Walther Funk Walther Funk ( 18 August 1890 – 31 May 1960 ) was an economist and prominent Nazi official who served as Reich Minister for Economic Affairs from 1937 to 1945 and was tried as a major war criminal by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg . Early life . Funk was born into a merchant family in 1890 in Danzkehmen ( present - day Sosnowka in the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast ) near Trakehnen in East Prussia . He was the only one of the Nuremberg defendants who was born in the former eastern territories of Germany . He was the son of Wiesenbaumeister Walther Funk the elder and his wife Sophie ( née Urbschat ) . He studied law , economics , and philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Leipzig . In World War I , he joined the infantry , but was discharged as unfit for service in 1916 . In 1920 , Funk married Luise Schmidt - Sieben . Following the end of the first war , he worked as a journalist , and in 1924 he became the editor of the center - right financial newspaper the " Berliner Börsenzeitung " . Political life . Funk , who was a nationalist and anti - Marxist , resigned from the newspaper in the summer of 1931 and joined the Nazi Party , becoming close to Gregor Strasser , who arranged his first meeting with Adolf Hitler . Partially because of his interest in economic policy , he was elected a Reichstag deputy in July 1932 , and within the party , he was made chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy in December 1932 , a post that he did not hold for long . After the Nazi Party came to power , he stepped down from his Reichstag position and was made Chief Press Officer of the Third Reich . Third Reich career . In March 1933 , Funk was appointed as a State Secretary ( " Staatssekretär " ) at the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ( " Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda " ) . In 1938 , he assumed the title of Chief Plenipotentiary for Economics ( " Wirtschaftsbeauftragter " ) . He also became Reich Minister of Economics ( " Reichswirtschaftsminister " ) in February 1938 , replacing Hjalmar Schacht , who had been dropped in November 1937 . Schacht had been dismissed in a power struggle with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , who was quick to tie the ministry more closely to his Four Year Plan Office . He boasted that by 1938 , the German state had managed to steal Jewish property worth two million marks , using decrees from Hitler and other top Nazis to force German Jews to leave their property and assets to them if they emigrated . They were forced by Göring to pay for the damage caused by the Nazis to their own property on " Kristallnacht " , and increasingly deprived of their personal wealth and assets as the Second World War approached . They were ultimately murdered in the many death camp s , Nazi concentration camp s and Ghettoes established by the Nazis . In January 1939 , Hitler appointed Funk as President of the Reichsbank , again replacing Schacht , and this way he became also a member of the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements , based in Switzerland . He was appointed to the Central Planning Board in September 1943 . Nuremberg . Despite poor health , Funk was tried with other Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials . Accused of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace ; planning , initiating and waging wars of aggression ; war crime s and crimes against humanity , he argued that , despite his titles , he had very little power in the regime . At the Nuremberg trials American Chief Prosecutor Jackson labeled Funk as " The Banker of Gold Teeth " , referring to the practice of extracting gold teeth from Nazi concentration camp victims , and forwarding the teeth to the Reichsbank for melting down to yield bullion . Göring described Funk as " an insignificant subordinate , " but documentary evidence and his wartime biography " Walther Funk , A Life for Economy " were used against him during the trial , leading to his conviction on counts 2 , 3 and 4 of the indictment and his sentence of life imprisonment . Funk was held at Spandau Prison along with other senior Nazis . He was released on 16 May 1957 because of ill health . He made a last - minute call on Rudolf Hess , Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach before leaving the prison . He died three years later at Düsseldorf of diabetes .