MEFO - Origins

Origins

This dummy company had a nominal capital of one million Reichsmark. It was one of the key components of the Nazi Germany re-armament program, and was invented by Hjalmar Schacht, who then was head of the Ministry of Economics, and Plenipotentiary for the War Economy.

After assuming power in 1933, during 1935 the Nazis realised that re-arming Germany would require funds that were not likely to be generated from taxes or public loans. In addition, the need to keep the rearmament effort secret led to the creation of this dummy company.

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