the world of private banking

GERmAN PRIVAtE BANKS AND GERmAN INDUStRy, 1830–1938 169
Warschauer & Co. to the Darmstädter Bank in 1904 31 – until the banking crisis
of 1931 it was rather the provincial and smaller metropolitan bankers who fell
victim to the concentration process. By the turn of the century the local joint-stock
banks had begun to tap local middle-class savings by opening branches and using
the backing of these resources to compete for the financing of the ‘Mittelstand,’
which had been the domain of local private bankers. In addition to their larger
means, the provincial joint-stock banks began to supersede current-account credit
by the cheaper acceptance credit, in which the local private banker with his limited
credit standing was also unable to compete. This ‘evolutionary’ displacement of
the provincial banker was reinforced by stock-exchange legislation reforms during
the 1880s and 1890s, which privileged Berlin and Frankfurt bankers, particularly
the Berlin great banks, in the stockbroking business. 32 These most unfavourable
circumstances forced many private bankers to sell their businesses to a provincial
joint-stock bank, to convert the bank into a branch, and to become a director of the
bank (in the case of larger private banks) or at least to become the manager of the
branch (in the case of smaller houses). 33
In order to keep up with the growth potential of the competing provincial jointstock
companies, some of the larger provincial private banks reacted by adopting
limited liability and becoming provincial joint-stock banks themselves. The
Meiningen private bank B.M Strupp was converted into Bank für Thüringen vorm.
B.M. Strupp AG in 1905. In the same year, the Stuttgart private bank Stahl &
Federer was converted into Stahl & Federer AG. Until 1919 this bank adopted an
aggressive amalgamation policy by taking over thirteen provincial private banking
houses and thus building up a dense network of branches in Württemberg. 34 Also
in 1905 the Mannheim private banking house W.H. Ladenburg & Söhne, which
was for decades closely connected with one of the largest German chemical firms,
the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (BASF), was converted into Süddeutsche
Discontogesellschaft, in order to keep up with the fast-growing demand from the
Mannheim and Ludwigshafen industry. Thanks to the participation of the (Berlin)
Discontogesellschaft, the Ladenburg bank became one of the largest South German
credit banks. However, despite the great bank’s interest the Ladenburg family kept
control of ‘its’ bank. The Discontogesellschaft was only allowed to hold stock
worth 8m. Marks, while the family kept the rest, 12m. Marks. 35
31
Pohl, Konzentration, p. 237; Ferguson, Geschichte, vol. 2, p. 294.
32
C. Meier, Die Entstehung des Börsengesetzes vom 22. Juni 1896 (St Katharinen,
1993); C. Wetzel, Die Auswirkungen des Reichsbörsengesetzes von 1896 auf die
Effektenbörsen im Deutschen Reich (Münster, 1996).
33
K. Donaubauer, Privatbankiers und Bankenkonzentration in Deutschland von der
Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts bis 1932 (Frankfurt/Main, 1988), p. 99.
34
M. Bergner, Das württembergische Bankwesen: Entstehung, Ausbau und
struktureller Wandel des regionalen Bankwesens bis 1923 (St Katharinen, 1993), p. 333ff.
35
B. Kirchgässner, ‘Zur Geschichte der Deutschen Bank Mannheim und ihrer
Vorgänger (1785–1929)’, in Beiträge zu Wirtschafts‐ und Währungsfragen und zur