Kastl, Ludwig

(1878-1969)

   economics expert; participated in negotia-tions for both the Dawes and Young plans.* Born near the Rhineland village of Altenbamberg, he was raised in Bad Münster am Stein. He studied law and political science before taking state exams and accepting appointment with the provincial government of Upper Bavaria. In 1906, recently assigned to the co-lonial section of the Foreign Office, he went to German Southwest Africa (now Namibia). Thereafter, he served successively as a judge in Windhuk (1906-1910), a reporter for internal administration (1910-1912), leader of the finance department (1912-1915), and Commissioner for Civil Administration (1915-1920).

   With the Versailles Treaty* stipulating loss of Germany's colonies, Kastl returned to Berlin* and joined the Finance Ministry. Leading the reparations* department, he assisted with the 1924 Dawes negotiations. In 1925 he resigned from the civil service* to become executive director of the RdI; however, he preserved his autonomy when, during 1929-1932, he served with the League of Nations' Mandate Commission. In 1929 he belatedly assumed an assignment with the Conference of Experts; the resulting report was the Young Plan.

   In contrast to many of his colleagues, Kastl supported the cabinet of Heinrich Brüning.* Worried lest either Alfred Hugenberg* or Hitler* form a government, he worked in late 1932 to sustain Franz von Papen* and was also belatedly supportive of Kurt von Schleicher.* On orders from Otto Wagener, head of the NSDAP's economic policies section, he was dismissed from his office in April 1933; the RdI disbanded in May. Kastl thereafter practiced law within the Berlin court system. He resumed his activity as an economics expert after World War II.

   REFERENCES:Bonn, Wandering Scholar; NDB, vol. 11; Turner, German Big Business.