Hans Schäffer: catalogue to diaries and other papers - no date

Hans Schäffer was born, the son of a Jewish industrialist in 1886 in Breslau, Germany, and died in Jönköping, Sweden. He studied law, politics and history in Breslau and Geneva. He fought on the western front during the First World War. After which he held a number of posts in the Reichswirtschaftsamt and Reichswirtschaftsministerium. He became an expert on the question of reparations, taking part in international conferences on the subject. He stopped working for the government after the Nazi seizure of power and worked for a short while as the General director of the publishers, Ullstein. At the same time he took an active interest in issues affecting Jews. He acted as an adviser in the founding of the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden.

In 1936 he emigrated with his wife to Jönköping, Sweden, where he worked as an adviser on the questions of international law and finance. He developed a close relationship with Konrad Adenauer after the war who offered him the post of Secretary of state in the Bundeswirtschaftsministerium.