Emil Georg von Stauss

Emil Georg von Stauss, September 1929

Emil Georg von Stauss (often rendered Emil Georg von Stauß, 6 October 1877 in Baiersbronn – 11 December 1942 in Berlin) was a German banker who served as Director-General of the board of the Deutsche Bank.

Business career

As well as his banking interests von Stauss was also noted for his expertise in the petroleum industry, serving on the board of Deutsche Petroleum from 1920.[1] He became a member of the board at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1925. He would continue his role at Daimler-Benz, eventually serving as chairman of the board.[2] In 1926 he also became chairman of BMW.[2]

Politics

A close friend of Hjalmar Schacht, von Stauss had been cultivating close links to the Nazi Party since 1930.[3] As well as holding several meetings with Adolf Hitler he also knew Hermann Goering well and provided him with significant funding during the Nazi rise to power.[4] Personally closer to Goering, he introduced the Nazi leader to a number of leading business figures at dinner parties, contacts that helped to ensure the smooth transfer of power to the Nazis and avoid the possibility of any opposition from business leaders fearing any socialist aspect to Nazism.[5]

Despite this von Stauss was a high-profile member of the German People's Party (DVP) and represented the group in the Reichstag from 1930 to 1932. He had however been encouraged to retain his membership of the party by Goering, who felt he was more useful in that party, and tried to push the DVP more towards a pro-Nazi Party line in the run up to the Nazi takeover.[4] With the dissolution of the DVP in 1933 he was elected to the Reichstag again in 1933 and served as Vice-President of the body.[6] He was however one of the few members never to take up formal membership of the Nazi Party, sitting as an independent.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Alfred Dupont Chandler & Takashi Hikino, Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism, Harvard University Press, 2009, p. 519
  2. 1 2 Chandler & Hikino, Scale and Scope, p. 529
  3. ↑ Eberhard Czichon, Wer verhalf Hitler zur Macht? Zum Anteil der deutschen Industrie an der Zerstörung der Weimarer Republik, Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, Köln 1971, p. 59
  4. 1 2 Henry Ashby Turner (ed.), Hitler aus nächster Nähe, Aufzeichnungen eines Vertrauten 1929-1932, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Vienna 1978, p. 456 ff
  5. ↑ Francis R. Nicosia, Jonathan Huener, Business and Industry in Nazi Germany, Berghahn Books, 2004, p. 20
  6. 1 2 Ernst Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0, p. 598
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