14 Facts About Johannes Popitz

Hermann Eduard Johannes Popitz was a Prussian lawyer, finance minister and a member of the German Resistance against the government of Nazi Germany.

Johannes Popitz was the father of Heinrich Popitz, an important German sociologist.

In 1919, after the election for the Weimar National Assembly, Johannes Popitz became a Geheimrat in the finance ministry.

Johannes Popitz was an honorary professor of tax law and financial science at the University of Berlin and the State Academy from 1922.

From 1925 to 1929, Johannes Popitz acted as State Secretary in the German Ministry of Finance, where he sometimes worked under Finance Minister Rudolf Hilferding with whom, in December 1929, he was provisionally retired owing to political differences with the government.

Johannes Popitz was named head of the Prussian Finance Ministry with the title of Reichskommissar on 29 October 1932.

Johannes Popitz was named a Reichsminister without portfolio as an independent politician in the Reich cabinet.

Johannes Popitz retained these positions in the cabinet of Kurt von Schleicher on 3 December 1932.

On 21 April 1933 when the Prussian state government was reconstituted under Minister-President Hermann Goring, Johannes Popitz was formally named a Minister of State and Finance Minister in the new Prussian cabinet, although at this time he still was not a member of the Nazi Party.

Johannes Popitz was made a member of the Academy for German Law on 3 October 1933, sitting on its prasidium and was chairman of the Committee for Law on Economics and Science.

Johannes Popitz would hold these positions until removed in July 1944.

Already in the autumn of that same year, Johannes Popitz was being watched by the Gestapo and indeed was arrested in Berlin on 21 July 1944, the day after Claus von Stauffenberg's unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life at the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia.

At first, in the hopes that the contacts with the Allies that he and Johannes Popitz had discussed might still develop, Himmler saw to it that Johannes Popitz was not put to death.

However, as it became apparent that no such talks would be forthcoming, Johannes Popitz's fate was sealed, and he was hanged on 2 February 1945 at Plotzensee Prison, in Berlin.