Hermann Dietrich

For the Raiders of the Lost Ark character, see Hermann Dietrich (fictional character).

Hermann Robert Dietrich (14 December 1879 – 6 March 1954) was a German politician of the liberal German Democratic Party and served as a minister during the Weimar Republic.^[1]

Hermann Dietrich
Vice-Chancellor of Germany
In office 30 March 1930 – 1 June 1932
Chancellor	Heinrich Brüning
Preceded by	Oskar Hergt (1928)
Succeeded by	Franz von Papen (1933)
Chairman of the German State Party
In office 28 July 1930 – 28 June 1933
Preceded by	Party established
Succeeded by	Party abolished
Reich Minister of Finance
In office 26 June 1930 – 1 June 1932
Chancellor	Heinrich Brüning
Preceded by	Heinrich Brüning (acting)
Succeeded by	Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk
Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture
In office 28 June 1928 – 27 March 1930
Chancellor	Hermann Müller
Preceded by	Martin Schiele
Succeeded by	Martin Schiele
Member of the Reichstag
In office 24 June 1920 – 7 July 1933
Constituency	DStP National List (1932-1933) Baden (1920-1932)
Personal details
Born	Hermann Robert Dietrich (1879-12-14)14 December 1879 Elzach, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire
Died	6 March 1954(1954-03-06) (aged 74) Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Political party	German State Party
Other political affiliations	German Democratic Party (1918–1930)
Occupation	Politician

Finance Minister of Germany

In 1930, Dietrich succeeded Paul Moldenhauer as Finance Minister of the Weimar Republic.^[2][3] In the midst of the Great Depression, Dietrich became the "chief proponent" of government contracts in 1930^[4] in an attempt to offset the drastic increase in unemployment.^[5] Because the contracts were contingent on the reduction of prices, he and the Provisional National Economic Council had to authorise the reduction of wages in the German industrial community.^[5]

Dietrich, along with the economists Heinrich Brüning and Adam Stegerwald, firmly believed that accelerating the pace of the agricultural sector at the cost of Germany's industrial capacity would solve unemployment.^[5] He was initially opposed to the deflationary policy pushed by Brüning, but later changed his position and said it was a "necessary measure" along with the cut in civil workers' salaries.^[6][7]

During President Paul von Hindenburg's bid for re-election, Dietrich was one of few elites in the cabinet barred from speaking at the president's candidacy campaigns for allegedly being "too far left".^[8]