View source for Julius Curtius

{{Short description|German politician}}
{{one source|date=December 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Julius Curtius
| image               = Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10108, Reichsaussenministers Curtius mit Familie (cropped).jpg
| imagesize           = 200px
| smallimage          = 
| caption            = Curtius in 1930
| office              = [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)|Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start          = 8 November 1929
| term_end            = 3 October 1931
| chancellor          = [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]]<br/>[[Heinrich Brüning]]
| predecessor         = [[Gustav Stresemann]]
| successor           = [[Heinrich Brüning]]
| office1             = [[List of German economics ministers|Reich Minister of Economics]]
| term_start1         = 19 January 1926
| term_end1           = 11 November 1929
| chancellor1         = [[Hans Luther]]<br/>[[Wilhelm Marx]]<br/>Hermann Müller
| predecessor1        = [[Rudolf Krohne]]
| successor1          = [[Paul Moldenhauer]]
| office2             = Member of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]
| term_start2         = 24 June 1920
| term_end2           = 4 June 1932
| constituency2       = [[Baden]] 
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|df=yes|1877|02|07}}
| birth_place         = [[Duisburg]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1948|11|10|1877|02|07}}
| death_place         = [[Heidelberg]], [[West Germany]]
| constituency        = 
| party               = [[German People's Party]] (DVP)
| spouse              = Adda Carp
| children            = 5
| profession          = Lawyer, politician
}}

'''Julius Curtius''' (7 February 1877 – 10 November 1948) was a German politician who served as Minister for Economic Affairs (from January 1926 to December 1929) and Foreign Minister of the [[Weimar Republic]] (from October/November 1929 to October 1931).

==Early life==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10108, Reichsaussenministers Curtius mit Familie.jpg|thumb|Julius Curtius with his wife and two daughters, 1930]]

Julius Curtius was born on 7 February 1877 at [[Duisburg]] in what was then the [[Prussia]]n [[Rhine Province]].

His father Friedrich (1850-1904) owned an [[ultramarine]] works at Duisburg and an [[alum]] works at {{Interlanguage link|Eichelkamp|de}}. Friedrich's brother was [[Theodor Curtius]], a professor of chemistry. Julius' mother was Adele (1824–98, née Brockhoff).<ref name=Bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz9093.html|title=Biografie Julius Curtius (German)|publisher=Bayerische Nationalbibliothek|access-date=7 August 2015}}</ref>

Julius married Adda Carp (1883-1967), sister of industrialist Werner Carp, in 1905. They had two sons and three daughters.<ref name="Bio"/>

Curtius studied law at [[Kiel]], [[Strasbourg]] and [[Bonn]] and was awarded a doctorate at Berlin. In 1905, he started practicing law at Duisburg. After 1911, he began working on issues in the field of public policy (''Staatswissenschaften'') at Heidelberg. He served in the [[First World War]], finishing at the rank of ''Hauptmann'' (captain) of the ''Landwehr'' and ''Batterieführer'' and was awarded both [[Iron Cross]]es. He remained at Heidelberg where he also was a member of the city council (''Stadtverordneter'') until 1921. He then worked as a lawyer at the ''Kammergericht Berlin''. He mainly represented (also as a member of supervisory boards) firms in the steel and coal, [[potash]] and railway rolling stock businesses. From 1920 to 1932, he was a member of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] for the [[German People's Party]] (DVP).<ref name="Bio"/>

==Minister==
Curtius became ''Reichswirtschaftsminister'' (Minister for Economic Affairs) in January 1926 as a member of the second cabinet of [[Hans Luther]] and remained in that office in several different cabinets that followed. After [[Gustav Stresemann]] died on 3 October 1929, Curtius became the acting Foreign Minister and in November vacated his old position and took over the ''Auswärtiges Amt''.<ref name="Bio"/>

