Hermann Josef Abs

Hermann Josef Abs was a leading banker during the Nazi regime, and advisor to Chancellor Adenauer. He was a member of the board of directors of Deutsche Bank from 1938 to 1945, as well as of 44 other companies, including IG Farben. As the most powerful commercial banker of the Third Reich, he was, according to economic journalist Adam LeBor, "the lynchpin of the continent wide plunder". The Allies arrested him in January 1946; however, British intervention got him freed after three months, and German courts later dropped all charges.