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Hermann Dietrich | |
---|---|
Vice-Chancellor of Germany | |
In office 30 March 1930 – 1 June 1932 | |
Chancellor | Heinrich Brüning |
Preceded by | Oskar Hergt (1928) |
Succeeded by | Franz von Papen (1933) |
Reich Minister of Finance | |
In office 26 June 1930 – 1 June 1932 | |
Chancellor | Heinrich Brüning |
Preceded by | Heinrich Brüning (acting) |
Succeeded by | Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk |
Member of the Reichstag | |
In office 1920–1933 | |
Constituency | National List (1932-1933) Baden (1920-1932) |
Personal details | |
Born | Hermann Robert Dietrich 14 December 1879 |
Died | 6 March 1954 | (aged 74)
Political party | German Democratic Party |
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]
In 1930, Dietrich succeeded Paul Moldenhauer as Finance Minister of the Weimar Republic.[2][3] In the midst of the Great Depression, Dietrich became the "chief proponent" of government contracts in 1930[4] in an attempt to offset the drastic increase in unemployment.[5] 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.[5]
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.[5] He was initially opposed to the deflationary policy pushed by Brüning, but later changed his position and said it was a "necessary measure" along with the cut in civil workers' salaries.[6][7]
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".[8]