Schwerin, Queen of Sweden, queen
consort of Sweden from 1365 until 1377. He studied law and political science at
Halle, at Lausanne and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oriel College, Oxford. During
the First World War, he served in the German Army, attaining the rank of
Lieutenant, and was awarded the Iron Cross. On 7 February 1918, during the
war, Krosigk had married Baroness Ehrengard von Plettenberg, and with her
he had four sons and five daughters. In 1922, he became an Oberregierungsrat 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= Von Krosigk was appointed Minister of
Finance by Franz von Papen in 1932, and continued in that office at the request
of President Paul von Hindenburg under Kurt von Schleicher and throughout the
period of Nazi rule. Several members of his family took part in assassination
attempts against Adolf Hitler. Von Krosigk was rarely seen in public
appearances, and Hitler did not have regular cabinet meetings. He was thus
more an administrator of the finance ministry rather than a political figure.
= World War II= On 1 May 1945, after Goebbels's suicide,
Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz asked Schwerin von Krosigk to become the
Chancellor 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. Von Krosigk was tried at Nuremberg along
with other leading members of the German government during the time of 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
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 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. 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, 1975.
Memoiren, 1977. Footnotes
External links Media related to Lutz Graf Schwerin von
Krosigk at Wikimedia Commons Biography