7205 - Hjalmar Schacht Autograph Manuscript Signed at Nuremberg, His Autobiographical Statement for Psychiatrist Douglas Kelley

Hjalmar Schacht Autograph Manuscript Signed at Nuremberg, His Autobiographical Statement for Psychiatrist Douglas Kelley AMS in pencil, in English, signed at the head with his full name, "Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht," two pages, 8 x 12.75, no date but circa 1945. A lengthy autobiographical account prepared by Schacht for Major Douglas Kelley, the U.S. Army psychiatrist assigned to evaluate the Nuremberg defendants' mental state ahead of trial. Schacht details his family's longevity, his education in Hamburg and study of political economy at Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Paris, and Kiel, his early career in banking, his 1916 entry into the Dresdner Bank, his 1923 appointment as currency commissioner and President of the Reichsbank, and his dismissal by Hitler in January 1939, after which he lived on his farm forty miles north of Berlin. He goes on to describe his health history in detail, a 1931 automobile accident with a slight brain concussion from which he recovered fully, recurring neuralgia relieved by aspirin, his 1941 second marriage to a woman thirty years his junior, his habits around drink and tobacco, and closes by describing himself as "of even temperament and good humour, fond of patience and aequa mens." In very good to fine condition, with uniform toning and small chips and tears to edges. Major Douglas M. Kelley was the U.S. Army psychiatrist assigned to evaluate the mental state of the Nuremberg defendants, work he later published as 22 Cells in Nuremberg. This autobiographical sketch, written in Schacht's own English rather than through an interpreter, was material gathered directly for that study, Schacht's own account of his life and constitution handed to the man tasked with understanding what kind of men had run the Third Reich. Schacht was the only major defendant at the main IMT trial acquitted outright on all counts. Notably, Douglas Kelley is portrayed by Rami Malek in the recent historical drama film Nuremberg (2025), directed by James Vanderbilt.