Helfferich studied law and political science at the universities of Munich, Berlin, and Strasbourg. He taught at the University of Berlin and later at the government school for colonial politics and oriental languages. In 1902 he entered upon a diplomatic career. He soon became a leader in the German government's policy of economic imperialism, and in 1906 he was appointed director of the Anatolian Railway which was financed by Deutsche Bank. In 1908 he was made chairman of the directorship of the powerful Deutsche Bank in Berlin. At the close of the Balkan War, Helfferich was the German financial delegate to the international conference. He was Secretary for the Treasury from 1916 to 1917, and was said to be responsible for financing expenses for World War I through loans instead of taxes. He counted upon a final German victory and upon imposing heavy indemnities upon the Allies. He also served as Vice-Chancellor for Chancellors Georg Michaelis and Georg von Hertling. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Helfferich was sent to Moscow as the German Ambassador to Russia, succeeding Wilhelm Mirbach, who was assassinated. Elected to the Reichstag of 1920, Helfferich led the conservative and monarchist right, known as the Deutsch-Nationalen, and strongly opposed reparations and the economic fulfillment of the Versailles Treaty. In particular, he directed his denunciations against the democratic Catholic leader Matthias Erzberger, against whom he had a celebrated lawsuit in 1920. Helfferich was a prominent politician of the German National People's Party and gave radical antirepublican speeches against politicians who supported reparations fulfilment. In June 1920 he was selected as spokesman in the Reichstag for the parliamentary committee of inquiry into policies during the war, which he defended. During the 1923 hyperinflation, Helfferich developed a plan for a new rye currency, indexed to the price of rye and other agriculture products. His plan was rejected because of the extreme variability in the price of rye compared to other commodities, but many of his plan elements were incorporated in the successful RentenMark, which began circulation on 15 November 1923. At the end of 1923, when Helfferich applied for the post of Reichbank president, he was rejected in favor of Hjalmar Schacht. Helfferich was killed in a railway wreck near Bellinzona, Switzerland, on 23 April 1924.
