Arthur Heinrich Ludwig Zarden (27 April 1885 in Hamburg – 18 January 1944 in Berlin) was a leading personality in Germantax legislation and for a short time State Secretary in the Reich Finance Ministry.
Career
Not much is known about Zarden's childhood or youth. In 1904, he left the Wilhelm-
's daughter. Further positions held by Zarden were Ministerial Adviser in 1920, Ministerial Manager in 1925, Ministerial Director and finally in 1932, State Secretary.
Taxation Administration
Zarden came to the Reich Finance Ministry at a time of upheaval. The building of a centralistic finance administration, the burden of
war that Germany had lost, and lastly the struggle against inflation made the first years very hard. Owing to this, he concentrated himself on the consolidation of Reich finances through reconstruction and creation of capital gains, asset, and income taxes, along with compulsory loans. This was understood to mean a compulsory yielding of up to 10% of assets for each person and business. After economic stabilization, Zarden worked together with others on the Weimar Republic
's second tax reform, which was aimed above all at simplifying and lowering taxes, as well as reorganizing finances between the Reich and the Länder (provinces or states). He authored countless articles in trade journals and union magazines.
State Secretary
As leader of the taxation department in the Reich Finance Ministry, Zarden foresaw that he would become the old State Secretary
Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
Zarden is reckoned to be the inventor of tax vouchers, which allowed discounts on taxes and through whose sale businesses could quickly obtain new liquidity.
After the
Jewish woman, stayed on as State Secretary at first, but through Adolf Hitler
's intervention, he was thrown out of the government, and on 31 March 1933 put into "provisional retirement".
Solf Circle, led by former German Ambassador to Tokyo Dr. Wilhelm Heinrich Solf's widow, Johanna Solf. The circle, which was part of the resistance, brought together Foreign Ministry officials, intellectuals, writers, and others, along with Johanna Solf and her daughter, Lagi von Ballestrem. Sometime after Zarden's entry into the circle, the Gestapo managed to slip an informer, Paul Reckzeh, into the group, who in September 1943 reported them for a discussion that the group had had about the hopelessness of Germany's military situation, the subject matter alone being considered treasonous in Nazi Germany. This led to Zarden's arrest on 12 January 1944, whereupon he was taken to a Gestapo prison. It was clear to him that he would never leave the prison alive, and that he would be tortured. On 18 January, Zarden leapt through a window, falling to his death on the street below.[1]
Literature
Ausstellungskatalog Bundesfinanzakademie/Bundesministerium der Finanzen, 1985
Irmgard Ruppel-Zarden, Memories, 2001
References
^Lagi countess Ballestrem-Solf (2003). "Tea Party". In Boehm, Eric H. (ed.). We survived : fourteen histories of the hidden and hunted in Nazi Germany. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press. p. 139.
