Hermann Josef Abs

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Hermann Josef Abs (15 October 1901, Bonn – 5 February 1994, Bad Soden) was a leading banker during the Nazi regime, and advisor to Chancellor Adenauer. He was a member of the board of directors of Deutsche Bank from 1938 to 1945, as well as of 44 other companies, including IG Farben. As the most powerful commercial banker of the Third Reich, he was, according to economic journalist Adam LeBor, "the lynchpin of the continent wide plunder". The Allies arrested him in January 1946; however, British intervention got him freed after three months, and German courts later dropped all charges. He was chairman of Deutsche Bank, and contributed to the reconstruction of the German economy. He chaired the German credit facility that distributed the counterpart funds created by the Marshall Plan. Working closely with Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, he was a leader in rebuilding heavy industry, and helped draft the investment policy for basic industries in 1952. He played a major diplomatic role in resolving the prewar German debts at the London War Debt Agreement of 1953. In 1953 he negotiated the restitution to Israel and individual Jews for the Holocaust.