Deutsche Bank: The Global Hausbank, 1870 – 2020

Werner Plumpe, Alexander Nützenadel, Catherine Schenk

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Business
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781472977304
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Banks & Banking
• Index: Economics

A comprehensive history of one of the major players in the world of international finance. Over the course of its 150-year history, Deutsche Bank has established itself as a major player in the world of international finance, but has also been confronted by numerous challenges that have changed the face of Europe – from two world wars, to the rise and subsequent fall of communism. In this major work on the bank's history, Werner Plumpe, Alexander Nützenadel and Catherine R. Schenk deliver a vibrant account of the measures the bank undertook in order to address the profound upheavals of the period, as well as the diverse and unusual demands it had to face. These included the First World War, which brought the world's first period of globalization to a sudden and dramatic end, but also the development of the predominantly national framework within which the bank had to operate from 1914 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. More recently, the focus has shifted back to European and global activities, with Deutsche Bank forging new paths into the Anglo-American capital markets business – so opening another extraordinary chapter for the bank.

Notes

In the Age of the First Globalisation, 1870–1914

I.The Founding of Deutsche Bank and the Beginnings of the Business, 1870–1875

1Brecht, The Threepenny Opera, p. 166.

2See, for example, Stern, Gold and Iron.

3On the so-called founders’ boom of banks, see, first of all, Helfferich, Siemens, vol. 1, pp. 212f. Then Burhop, Kreditbanken.

4In fact, there is no new research on this. The multitude of newly founded banks – Wehler speaks of 186 founded incorporated banks between 1869 and 1872 (see Wehler, Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. III, p. 101) – most likely were the sort of brokerage banks that actually exclusively engaged in stock market listings and stock transactions. From the older literature, see, first, the not very significant study by Kleine-Natorp, Verfassung. The dissertation by Wunderlich, Entwicklung, is more informative.

5Tilly, Verkehrs- und Nachrichtenwesen, p. 588.

6Wehler, Gesellschaftsgeschichte, vol. III, pp. 101f. The crisis not only contributed to 186 of the newly founded incorporated banks failing, but also had a severe impact on banks like Disconto-Gesellschaft, which had focused on the serious discounting of exchange rates for trade and industry.

7Fischer, Bergbau, p. 538.

8Bondi, Außenhandel, p. 145.

9Cf. Tilly, Verkehrs- und Nachrichtenwesen, pp. 584f.

10Findlay/O’Rourke, Power and Plenty, pp. 402–7.

11In general on this see Osterhammel, Transformation.

12Bondi, Außenhandel, p. 146.

13Urbig, Vorkriegsgründungen, p. 24.

14On Comptoir d’Escompte in this period, see Bonin, Le Comptoir; Torres, Banquiers d’avenir, pp. 10–23.

15Wallich, Aus meinem Leben, pp. 52–104.

16Cf. Cassis, Capitals of Capital, pp. 7–73.

17Stern, Gold and Iron, passim.

18On Bamberger, see Koehler, Bamberger, and Kopper, Bamberger.

19Bamberger, Erinnerungen, p. 385.

20Engelberg, Bismarck, p. 72.

21Ibid., p. 79.

22Gall, Bismarck, pp. 493f.

23Otto, Entstehung, p. 92. On the background, see Schneider, Imperial Germany’s Gold Mark. Cf. finally also Ziegler, Entstehung.

24Bamberger, Reichsgold.

25See Schneider, Imperial Germany’s Gold Mark, p. 122.

26Lumm, Helfferich; Williamson, Helfferich, pp. 20–22, gives insight into Helfferich’s (pupil) relationship with Bamberger.

27Helfferich, Siemens, vol. 1, p. 214.

28On the composition of this committee, see Gall, Deutsche Bank, pp. 6f.; Seidenzahl, 100 Jahre, pp. 9–21.

29Jahres-Bericht und Mitglieder-Verzeichniß der Deutschen Gesellschaft der Stadt New York am 16. Januar, New York, 1860. Among the members of Deutsche Gesellschaft who were in the founding circle of Deutsche Bank were Heinrich Hardt, Eduard von der Heydt, Friedrich Kapp, Gustav Kutter, Wilhelm Loeschigk, Hermann Marcuse, Wilhelm Platenius, Hermann Rose and Otto Wesendonck.

30Cf. Bippen, Meier; Duensing, Meier.

31Concept Brief to die Herren Wendelstaedt, Cöln, Al. Heimendahl, Crefeld, G. Gebhard, Elberfeld, Ludwig Bamberger, Paris, Hermann Marcuse, Frankfurt a.M., Frege & Co., Leipzig, Leop. Schöller, Düren, undated, probably July 1869, HADB, K1/1000.

32Bataviaasch Handelsblad, 14 November 1863 and 16 March 1867, HADB, SG8/48; Mackenzie, Realms, p. 119.

33Denkschrift über Aufgaben und Ziele der neu zu errichtenden Deutschen. Confidentiell, Berlin, July 1869, HADB, K1/1000, printed in Pohl, Documents, in: Studies no. 21, pp. 729–37.

34Delbrück, Aufzeichnungen, pp. 175–8.

35On this see Gall, Deu...