Evening star., 1939-05-14
Goerine's S Aide Fond
Of U. S.; Obtoined
Columbia Degree
By LOUIS P. LOCHNER,

BY LOUIS p. LOCHNER,
| Associated Press Foreign Correspondent.
| BERLIN.-One of the shortest no.
tices in the German who's Who"
I C'Wer Ist'sO reads as follows:
"Wohlthat, Helmuth, ministerial
director in the Reichs economics
ministry and the Prussian ministry
| for economics and labor. Decem-
ber, 1887 ministerial director. Ber-
lin w. 35 LuetZoWufer s."
Only 81 lines in this book Of
1888 pages are devoted to a man
who has become one of Field Mar
shall Hermann Goering's mainstays
in promoting the four-year plan
for economic self sufficiency. 1t will
be noted that not even the date of
birth is given.
The usual German biographical
services makes no mention of Co.
lumbia University graduate Wohl-
that. In the heavy volume of Nazi
bigwigs, "Fuehrerleikon." the name
Of Helmuth Wohlthat does not
figure.
Yet the treaty for the exploitation
of the vast agricultural, mineral and
oil reserves of Rumania is his work
To have put over the Rumanian-
German treaty of March % alone
puts Wohlthat in the front rank of
Germans who served their country
exceptionally well.
Born in Wismar in 1893.
Helmuth Wohlthat was born Oc-
tober 4, 1898, in the little Rhenish
city of Wismar. After attending
grade school in Dusseldorf, he went
to military academy in 1912, in
tending to embrace the usual off,
GERS career.
He had not even become of age
when the World War broke out. He
did his duty as an active officer,
campaigning on the western front
and in Russia.
The war over. he went to Cologne
University, but before coming up for
a degree turned to the export busi-
ness. This took him first to the Far
East.
Wohlthat knows the Orient like a
book, His chosen calling of i'm
porter and exporter. in fact. took
him nearly all over the world.
South America has been his stamp
ing ground no less than the Orient,
Africa and North America.
In China and Japan he became
especially interested in soy beans. To
more than one foreign country he
has demonstrated that SOY beans
are an excellent investment, yield
ing harvests much sooner after
planting than most other farm
products
Especially Fond of L. S.
OF the United States he is eSpe-
cially fond, as is his unusually
clever wife Both read American
magazines and American books
avidly
In 1881, while conducting an i'm
port-export business in New York, he
nevertheless found time to attend
Columbia University and take his
M. A. degree in economics. His the
sis was on Indian oil seeds.
He returned to Germany in 1888
and soon became one of DR.. HAL
mar Schacht's principal collabora-
tors.
With his 1S and 12-year-old
daughters and 12-year-old boy from
his first marriage and his baby boy
of 10 months from his second mar
riage, he is happy family man.
He is proud to be seen with his
bright wife. He also beams when
he takes his oldest daughter to an
evening party if, perchance, his
better half" is unable to go.
Blue-eyed, blond round-faced. with
the high forehead of a thinker, he
emanates special charm through
his winning smile and his quiet, con-
vincing manner of speaking.
When a section of the worlds
press claimed that Wohlthat was
pounding the table down in Bucha-
rest and compelling the Rumanians
to accept his terms, those who know
him merely smiled.
That is precisely what Wohlthat
- IL