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{{Short description|German politician, banker and diplomat}}
{{For|the father of Martin Luther|Hans Luther (15th century)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}
{{Infobox Chancellor
| name                = Hans Luther
| image               = Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1969-008A-07, Hans Luther (cropped)(2).jpg
| caption             = Luther in the 1920s
| order               = [[Chancellor of Germany]]<br/>{{small|([[Weimar Republic]])}}
| term_start          = 15 January 1925
| term_end            = 12 May 1926
| predecessor         = [[Wilhelm Marx]]
| successor           = [[Wilhelm Marx]]
| president           = [[Friedrich Ebert]]<br/>Himself (acting)<br/>[[Walter Simons]] (acting)<br/>[[Paul von Hindenburg]]
| title2              = [[Reichsbank|President of the Reichsbank]]
| term_start2         = 7 March 1930
| term_end2           = 17 March 1933
| predecessor2        = [[Hjalmar Schacht]]
| successor2          = Hjalmar Schacht
| title3              = [[List of German finance ministers|Reich Minister of Finance]]
| term_label3         = Acting
| term_start3         = 26 October 1925
| term_end3           = 20 January 1926
| chancellor3         = Himself
| predecessor3        = Otto von Schlieben
| successor3          = Peter Reinhold
| term_start4         = 6 October 1923
| term_end4           = 15 December 1924
| chancellor4         = [[Gustav Stresemann]]<br/>[[Wilhelm Marx]]
| predecessor4        = [[Rudolf Hilferding]]
| successor4          = Otto von Schlieben
| title5              = [[Imperial Ministry of Food and Agriculture|Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture]]
| term_start5         = 1 December 1922
| term_end5           = 4 October 1923
| chancellor5         = [[Wilhelm Cuno]]<br/>[[Gustav Stresemann]]
| predecessor5        = [[Karl Müller (politician, born 1884)|Karl Müller]]
| successor5          = [[Gerhard von Kanitz]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1879|3|10|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Berlin]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1962|5|11|1879|3|10|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Düsseldorf]], [[West Germany]]
| profession          = Lawyer, politician, diplomat
| party               = Independent
}}
'''Hans Luther''' ({{Audio|GT Hans Luther.ogg|listen}}) (10 March 1879 – 11 May 1962) was a German politician and [[Chancellor of Germany#First German Republic (Weimar Republic, 1919–1933)|Chancellor of Germany]] for 482 days in 1925 to 1926. As Minister of Finance he helped stabilize the Mark during the [[hyperinflation]] of 1923. From 1930 to 1933, Luther was head of the [[Reichsbank]] and from 1933 to 1937 he served as [[German Ambassador to the United States]].

==Early life==
Hans Luther was born in Berlin on 10 March 1879 into a [[Lutheran]] family as the son of Otto (1848–1912), a well-off merchant, and Wilhelmine Luther (née Hübner).<ref name=Bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz55235.html|title=Biografie Hans Luther (German)|publisher=Bayerische Nationalbibliothek|access-date=19 January 2015}}</ref><ref name=Bio2>{{cite web|url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/Biografie/hans-luther|title=Biografie Hans Luther (German)|publisher=Deutsches Historisches Museum|access-date=19 January 2015}}</ref>

After attaining the ''[[Abitur]]'' at the Leibniz-Gymnasium/Berlin, Luther studied law at Geneva, Kiel and Berlin from 1897 to 1901. His teachers included [[Otto von Gierke]], [[Franz von Liszt]], [[Heinrich Brunner]], [[Gustav von Schmoller]] and [[Hugo Preuss]]. In 1904, Luther was awarded a Dr.jur. for his dissertation ''Die Zuständigkeit des Bundesrats zur Entscheidung von Thronstreitigkeiten innerhalb des Deutschen Reiches''. He passed the ''Assessor'' exam in 1906 and worked in the Prussian administration, in 1906/07 at the city council of Charlottenburg, now a part of Berlin.<ref name=Bio/>

Luther was married twice. From 1907–1924 to Gertrud (née Schmidt, 1880–1924) and from 1953 to Gertrud Sioli (née Mautz). He had three daughters from his first marriage.<ref name=Bio/>

