Walther Funk

Walther Funk
Funk with Golden Party Badge, 1942
Reich Minister of Economics Nazi Germany
In office 5 February 1938 – 1 May 1945
President	Adolf Hitler Führer
Chancellor	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Hermann Göring (acting)
Succeeded by	Albert Speer
President of the Reichsbank
In office 19 January 1939 – 8 May 1945
Preceded by	Hjalmar Schacht
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Secretary of State in the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
In office 13 March 1933 – 26 November 1937
Appointed by	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Otto Dietrich
Personal details
Born	18 August 1890 (1890-08-18) Sosnowka, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	31 May 1960 (1960-06-01) (aged 69) Düsseldorf, West Germany
Political party	Nazi Party (NSDAP)
Spouse(s)	Luise Schmidt-Sieben
Profession	Journalist

Walther Funk (18 August 1890 – 31 May 1960) was a prominent Nazi official. He served as Reich Minister for Economic Affairs in Nazi Germany from 1937 to 1945, tried as a major war criminal by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

Early life

Funk was born into a merchant family in 1890 in Danzkehmen (present-day Sosnowka in the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast) near Trakehnen in East Prussia. He was the son of Wiesenbaumeister Walther Funk the elder and his wife Sophie (née Urbschat). He studied law, economics, and philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Leipzig. In World War I, he joined the infantry, but was discharged as unfit for service in 1916. In 1920, Funk married Luise Schmidt-Sieben. Following the war, he worked as a journalist, and in 1924 he became the editor of the center-right financial newspaper the Berliner Börsenzeitung.

Political life

Funk, who was a nationalist and anti-Marxist, resigned from the newspaper in the summer of 1931 and joined the Nazi Party, becoming close to Gregor Strasser, who arranged his first meeting with Adolf Hitler. Partially because of his interest in economic policy, he was elected a Reichstag deputy in July 1932, and within the party, he was made chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy in December 1932, a post that he did not hold for long. After the Nazi Party came to power, he stepped down from his Reichstag position and was made Chief Press Officer of the Third Reich.

Third Reich career

In March 1933, Funk was appointed as a State Secretary (Staatssekretär) at the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda). In 1938, he assumed the title of Chief Plenipotentiary for Economics (Wirtschaftsbeauftragter). He also became Reich Minister of Economics (Reichswirtschaftsminister) in February 1938, replacing Hjalmar Schacht, who had been dropped in November 1937. Schacht had been dismissed in a power struggle with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, who was quick to tie the ministry more closely to his Four Year Plan Office.

He boasted that by 1938, the authorities had managed to steal Jewish property worth two million marks.

In January 1939, Hitler appointed Funk as President of the Reichsbank, again replacing Schacht, and this way he became also a member of the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements, based in Switzerland.[1] He was appointed to the Central Planning Board in September 1943.

Nuremberg

Oct 17, 1946 Newsreel of Nuremberg Trials Sentencing

Despite poor health, Funk was tried with other Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials. Accused of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war crimes and crimes against humanity, he argued that, despite his titles, he had very little power in the regime. Göring described Funk as "an insignificant subordinate," but documentary evidence and his wartime biography Walther Funk, A Life for Economy were used against him during the trial, leading to his conviction on counts 2, 3 and 4 of the indictment and his sentence of life imprisonment.

Funk was held at Spandau Prison along with other senior Nazis. He was released on 16 May 1957 because of ill health. He made a last-minute call on Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach^{[citation needed]}. He died three years later at Düsseldorf of diabetes.

External links

• Funk war crimes dossier