Since our economy is closely allied with that of foreign countries, not one of us can be indifferent to what consequences these disturbances can have at home and abroad.

In late April 1945 he and about 140 other prominent inmates of Dachau were transferred to Tyrol by the SS which left them there. He telephoned a great deal – he telephoned in every direction and to every German or foreign place that had anything to do with money and foreign exchange as well as with the Reichsbank and the Finance Minister. In December 1929 he caused the fall of the Finance Minister Rudolf Hilferding by imposing upon the government his conditions for obtaining a loan.

He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. He became a supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and served in Hitler's government as President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics. After the war he was tried at Nuremberg and acquitted.