==Political career==

===German Empire and local politics===
In 1907, Luther was elected to the [[Magdeburg]] city council where he increased the area assigned to [[Schreber garden]] tenfold and litigated against the regional [[potash]] industry for polluting the drinking water. From February 1913 to the summer of 1918, Luther was a member of the board of the ''Preußischer Städtetag'' (later [[Deutscher Städtetag]]). In the summer of 1918, he became ''Oberbürgermeister'' (mayor) of [[Essen]]. During the [[German Revolution of 1918-19|Revolution]] he managed to convince the revolutionary [[German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919|workers' and soldiers' councils]] to cooperate with the city administration and to accept the mayor's leading role. Ex-officio, as mayor of Essen, he was a member of the ''Vorläufiger Reichswirtschaftsrat'' from 1920.<ref name=Bio/><ref name=Bio3>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/adr/adrhl/kap1_5/para2_233.html|title=Biografie Hans Luther (German)|publisher=Bundesarchiv|access-date=19 January 2015}}</ref>

===Weimar Republic and Reich politics===
During the creation of the cabinet of [[Wilhelm Cuno]] in November 1922, Luther was offered the ''Reichswirtschaftsministerium'' (Economic Affairs) and the ''Reichsinnenministerium'' (Interior) but he refused both. However, on 1 December 1922 he took over the ''Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft'' (food and agriculture). His predecessor, [[Karl Müller (politician, born 1884)|Karl Müller]] had been forced to resign after only three days in office due to allegations about connections to [[Rhenish Republic|Rhenish separatists]]. Luther remained in this office in the cabinet of [[Gustav Stresemann]], focussing on ensuring food supplies for those groups of the population hardest hit by [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|inflation]].<ref name=Bio/>

When Streseman reshuffled his cabinet on 6 October 1923, Luther took over the Ministry of Finance and kept that portfolio in the two cabinets led by [[Wilhelm Marx]] which followed. Luther thus was in charge of the currency reform which ended the hyperinflation and introduced a new stable [[German Rentenmark|Mark]]. By 15 October, Luther presented a plan that combined elements of a reform by economist [[Karl Helfferich]] with ideas of Luther's predecessor [[Rudolf Hilferding]]. With the help of the emergency law (''Ermächtigungsgesetz'') of 13 October 1923 which gave the government the power to issue decrees on financial and economic matters, the plan was implemented that same day, 15 October 1923. The restrictive monetary policy by [[Hjalmar Schacht]] at the [[Reichsbank]] helped to stabilize the currency, as did steps taken by Luther to close the budget deficit. On the revenue side, he pushed through three emergency tax hikes, brought forward due dates for taxes, increased prepayments of assessed taxes, raised the sales tax, taxed inflation gains and reorganized the financial burden sharing between Reich and Länder. On the spending side, Luther managed a drastic cut in personnel costs &ndash; by reducing the number of Reich employees by almost 25% over four months, a freeze on promotions and fixing public salaries at a level lower than that of 1913.<ref name=Bio/>

Having successfully stabilized the currency, Luther then was a member of the German delegation at the London conference of 1924 in July and August 1924, where he was in charge of trade policy and financial policy issues. On 30 August 1924, the Rentenmark was replaced as legal tender by the ''[[German reichsmark|Reichsmark]]'', a new gold-backed currency.<ref name=Bio/>

===Chancellor===
{{See also|First Luther cabinet|Second Luther cabinet}}
After the [[December 1924 German federal election|Reichstag elections of December 1924]] the parties supporting the minority Marx cabinet were unable to agree on whether the coalition should be extended to include those on the left ([[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]]) or those on the right ([[German National People's Party|DNVP]]), president [[Friedrich Ebert]] on 9 January 1925 asked the independent Luther to form a government. On 16 January, Luther presented [[First Luther cabinet|his cabinet]] that combined features of a party-based government with one made up of experts/technocrats. Each of the coalition parties ([[Centre Party (Germany)|Zentrum]], [[Bavarian People's Party|BVP]], [[German People's Party|DVP]], DNVP) had one representative in the cabinet, the other positions were filled with civil servants who were either members of one of the parties or were politically close to it. Although the DDP was not a member of the coalition, Luther was able to keep [[Otto Gessler]] at the ''Reichswehrministerium''.<ref name=Bio/>

When Ebert died on 28 February, Luther temporarily assumed the role of acting head of state pending the election of a successor. The following [[1925 German presidential election|presidential election]] put some strains on the coalition supporting the cabinet. Luther tried to convince [[Walter Simons]], president of the [[Reichsgericht]], to ask the two candidates for the second round of voting to step aside and accept Simons as a compromise of the center. However, Simons refused and [[Paul von Hindenburg]] was elected.<ref name=Bio/>

