Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary who financed the New Deal and the war and presided over the Bretton Woods conference
Born into a prominent Jewish family in Manhattan, Morgenthau studied architecture and agriculture at Cornell without taking a degree, befriended Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1913 and farmed near their estate. After heading the Federal Farm Board in 1933, he became Secretary of the Treasury in 1934. He helped design and finance the New Deal, from 1937 led the financing of US participation in the Second World War, and shaped Lend-Lease and the Morgenthau Plan to deindustrialise Germany. On 1 July 1944 he was chosen Permanent President of the Bretton Woods conference. When Truman refused to take him to Potsdam in 1945 he resigned, and he spent his later years on Jewish philanthropy and as a financial adviser to Israel.
Also known as: Henry Morgenthau Jr.
Activities and affiliations
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1933
United States state institutionsGovernor of the Federal Farm Board
Agriculture and land policy -
1934–1945
United States state institutionsSecretary of the TreasuryMain
Economy, finance and planning -
1944
United States state institutionsPresident of the Bretton Woods conference
Diplomacy and international organization
Career Timeline
- 1929Chair of the New York State Agricultural Advisory Committee
- 1933Governor of the Federal Farm Board
- 1934–1945Secretary of the Treasury
- 1944.07.01Permanent President of the Bretton Woods conference