the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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168<br />
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING<br />
– Deutsche Bank (by almost all important Berlin bankers led by Delbrück,<br />
Leo & Co. and many o<strong>the</strong>r bankers from Bremen, Cologne, Frankfurt and<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r places),<br />
– Commerz- und Discontobank (by several Hamburg bankers including<br />
Hesse, Newman & Co. and C.H. Donner, but also by <strong>the</strong> Berlin banker<br />
Mendelssohns & Co.). 29<br />
In contrast to Schaaffhausenscher Bankverein and Barmer Bankverein, <strong>the</strong>se<br />
founding activities can be interpreted as an attempt to institutionalize some form <strong>of</strong><br />
cartel for those transactions which had become too large for a single <strong>private</strong> <strong>banking</strong><br />
house. Consequently, <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong> bankers and ‘<strong>the</strong>ir’ joint-stock<br />
banks was more or less cordial and <strong>the</strong> bankers still kept both an influential position<br />
and adequate quotas in all syndicate agreements. 30 In international syndicates <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
foreign partners at times even refused <strong>the</strong> participation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> novel joint-stock<br />
banks and cooperated only with <strong>the</strong> established <strong>private</strong> bankers. In all, <strong>the</strong> 1830s<br />
to 1880s can be seen as <strong>the</strong> ‘heyday’ <strong>of</strong> <strong>private</strong> <strong>banking</strong> in Germany.<br />
Private Banking in Decline?<br />
Until recently, <strong>the</strong> substantial decline in <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> <strong>private</strong> banks after <strong>the</strong> turn<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> century has led to an unwarranted overestimation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir relative decline in<br />
importance for <strong>the</strong> functioning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> universal <strong>banking</strong> system. A glance into <strong>the</strong><br />
statistics which reflect <strong>the</strong> quantitative development <strong>of</strong> <strong>private</strong> <strong>banking</strong> during <strong>the</strong><br />
first half <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> twentieth century suggests that <strong>the</strong> significance <strong>of</strong> this type <strong>of</strong> bank<br />
has declined considerably. Such quantitative data can be interpreted to <strong>the</strong> effect<br />
that while many <strong>private</strong> bankers had played an important role in <strong>the</strong> early phase<br />
<strong>of</strong> German industrialization, in <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong> maturing economic development<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir significance and influence in industry and commerce constantly declined.<br />
The weakening <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> formerly dominant position <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>private</strong> bankers in <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>banking</strong> system cannot and will not be denied on principle, but <strong>the</strong> simple fact has<br />
to be qualified.<br />
Despite some notorious cases <strong>of</strong> formerly first-rate <strong>private</strong> banks – M.A.<br />
Rothschild & Söhne was sold to <strong>the</strong> Discontogesellschaft in 1901 and Robert<br />
29<br />
M. Pohl et al., Deutsche Bankengeschichte, 3 vols (Frankfurt/Main, 1982), vol. 2,<br />
pp. 182–6, 264–8; Pohl, Konzentration, pp. 67–74, 107–16; C. Burhop, Die Kreditbanken<br />
in der Gründerzeit (Stuttgart, 2004), pp. 90–106.<br />
30<br />
P. Hertner, ‘German Banks Abroad Before 1914’, in G. Jones (ed.), Banks<br />
as Multinationals (London, 1990), pp. 99–119; R. Tilly, ‘International Aspects <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
Development <strong>of</strong> German Banking’, in R. Cameron and V. Bovykin (eds), International<br />
Banking 1870–1914 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 90–112; B. Barth, ‘Deutsch-jüdisch-europäische<br />
Privatbankengruppen vor und nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg’, Arbeitskreis für Bankgeschichte<br />
der GUG, Arbeitspapier no. 5 (1997, unpublished).