Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk

Order:	26th Chancellor of Germany
Term of Office:	May 1 - May 23, 1945
Predecessor:	Joseph Goebbels
Successor:	Konrad Adenauer
Date of Birth:	August 22, 1887
Date of Death:	March 4, 1977
Political Party:	Independent
Profession:	lawyer, civil servant

Count Johann Ludwig (Lutz) Schwerin von Krosigk, EK, (August 22, 1887 – March 4, 1977) was a German politician. He was born Johann Ludwig von Krosigk in Rathmannsdorf in the Kingdom of Saxony, and studied law and political science in Halle, Lausanne and Oxford. During the first world war, he served in the Army, finally as a First Lieutenant, and was awarded the Iron Cross. He married baroness Ehrengard von Plettenberg in 1918. He was adopted by his uncle, Graf Alfred von Schwerin , in 1925, taking the surname Schwerin von Krosigk, and became on his death the Count of Schwerin.

A non-partisan conservative, he was appointed Minister of Finance by Franz von Papen in 1932, and continued in that office on request by Hindenburg, under Kurt von Schleicher and throughout the period of National Socialist Rule. Several members of his family took part in assassination attempts against Hitler.

In May 1945, Krosigk was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Karl Dönitz after the suicides of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. The two presided over the surrender to the Allies. His government was not recognised by the Allied powers and was dissolved when its members were captured by British forces on May 23, 1945 at Flensburg.

Krosigk referred to the 'Iron Curtain' coming down, a phrase which he had picked up from Goebbels anti-Soviet propaganda, and was later picked up by Winston Churchill in a speech that made the phrase famous. He died in Essen in 1977.

Works

• Es geschah in Deutschland, 1951
• Die große Zeit des Feuers - Der Weg der deutschen Industrie, 1959
• Alles auf Wagnis - der Kaufmann gestern, heute und morgen, 1963
• Persönliche Erinnerungen, seine Autobiographie , 3 Bde., 1974
• Staatsbankrott (Studie über die deutsche Finanzpolitik von 1920 bis 1945), 1975
• Memoiren (Kurzfassungen der "Persönliche Erinnerungen"), 1977

External links

• Biography (Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin)

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Joseph Goebbels | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Chancellor of Germany
1945 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Konrad Adenauer

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Arthur Seyss-Inquart | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Minister of Foreign Affairs
1945 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Konrad Adenauer