The Atlantic Bookshelf: A Guide to Good Books

DR. HJALMAR SCHACHT is a man who has made history since the war. Still in the prime of life and vigor, he is apt to make more during the coming decade. In November 1923, he was a little-known Berlin banker. Then Luther assigned him the task of stabilizing the German currency. As President of the Reichsbank from 1924 to 1930, Dr. Schacht directed an institution to which the Dawes Plan assigned an independent responsibility close to that of the political leaders of Germany.’ The currency he stabilized in a few weeks, and so gained the unique distinction of having placed the mark on a gold basis when there was no gold. For more than six years he held it stable. During the early days of his presidency, the Rcichsbank had less than one half a billion marks of gold. When he resigned, it had almost two and a half billion. In the field of monetary control, he stands without a peer among international bankers.