Germany
Walther Rathenau
1867–1922 Head of the War Raw Materials Department, 1914–1915
A leading figure at the giant electrical firm AEG, son of its founder, Rathenau was a polymath, a philosopher and an industrialist who had never expected a long war. On 8 August 1914 he warned the War Ministry that Germany would run out of raw materials within months, and within a week he headed a new department to prevent this. He organized the registering, requisitioning and rationing of metals, rubber and chemicals, and built the semi-public war companies that did so. He resigned in March 1915 after a dispute with the generals, but the system he created became the model of German 'war socialism'. He went on to become Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic, and was assassinated by right-wing extremists on 24 June 1922.