Hans Max Hirschfeld

Nationality

Netherlands

Date of Birth

1899

Date of Death

1961

Political
Preference

Hans Max Hirschfeld was born in Hamburg, son of a Russian-Jewish father. He obtained his doctorate in economics in 1922. He was an economist and responsible as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economics after 1931 for the bilateral trade agreements with Germany.

During the war, Hirschfeld was the driving force behind the integration of Dutch business in the German war effort – essentially with the aim to prevent forced labor. After the war, Hirschfeld was severely criticized for his role in what some saw as collaboration with the enemy. However, his name was cleared in 1946, and Hirschfeld – one of the country’s most notable economic experts – was immediately re-employed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early 1947.

Hirschfeld thus became a government advisory. As such, he also became involved in the Committee for European Economic Cooperation (CEEC) which conferenced in Paris during the summer of 1947. Here, he came to oppose the French and British domination of the conference (as well as the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) that grew from it). Hirschfeld also favored the rapid recovery and reintegration of Germany in the European economic system. He saw this as an inescapable part of the European recovery plan as a whole.