Januskopf der deutschen Geldwirtschaft: Karl Helfferich (1872 bis 1924)

The case of the financial scientist Karl Helfferich is one of the most spectacular «revolving door» incidents between academia, business and politics in the late Empire and early Weimar Republic. The historical judgement of Helfferich, however, is shaped by his polemical agitation against the so-called fulfilment policy after the First World War, as well as against Matthias Erzberger and Walther Rathenau in particular. This essay aims at a more differentiated view of Helfferich and draws on texts left by Helfferich himself, some of which are autobiographical, in order to make his position in and between the various «systems» clear. His career in the Wilhelmine era is described and his contribution to the difficult negotiations on the construction of the Baghdad Railway and to overcoming inflation is discussed. The end of the Empire also brought an end to this career of power-based expertise. While Helfferich’s bitterness about the end of the empire was vented in polemics, his sobriety and expertise continued to come to the fore in debates on financial, budgetary and monetary policy. Helfferich’s career is only superficially a case of a «revolving door» in that expertism and his supposedly superior expertise always determined his self-image and his uncompromising manner of appearance and argumentation differed significantly from the habitus of other politicians of the early Weimar Republic.