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Julius Curtius | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Curtius in 1930 | |
| Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 8 November 1929 – 3 October 1931 | |
| Chancellor | Hermann Müller Heinrich Brüning |
| Preceded by | Gustav Stresemann |
| Succeeded by | Heinrich Brüning |
| Reich Minister of Economics | |
| In office 19 January 1926 – 11 November 1929 | |
| Chancellor | Hans Luther Wilhelm Marx Hermann Müller |
| Preceded by | Rudolf Krohne |
| Succeeded by | Paul Moldenhauer |
| Member of theReichstag | |
| In office 24 June 1920 – 4 June 1932 | |
| Constituency | Baden |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1877-02-07)7 February 1877 |
| Died | 10 November 1948(1948-11-10) (aged 71) |
| Political party | German People's Party (DVP) |
| Spouse | Adda Carp |
| Children | 5 |
| Profession | Lawyer, politician |
Julius Curtius (7 February 1877 – 10 November 1948) was a German politician who served as Minister for Economic Affairs (from January 1926 to December 1929) and Foreign Minister of theWeimar Republic (from October/November 1929 to October 1931).
Julius Curtius was born on 7 February 1877 atDuisburg in what was then thePrussianRhine Province.
His father Friedrich (1850-1904) owned anultramarine works at Duisburg and analum works atEichelkamp [de]. Friedrich's brother wasTheodor Curtius, a professor of chemistry. Julius' mother was Adele (1824–98, née Brockhoff).[1]
Julius married Adda Carp (1883-1967), sister of industrialist Werner Carp, in 1905. They had two sons and three daughters.[1]
Curtius studied law atKiel,Strasbourg andBonn and was awarded a doctorate at Berlin. In 1905, he started practicing law at Duisburg. After 1911, he began working on issues in the field of public policy (Staatswissenschaften) at Heidelberg. He served in theFirst World War, finishing at the rank ofHauptmann (captain) of theLandwehr andBatterieführer and was awarded bothIron Crosses. He remained at Heidelberg where he also was a member of the city council (Stadtverordneter) until 1921. He then worked as a lawyer at theKammergericht Berlin. He mainly represented (also as a member of supervisory boards) firms in the steel and coal,potash and railway rolling stock businesses. From 1920 to 1932, he was a member of theReichstag for theGerman People's Party (DVP).[1]
Curtius becameReichswirtschaftsminister (Minister for Economic Affairs) in January 1926 as a member of the second cabinet ofHans Luther and remained in that office in several different cabinets that followed. AfterGustav Stresemann died on 3 October 1929, Curtius became the acting Foreign Minister and in November vacated his old position and took over theAuswärtiges Amt.[1]
As a minister he supported job-creation schemes and a close cooperation with theSoviet Union, especially in economic affairs. His main achievement was - as collaborator and "heir" of Stresemann - progress in the question of wartime reparations and the return of theoccupied Rhineland. As the minister responsible for theYoung Plan, Curtius was heavily criticized byDNVP,Der Stahlhelm,Nazis and thePan-German League, who labelled him a "traitor to the fatherland".[1]
Curtius unsuccessfully worked with Austria'sJohann Schober in March 1931 to set up aGerman-Austrian custom union. However, France blocked this by putting economic pressure on Austria and by bringing about a decision by thePermanent Court of International Justice atThe Hague, which voted 8:7 to rule the union in contradiction of the Geneva protocol of 1922 (seeAnschlussverbot [de]). This caused Curtius to resign on 3 October 1931.[1]
To prevent the union being established, the French had withdrawn a number of short loans they had made to Austria; the withdrawal of the French loans helped to cause the collapse ofCreditanstalt, Austria's largest bank, in May 1931, which in its turn brought about a series of banking collapses all over Central Europe in the summer of 1931.[citation needed]
Curtius was intimately involved in the negotiations that led to the issuing of theHoover Moratorium by the U.S PresidentHerbert Hoover that haltedwar reparations payments by Germany in June 1931 as part of the effort to limit the financial fall-out of the banking collapse.[citation needed]
Following his resignation, Curtius left politics and worked as a lawyer, asset manager and farmer. After his house in Berlin was destroyed inWorld War II and his estate in Mecklenburg was seized by the Communist authorities he moved to Heidelberg in July 1946. Curtius died atHeidelberg on 10 November 1948.[1]
Media related toJulius Curtius at Wikimedia Commons
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Foreign Minister of Germany 1929 – 1931 | Succeeded by |
 German Empire (1871–1918) | |
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 Weimar Republic (1918–33) | |
 Nazi Germany (1933–45) | |
 German Democratic Republic1 (1949–90) | |
 Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present) | |
1 East Germany | |
Second Luther cabinet – 20 January to 18 May 1926 | ||
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Third Marx cabinet – 17 May 1926 to 1 February 1927 | ||
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Second Müller cabinet – 28 June 1928 to 27 March 1930 | ||
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First Brüning cabinet – 30 March 1930 to 10 October 1931 | ||
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