The Deutsche Bank and the Nazi Economic War against the Jews


Book Description

The Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest financial institution, played an important role in the expropriation of Jewish-owned enterprises during the Nazi dictatorship, both in the existing territories of Germany, and in the area seized by the German army during World War II. In this 2001 book Harold James uses new and previously unavailable materials, many from the bank's own archives, to examine policies which led to the eventual genocide of European Jews. How far did the realization of the vicious and destructive Nazi ideology depend on the acquiescence, the complicity, and the cupidity of existing economic institutions, and individuals? In response to the traditional view that business co-operation with the Nazi regime was motivated by profit, this book closely examines the behaviour of the bank and its individuals to suggest other motivations. No comparable study exists of a single company's involvement in the economic persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.




Handbook on the History of European Banks


Book Description

Analyse: Banque cantonale vaudoise: p. 1072-1078.




Deutsche Bank: The Global Hausbank, 1870 – 2020


Book Description

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.




The Nazi Dictatorship and the Deutsche Bank


Book Description

Examines the role of Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest commercial bank, during the Nazi dictatorship, and asks how the bank changed and accommodated to a transition from democracy and a market economy to dictatorship and a planned economy. Set against the background of the world depression and the German banking crisis of 1931, the book looks at the restructuring of German banking and offers material on the bank's expansion in central and eastern Europe. As well as summarizing recent research on the bank's controversial role in gold transactions and the financing of the construction of Auschwitz, the book also examines the role played by particular personalities in the development of the bank, such as Emil Georg von Strauss and Hermann Abs.




Business and Industry in Nazi Germany


Book Description

During the past decade, the role of Germany's economic elites under Hitler has once again moved into the limelight of historical research and public debate. This volume brings together a group of internationally renowned scholars who have been at the forefront of recent research. Their articles provide an up-to-date synthesis, which is as comprehensive as it is insightful, of current knowledge in this field. The result is a volume that offers students and interested readers a brief but focused introduction to the role of German businesses and industries in the crimes of Hitler's Third Reich. Not only does this book treat the subject in an accessible manner; it also emerges as particularly relevant in light of current controversies over the nature of business-state relations, corporate social responsibility, and globalization.




States and the Masters of Capital


Book Description

Today, states’ ability to borrow private capital depends on stringent evaluations of their creditworthiness. While many presume that this has long been the case, Quentin Bruneau argues that it is a surprisingly recent phenomenon—the outcome of a pivotal shift in the social composition of financial markets. Investigating the financiers involved in lending capital to sovereigns over the past two centuries, Bruneau identifies profound changes in their identities, goals, and forms of knowledge. He shows how an old world made up of merchant banking families pursuing both profit and status gradually gave way to a new one dominated by large companies, such as joint stock banks and credit rating agencies, exclusively pursuing profit. Lacking the web of personal ties to sovereigns across the world that their established rivals possessed, these financial institutions began relying on a different form of knowledge created to describe and compare states through quantifiable data: statistics. Over the course of this epochal shift, which only came to an end a few decades ago, financial markets thus reconceptualized states. Instead of a set of individuals to be known in person, they became numbers on a page. Raising new questions about the history of sovereign lending, this book illuminates the nature of the relationship between states and financial markets today—and suggests that it may be on the cusp of another major transformation.




Reconstruction and Cold War in Germany


Book Description

At the end of the Second World War Germany was devastated; her cities lay in ruins, industrial output was minimal, the economy was in tatters and her territories divided into four zones, each governed by one of the main Allied powers. Yet the rapid onset of the Cold War ensured that the western powers needed to re-establish a strong West German state to act as a bulwark against Soviet influence. In this study the critical role of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) in this process is closely examined. Established by the Anglo-American occupying powers in 1948, the main remit of the KfW was to provide investment for German industry, to help kick-start the economy. Its particular function was to provide loans to key industries that the commercial banks considered too risky or which offered unacceptably low returns. Yet as this study makes clear, its work was from the outset highly politicized, and its role in German reconstruction went much further than simply providing funds for capital investment. Bankrolled mainly by American Marshall Plan counterpart funds, the KfW was viewed in Washington as an essential tool in the wider Western response to the challenges of Soviet communism. As is shown throughout the book, this dual role inevitably caused some difficulties, as national interests could be overridden in favour of Cold War considerations. As Germany's post-war economy revived, this led to further tensions between an increasingly prosperous and self-confident West Germany and the continued interference of the Allied powers, particularly the USA, who had their own Cold War agenda. Utilizing archives in Germany, Britain and the United States, Dr Grünbacher has provided a clear synthesis of this multi-faceted and complex subject. By approaching the economic development of Federal Germany through the locus of the KfW, he offers a fascinating insight into the interactions of economics, politics and ideology that will be welcomed by all scholars with an inte




Comparative Analysis of the English and the German Banking System with Special Regard to Bank-Industry Relations and their Implications on Companies' Performance


Book Description

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The essay is about the English and the German banking system, their characteristics and the implications of these. As the English banking system is defined as a specialised banking system and the German one is known as a universal banking system, these terms are explained in the first chapter. Furthermore, the chapter deals with the history of both systems to make clear why these two banking systems developed into two different directions. After having looked at the differences of the two alternative banking systems, their structure is analysed in more detail in the second chapter. All different kinds of banks existing in England and Germany are identified and their scope of functions and goals are described. In the following some important features of the banking systems, such as short-termism and corporate governance, are analysed in great detail. This means that these features are defined and their causes and consequences are identified and evaluated. After the different banking systems have been described with regard to their structure and features, the objective of the next chapter is, to point out the implications of these systems on companies performance. Therefore it is first of all necessary to define performance and the factors being responsible for a high or low economic performance. Afterwards, the influence of the banking systems on these factors are analysed. The last chapter of this essay shortly describes other existing opinions concerning the structure of the banking systems and their implications on companies performance. Furthermore, the chapter points out some tendencies for the future development of these banking systems. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSI LIST OF FIGURESII LIST OF TABLESII 1.INTRODUCTION1 2.PRESENTING THE TWO ALTERNATIVE FINANCIAL SYSTEMS2 2.1THE GERMAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND ITS HISTORY2 2.2THE BRITISH BANKING SYSTEM AND ITS HISTORY3 3.STRUCTURE OF THE BANKING SYSTEMS3 3.1GERMANY3 3.1.1General Information4 3.1.2Universal Banks5 3.1.2.1Private Commercial Banks5 3.1.2.2Savings Bank Sector6 3.1.2.3Cooperative Sector7 3.1.3Specialised Banks8 3.2UK9 3.21.1The Banking System in General10 3.2.2Authorised Banks11 3.2.2.1Retail Banking in the UK11 3.2.2.2Wholesale Banking12 3.2.3Listed Discount Market Institutions14 3.2.4Other Financial Institutions14 4.FEATURES OF THE BANKING SYSTEMS15 4.1PROVISION OF CAPITAL AND FUNDING FOR [...]




Wilhelminism and Its Legacies


Book Description

What was distinctive--and distinctively "modern"--about German society and politics in the age of Kaiser Wilhelm II? In addressing this question, these essays assemble cutting-edge research by fourteen international scholars. Based on evidence of an explicit and self-confidently "bourgeois" formation in German public culture, the contributors suggest new ways of interpreting its reformist potential and advance alternative readings of German political history before 1914. While proposing a more measured understanding of Wilhelmine Germany's extraordinarily dynamic society, they also grapple with the ambivalent, cross-cutting nature of German "modernities" and reassess their impact on long-term developments running through the Wilhelmine age.