Aufsätze
Lothar Gall A man for all seasons? Hermann Josef Abs im Dritten Reich
Peter Borscheid Von der Sparkasse zur Sparkassen-Versicherung: Zur Unternehmensexpansion der Sparkassen im frühen 20. Jahrhundert
Dieter Ziegler Die Aufsichtsräte der deutschen Aktiengesellschaften in den zwanziger Jahren. Eine empirische Untersuchung zum Problem der "Bankenmacht"
Ernst Neubronner Der Wiederaufbau der deutschen Geschäftsbanken nach 1945 am Beispiel der Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft
Barbara Eggenkaemper / Marian Rappl / Anna Reichel Der Bestand Reichswirtschaftsministerium im "Zentrum für die Aufbewahrung historisch-dokumentarischer- Sammlungen" (Sonderarchiv") in Moskau
Abstracts
In post-war Germany the name of Hermann J. Abs represented the link between business and politics. As one of the most influential personalities during the period of reconstruction in Germany after WW II, Abs was entrusted with several responsibilities. He founded and led the German Reconstruction Loan Cooperation (Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau); held for a long time the chairmanship of the "Deutsche Bank"; advised the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in economic questions and was the Chairman of the German Delegation for international negotiations on German debts in 1951 and 1952 (London Debt Agreement). A German law of 1965 limiting the number of supervisory posts was even known as "Lex Abs". In addition to this, the name Abs also plays a prominent role if one investigates the influence of banks on the German Nazi-regime. In the "OMGUS-Report on the Investigation to the Deutsche Bank" he was reproached for having been a member of the Board of Directors of the "Deutsche Bank" since 1938. As such, he was made responsible for the "Aryanization" of Jewish companies and for the take over of important banks and companies in order to expand German influence in World War II. Important Jewish bankers and entrepreneurs in the occupied countries however, attested Abs to have made every effort to help them during the time of Nazi-government. Abs also had contact with the German resistance, e. g. Helmuth von Moltke and - one of his best friends - Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, who were both murdered by the regime because of their opposition to it. On the basis of new sources the article not only discusses if Abs was personally involved with the Nazi-regime, if he can be held responsible for the take-over of Jewish companies, the crimes of IG-Farben and the gold-trade of the regime. The contribution also throws light on the scope of options open to a gifted man like Abs, who also wished to pursue his career under the conditions of Nazi-Germany. A few examples shows how Abs helped Jewish bankers and how in 1940 he transferred "Reichsbank" gold to Sweden. Abs is described as an enigmatic figure: He was on friendly terms with the notorious Vice President of the German "Reichsbank" Puhl but nevertheless contacted by the German opposition to participate in the discussion in "Kreisau".
At the beginning of the 20th century the German savings banks faced threats to their traditional business from various quarters, including the industrial assurance sector (Volksversicherung) which provided small-scale life assurance for the lower classes. An additional threat came from the cooperation between the public life assurance societies founded by Wolfgang Kapp and the agrarian credit institutions outside Prussia. On the eve of the First World War the savings banks attempted to counter this threat through the formation of loose cooperative groupings with the Kapp societies. After the World War they went onto the offensive and on the initiative of the Saxon association of savings banks they founded their own life assurance societies in Saxony as well as in the South German states, and tried to extend their influence into the other German states.
Bank representatives sitting on supervisory boards of German non-bank corporations are often seen as a proof of the banks' dominance over industry. This article examines the composition of German supervisory boards in I927, that is, before restrictions on the composition of boards were imposed. The study is based on a data bank consisting of all German joint stock companies with a shareholders' capital of not less than nom. 500,000 RM. From this basis six company samples are made up, representing ("old" as well as "new" and more as well as less capital intensive industries. Although the number of bank representatives is indeed very large both in the aggregate and in all company samples - on average one out of three seats Is occupied by bankers - it is argued that this must not be interpreted as an empirical proof of the bank dominance thesis. Instead, since in only very few cases only one bank was represented, the large number of competing banks on the boards is seen as evidence that the management of the majority of non-bank enterprises were able to secure injections of funds in case of need without damaging their entrepreneurial autonomy.
From the former six German big banks (Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Commerzbank, Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft, Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft and Bank der Deutschen Arbeit) Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft was the only one to start its post-World War II business in all parts of then Western Germany using its traditional company name. The current German "big three" had been forced by the Allied Military Administration to split each of them into altogether 30 different entities, before they managed to re-integrate their business in the fifties. The remaining three banks had no branches and were therefore not able to proceed any business outside Berlin, where all banking activities had been stopped by order of the Soviet Military Administration immediately after the occupation of the German capital in April 1945. The basis from which Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft started its post-war business was a small office in Thueringen, to which assets from Berlin had been transferred in 1943 to secure these funds against the allied air raids in Berlin. In June 1945 this office moved according to an American order to Erlangen in the US occupation zone of Germany, after Soviet troops incorporated Thueringen into their area. In 1948 the office moved again to Frankfurt where "Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main AG" had been formally founded as a fully owned subsidiary of the still existing Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft in Berlin. Within the five next years from 1948 to 1953 the Frankfurt "subsidiary" was recognised by the German authorities according to a special law as a "moved institute" with the fictitious founding year 1945. Even then the bank was able to operate in Western Germany and abroad only, but not in West-Berlin. Not before 1954 a special law allowed to re-integrate the Berlin business into the new Frankfurt head office of the bank. The traditional company name has been used until 1970, when Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft merged with Frankfurter Bank to BHF-Bank.
Barbara Eggenkaemper / Marian Rappl / Anna Reichel Der Bestand Reichswirtschaftsministerium im "Zentrum für die Aufbewahrung historisch-dokumentarischer- Sammlungen" ("Sonderarchiv") in Moskau
Drawing on our personal experience from research on the history of tlie Allianz Versicherungs-AG in the National Socialist period in the so-called "Sonderarchiv Moskau", we offer basic Information designed to be helpful to those planning to work in this archive. Following a brief description of our project we provide a short section containing technical information as well as remarks concerning the problematic working conditions researchers will encounter. There follows a general characterization of the records and finding aids the research team worked with; a compilation is provided pertaining to those sections which could be of interest for persons working on the history, of the banking system and the insurance industry. The article concludes with a detailed description of finding aids to some central records of the Economics Ministry (Reichswirtschaftsministerium - RWM)
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