As a minister he supported job-creation schemes and a close cooperation with the [[Soviet Union]], especially in economic affairs. His main achievement was - as collaborator and "heir" of Stresemann - progress in the question of wartime reparations and the return of the [[Occupation of the Rhineland|occupied Rhineland]]. As the minister responsible for the [[Young Plan]], Curtius was heavily criticized by [[DNVP]], ''[[Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten|Der Stahlhelm]]'', [[Nazis]] and the [[Pan-German League]], who labelled him a "traitor to the fatherland".<ref name="Bio"/>

Curtius unsuccessfully worked with Austria's [[Johann Schober]] in March 1931 to set up a [[Austro-German Customs Union|German-Austrian custom union]]. However, France blocked this by putting economic pressure on Austria and by bringing about a decision by the [[Permanent Court of International Justice]] at [[The Hague]], which voted 8:7 to rule the union in contradiction of the Geneva protocol of 1922 (see ''{{Interlanguage link|Anschlussverbot|de}}''). This caused Curtius to resign on 3 October 1931.<ref name="Bio"/>

To prevent the union being established, the French had withdrawn a number of short loans they had made to Austria; the withdrawal of the French loans helped to cause the collapse of [[Creditanstalt]], Austria's largest bank, in May 1931, which in its turn brought about a series of banking collapses all over Central Europe in the summer of 1931.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

Curtius was intimately involved in the negotiations that led to the issuing of the [[Hoover Moratorium]] by the U.S President [[Herbert Hoover]] that halted [[war reparations]] payments by Germany in June 1931 as part of the effort to limit the financial fall-out of the banking collapse.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

==Later life and death==
Following his resignation, Curtius left politics and worked as a lawyer, asset manager and farmer. After his house in Berlin was destroyed in [[World War II]] and his estate in Mecklenburg was seized by the Communist authorities he moved to Heidelberg in July 1946. Curtius died at [[Heidelberg]] on 10 November 1948.<ref name="Bio"/>
 
==Works==
* ''Über die Einführung von Volksinitiative und Volksreferendum in der neuen Verfassungen der deutschen Staaten'', 1919
* ''Bismarcks Plan eines deutschen Volkswirtschaftsrats'', 1919
* ''Was im Haag erreicht wurde'', 1929
* ''Innere Konsolidierung und außenpolitische Aktionsfähigkeit'', 1930
* ''Zur nationalen Freiheit'', in: Um Deutschlands Zukunft, 1931, p.&nbsp;17-38
* Germany and the Polish Corridor, 1933
* ''Bemühung um Österreich, Das Scheitern des Zollunionsplans von 1931'', 1947
* ''Sechs Jahre Minister der deutschen Republik'', 1948
* ''Der Young-Plan, Entstellung und Wahrheit'', 1950

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}
* [https://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktenreichskanzlei/1919-1933/0000/adr/adrag/kap1_3/para2_100.html Curtius at the ''Akten der Reichskanzlei'' online edition (German)]
* [http://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/selectmaske.html?pnd=118670751&recherche=ja Curtius at the Datenbank der deutschen Parlamentsabgeordneten, with pictures (German)]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/003605}}

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{{Succession box | before = [[Gustav Stresemann]] | title = [[Foreign Minister of Germany]] | years = 1929 – 1931 | after = [[Heinrich Brüning]]}}
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{{Economy Ministers of Germany}}
{{GermanFMs}}
{{Second Luther cabinet}}
{{Third Marx cabinet}}
{{Cabinet Muller II}}
{{Cabinet Brüning I}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtius, Julius}}
[[Category:1877 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:Economy ministers of Germany]]
[[Category:Ministers for foreign affairs of Germany]]
[[Category:German People's Party politicians]]
[[Category:German Protestants]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1920–1924]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1924]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1924–1928]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1928–1930]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1930–1932]]
[[Category:Members of the Reichstag 1932]]
[[Category:Politicians from Duisburg]]
[[Category:Politicians from the Rhine Province]]
[[Category:Weimar Republic politicians]]