61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

Figures and Legends
As a result of its investigations, the Swiss Clearing Office found in spring
1946 that there were German assets in Switzerland valued at 1,043 million
francs. We must add to this figure all the assets discovered after that time,
including the contents of the opened safes, assets belonging to the Deutsche
Reichsbahn (German Railways), goods inventories and outstanding
payments due to German companies in Switzerland. Furthermore, it is not
possible to put a value on the 10,000 to 15,000 German patents registered
in Switzerland. All told, this yields a total value for German assets of two
billion francs. This does not take into account the value of assets which
cannot be estimated as they were never registered or recorded, having been
smuggled across the border.
Several foreign estimates at the time were much higher, ranging as high as
three or four billion, and these figures curiously correspond with attitudes
towards Switzerland. Allied bodies which were relatively well-disposed
towards Switzerland, such as the British Foreign Ministry, gave estimates
lower than those instances which were more critical. But by far the highest
figure was quoted by the former Head of the Foreign Exchange Department
at the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hermann Landwehr. When asked
in 1947, he deemed that assets valued at 15 billion reichsmarks had flowed
into or through Switzerland during the war which, at the exchange rate
effective at the time, was equivalent to 26 billion francs. These statements
are still cause for speculation today. Landwehr was an enigmatic character.
Referred to by those familiar with the scene as the «Devisenpapst» (high
priest of foreign currency), the Head of the Foreign Exchange Department
was also friendly with Carl Goerdeler, the key figure in the conservative
opposition behind the failed coup attempt on 20 July 1944. 43 Taken into
custody in August 1944, he only barely escaped the revenge campaign waged
upon the conspirators and those close to them. Can there be any truth in his
figure? Firstly, we need to take into account a considerable sum in inactive
assets which were never registered, for example those held in safes. There were
also assets which were devalued to a large extent – albeit only temporarily –
as a result of the outcome of the war: after the war, German shares were worth
only one-tenth of their pre-war value. However, even taking this into account,
we cannot expect to find any undiscovered billions. Landwehr’s statement may
merely have been an attempt to impress the Allies. But it could also be interpreted
as veiled mockery of the victors, implying the superiority of the
German camouflage methods.
It should be stressed, however, that the German assets in Switzerland could
have amounted to as much as three billion francs. German post-war estimates
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