Hans Ernst Posse

Hans Ernst Posse (31 August 1886 – 18 August 1965) was a German lawyer and civil servant. He served in the Ministry of Economics of the Weimar Republic and advanced to become a State Secretary there during Nazi Germany.

Early life Posse's father was the harpist, chamber virtuoso and professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, (1852–1925). Born in Berlin, Posse attended the humanistic Gymnasium in Charlottenburg. He then studied law at the University of Bonn and Humboldt University of Berlin. After obtaining his doctorate and passing his Referendar examination, he worked for the Cologne government district from 1909 to 1913 as an apprentice lawyer. In 1913, he passed his Assessor examination and became a government lawyer at the district courthouse in Beuthen (today, Bytom). He volunteered for military service in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 and served as an officer in the reserves.

Career in the Weimar Republic After the end of the war in 1918, he obtained an entry-level position in the Prussian Ministry of Trade and Industry, becoming a Staatskommissar (State Commissioner) in July 1920 and being promoted to Ministerialrat (Ministerial Counselor) in 1921. Also, between 1921 and 1924, he served as a Deputy Plenipotentiary for Prussia to the Reichsrat. In 1924 he transferred to the Reich Economics Ministry, where he was promoted to Ministerialdirektor and appointed department head for customs and trade policy. In this capacity, he took part in numerous international economic negotiations and conferences. In 1927, he headed the delegation for commercial contract negotiations with France. In December 1928, he was head of the German delegation at the German-Russian economic negotiations. He also served as the German representative to the Economic Commission of the League of Nations Assembly, becoming a member of its Economic Committee in November 1932.

On 27 November 1937, one month after Hjalmar Schacht's resigned as Economics Minister, State Secretary Hans Ernst Posse of the Economic Ministry signed an order to expel Jews from the German economy. On 4 February 1938, the new Reichsminister, Walther Funk, brought in Rudolf Brinkmann as principal State Secretary and Posse was given the functions of State Secretary for Special Tasks and Deputy to the General Plenipotentiary for the Economy, a post also held by Funk in addition to the presidency of the Reichsbank. According to Funk's rebuttal testimony at Nuremberg, Posse, then age 60 years old, was technically his chief deputy as General Plenipotentiary for the Economy, but had no real responsibilities, in contrast to Friedrich Landfried (who had succeeded Brinkmann) at the Ministry and Emil Puhl at the Reichsbank: "Mr. Posse was an old, sick man whom I had assigned to this post … which, to all intents and purposes, existed only on paper." Nothing is known of Posse's denazification process.

He later lived in Nußdorf (today, part of Überlingen) and worked as a journalist. He died on 18 August 1965 in nearby Singen.