During his relatively short period in office, Luther and his cabinet managed to accomplish the passage of several important laws and international treaties. In foreign trade, the one-sided most-favoured-nation clause that had governed trade between the Allies and Germany lapsed on 10 January 1925, thus reestablishing Germany's sovereignty in trade policy. The [[German tariff of 1925|tariff law]] came into force on 12 August 1925, setting up tariffs for industry and agriculture that were based on the tariff rates of the pre-war years. Trade treaties were negotiated with the UK, the Soviet Union, France, Spain and Italy. In domestic tax policy, a tax reform brought relief as taxes on income, capital and land transfer as well as bill stamp duty and sales tax were all lowered. In foreign policy, the cabinet negotiated the [[Locarno Treaties|Treaty of Locarno]] with the UK, Belgium, France and Italy (October 1925), which paved the way for Germany's membership in the [[League of Nations]] (September 1926). The ministers of the DNVP left the cabinet in protest over Locarno, forcing Luther to set up [[Second Luther cabinet|a new government]] that took office in January 1926. This government negotiated the ''[[Treaty of Berlin (1926)|Freundschafts- und Neutralitätsvertrag]]'' with the Soviet Union.<ref name=Bio/>

In social policy, a number of reforms to social insurance were carried out during Luther's time as Chancellor. A decree promulgated by the Reich Minister of Labour in May 1925 extended accident insurance coverage to include eleven occupational diseases,<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rx6pm4iipM4C&q=accident+insurance+coverage+was+extended+to+include+11+occupational+diseases%3B+in+February+of+1929&pg=PA53 |title = Greater Than the Parts: Holism in Biomedicine, 1920-1950|isbn = 9780195109047|last = Lawrence|first = Weisz|year = 1998| publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> a law of July 1925 extended workmen's compensation coverage to all accidents from and to places of work, and vocational care was introduced that same month. In addition, a decree of May 1925 established compensation for occupational diseases.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wunderlich |first=Frieda |title=Farm labor in Germany, 1810–1945; its historical development within the framework of agricultural and social policy |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1961 |location=Princeton, NJ |pages=132–133}}</ref>

Luther voluntarily decided to resign after a Reichstag majority censured him on 12 May 1926 after he had asked Hindenburg to issue the presidential ''Flaggen-Verordnung'' (5 May 1926), which ordered German embassies and consulates to display not just the official black-red-gold ''Reichsflagge'' but also the black-white-red ''Handelsflagge'' (trade flag). His successor was Wilhelm Marx.<ref name=Bio/>

===Further career===
Luther was elected to the supervisory board of the ''[[Reichsbahn]]'' in the summer of 1926. At the end of 1928 he left, to make room for a representative of the [[Free State of Prussia]]. In March 1929, he became a member of the board of directors of the ''Gemeinschaftsgruppe deutscher Hypothekenbanken'' (association of German mortgage banks). He also joined the DVP. In 1928/29, Luther was also active in the ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Bund zur Erneuerung des Reiches|de}}'' and became its founding president in January 1928. The institution worked on a reform of the federal structure of the Reich, notably the problem of the dominant position of Prussia compared to the other ''Länder''.<ref name=Bio/>

On 11 March 1930, Luther was appointed as [[Hjalmar Schacht]]'s successor as president of the [[Reichsbank]]. To ensure his independence, he gave up all other offices and also left the DVP. Luther supported [[Heinrich Brüning]]'s deflation policy out of loyalty and conviction. During the crisis in German banking in June/July 1931, he stretched the envelope—both legally and in terms of the Reichsbank's financial means—to help the banks repay the short-term loans called in by foreign creditors. Criticism by the banks including the demand for his resignation were without foundation and served mainly to hide the banks' responsibility for their own situation.<ref name=Bio/> On the evening of April 9, 1932 Hans Luther was shot at on the platform of the Potsdam station. He was injured at the shoulder. The assailants had written a letter before in which they criticized Luther's monetary policy.<ref>Knut Borchardt: Das Attentat auf Luther 1932. In: Karl Dietrich Bracher et al. (editors): Staat und Parteien. Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Rudolf Morsey. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1992, S. 689–709</ref>

