Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941 by Alex J. Kay

Author:Alex J. Kay
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781580468527
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Group Ltd
Published: 2014-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

Setting up the National Bank of Ostland

The meeting of October 3 was not sufficient to reach an agreement. In the following days, Rosenberg sent a note to Schwerin von Krosigk in which he articulated his position. “The benefits for the war economy,” stated the minister for the occupied eastern territories, “are not dependent upon the fixation of an exchange of 2:1 or on other measures of a purely technical nature, but rather presupposes that the populace of the Ostland works and accepts the currency we introduce. This requires that the present low level of agrarian prices, which also enables corresponding low prices in the secondary sector, be maintained.”83

Göring answered on October 15 with a letter addressed to the main institutions, in which he reaffirmed his initial project.84 In the meantime, a representative of the Reich commissar for price setting, Wilhelm Rentrop, had been sent to Ostland to give an expert’s opinion on the sustainability of the exchange rates in question. His report stated that “the introduction of the crown currency, and in addition at the rate of 1:2, would destroy the remaining confidence in the credit economy and would induce a fall in the primitive natural economy that is already strongly developed.”85 It is impossible to know if Wagner changed his mind as a result of this report. He did not, however, directly intervene anymore in the discussion.

Backed by Rentrop’s results, Lohse warned a week later that if Göring’s requests were to be realized, he would not be able to guarantee the existing price level.86 As an alternative, he proposed leaving the status quo unchanged, which meant abandoning the idea of founding a new bank and keeping the RKK-Scheine in circulation. Launching this proposal, the Reich commissar consciously put strong pressure on Schwerin von Krosigk to accept his position. In fact, the Reich was responsible for the redemption of the RKK-Scheine.87 Thus it was in the Finance Ministry’s interest if “the finance of Ostland were as soon as possible to be detached from the treasury”88 and Lohse’s counterproposal deferred indefinitely. For this reason a new meeting, this time a meeting of Staatssekretäre, was summoned in the Ministry of Economics for January 6, 1942. The most remarkable news of the meeting was Funk’s change of mind on the matter. While on October 3 the minister of economics had joined Göring’s faction, expressing at the same time his understanding for Schlotterer’s and Rosenberg’s reasons, at the new meeting his representative supported the opposing faction. Without giving any further explanation, Vice President Emil Puhl said that this change was due to developments in the economic situation. It is likely that Rentrop’s report had played an important role in this change of direction. At the meeting, Rosenberg adopted the same tactic as Lohse had done, proposing, in case of rejection of his project, that the RKK-Scheine remain in circulation.89 The threat was sufficient to bring Schwerin von Krosigk to capitulation. A few days later,90 the finance minister made it public that he accepted the

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