Background
Johannes Popitz was born in Leipzig on 2 December 1884.
Johannes Popitz was born in Leipzig on 2 December 1884.
An outstanding scholar who studied law, economics and political science.
Popitz was made a Privy Councillor in 1919 and from 1925 to 1929 he was State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, serving for a time under the socialist Finance Minister, Rudolf Hilferding. An Honorary Professor at the University of Berlin, Popitz was not a member of the Nazi Party, but in January 1933 he was named Minister without Portfolio and Reich Commissioner of the Prussian Ministry of Finance. From 21 April 1933 until 1944 he held the position of Prussian State Minister and Minister of Finance. He was awarded and accepted the highly prized Golden Party Badge of Honour in 1937.
By the autumn of 1943 Popitz was already being watched, but he was not arrested until the failure of the July 1944 plot.
Imprisoned on 21 July 1944 and condemned to death by the People’s Court on 3 October, his execution was held back by Himmler, who was secretly still seeking to negotiate with the Allies. Popitz was finally hanged at Plotzensee prison on 2 February 1945.
A right-wing conservative and monarchist who favoured the Crown Prince Wilhelm, eldest son of the former Emperor Wilhelm II, as successor to Hitler, Popitz became very active in Resistance circles in 1938.
Popitz gradually moved into the very centre of the conspiracy against Hitler. In the summer of 1943 he engaged in secret negotiations with Himmler, trying to win his support for a coup d'etat and to persuade him to join in attempts to negotiate a satisfactory peace with the Allies.