After the Nazis seized power in 1933, [[Adolf Hitler]] insisted that the Reichsbank contribute billions of [[Reichsmark|Reichsmarks]] to finance his [[German rearmament|rearmament plans]]. Luther declined and pointed to the legally guaranteed independence of the Reichsbank. Furious, Hitler acknowledged that he could not legally dismiss Luther, but made it clear that he would not hesitate to remove Luther by extralegal means if necessary. Luther took the hint and resigned his post on 16 March 1933; he was replaced with Hitler's ally Schacht the same day.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ryback |first=Timothy W. |date=2025-07-25 |title=What Happened When Hitler Took On Germany’s Central Banker |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/hitler-attacked-central-banker/683545/ |access-date=2025-07-26 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> Luther was offered and accepted the post of German ambassador to Washington instead.<ref name=Bio/>

In 1933, Luther lectured at the [[Columbia University]] campus. Luther's speech stressed Hitler's "peaceful intentions" toward his European neighbors. [[Nicholas Murray Butler]], Columbia's president, rejected student appeals to cancel the invitation, calling the request "illiberal" and citing the need for academic freedom.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1933/11/20/archives/dr-butler-refuses-to-bar-nazi-envoy-columbia-head-rejects-plea-by.html?scp=1 "DR. BUTLER REFUSES TO BAR NAZI ENVOY; Columbia Head Rejects Plea by Students to Cancel Dr. Luther's Address. CALLS REQUEST ILLIBERAL Stresses Need for Academic Freedom – Club Is Reported Planning Demonstration."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 20 November 1933. Accessed 28 August 2008.</ref>

In 1937, he retired from active public service (''im einstweiligen Ruhestand'') and in 1942 retired fully.<ref name=Bio/><ref name=Bio3/>

Post-World War II, Luther was trustee of [[Merck Finck & Co.]], a private bank in Munich, in 1948/49. He also served as a member of the supervisory board of the ''Bayerischen Hypotheken und Wechselbank''. In 1952, the Munich ''Hochschule für politische Wissenschaften'' awarded him an honorary professorship. In 1952&ndash;1955, Luther was the chairman of the committee of experts on the territorial restructuring of the [[Federal Republic of Germany]] (''Sachverständigen-Ausschuß für die Neugliederung des Bundesgebiets''). In 1958, he became president of the reestablished ''[[Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland]]''.<ref name=Bio/><ref name=Bio3/>

He died in [[Düsseldorf]] on 11 May 1962.<ref name=Bio/>

==Works==
* ''Feste Mark - Solide Wirtschaft'', 1924
* ''Von Deutschlands eigener Kraft'', 1928 
* ''Die Stabilisierung der deutschen Währung'', in: ''10. Jahrbuch deutscher Geschichte'', 1928
* ''Nur scheinbar in eigener Sache'', in: ''Mitteilungen der List Gesellschaft'', Fase. 2, Nr. 2, 1959
* ''Das Wahlrecht dem Wähler'', 1959
* ''Im Dienste des Städtetages'', 1959.
* ''Politiker ohne Partei'', 1960
* ''Vor dem Abgrund 1930–1933'', 1964

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
*{{cite book |first=C. Edmund |last=Clingan |title=The Lives of Hans Luther, 1879–1962: German Chancellor, Reichsbank President, and Hitler's Ambassador |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2010 }}

==External links==
* {{PM20|FID=pe/011762}}

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{{succession box  | before=[[Wilhelm Marx]] | title=[[Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)|Chancellor of Germany]] | years=1925–1926| after=[[Wilhelm Marx]]}}
{{Succession box | before=[[Friedrich Ebert]] | title=[[President of Germany (1919–1945)|Acting head of state of Germany]]| years=28 February – 12 March 1925| after=[[Walter Simons]] }}
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{{GermanChancellors}}
{{Finance Ministers of Germany}}
{{GermanJusticeMinisters}}
{{Cuno cabinet}}
{{First Stresemann cabinet}}
{{Second Stresemann cabinet}}
{{First Marx cabinet}}
{{Second Marx cabinet}}
{{First Luther cabinet}}
{{Second Luther cabinet}}
{{EssenMayors}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luther, Hans}}
[[Category:1879 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century chancellors of Germany]]
[[Category:Politicians from Berlin]]
[[Category:Finance ministers of Germany]]
[[Category:Independent politicians in Germany]]
[[Category:People from the Weimar Republic]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of Germany to the United States]]
[[Category:Acting heads of state of Germany]]
[[Category:Mayors of Essen]]