Warmbold, Hermann

(1876-1976)

   bureaucrat; served as Economics Minister for Heinrich Brüning,* Franz von Papen,* and Kurt von Schleicher.* Born in Klein-Heinstedt, near Hildesheim, he took a doctorate in agriculture and then joined the civil service.* He was Generalsekretar in 1907-1910 for both Hanover s Agricultural Assembly (Landwirtschaftskammer) and the General Ag-riculture and Forestry Association in Lüneburg. In 1911 he went to Reval as financial expert for the Estonian Knights (Estlandische Ritterschaft) and then worked as economic advisor during 1913-1917 for the central directorate of the knights (Hauptritterschaftsdirektion) in Berlin.* In 1918 he was appointed ausserordentlicher Professor and director of the Agricultural Institute in Hohen-heim. He was appointed director in Prussia s* Agriculture Ministry in 1919 and was Agriculture Minister (without party affiliation) in Adam Stegerwald's* Prus-sian cabinet in 1921. An expert on fertilizers, Warmbold joined the managing board of ASFL (Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik Ludwigshafen) in January 1922; he retained his office until 1932 under the newly constituted IG Farben.*

   While Warmbold was never a pivotal figure in the business community, he was a spokesman for the free-trade wing of industry and a respected opponent of agrarian demands for import quotas (he censured the inefficient Junker* es-tates). In October 1931, after a nine-year hiatus, he returned to public life as Bruning's Economics Minister. Soon disenchanted with Brüning and opposed to the policies of cabinet colleagues, he resigned his office on 6 May 1932; when the cabinet collapsed three weeks later, Warmbold s reputation was un-impaired. He reappeared in Papen s cabinet in June as Economics and Labor Minister and worked ineffectually to balance industrial, trade-union,* and agrar-ian interests. Since he was targeted by the Nazis as an agent of IG Farben and "international finance capital," his public career did not survive Schleicher's removal. He was a private citizen in Berlin during the Third Reich.

   REFERENCES:David Abraham, Collapse of the Weimar Republic; Bracher, Auflosung; Internationales Biographisches Archiv; Kosch, Biographisches Staatshandbuch; Turner, German Big Business.