the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
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GERmAN PRIVAtE BANKS AND GERmAN INDUStRy, 1830–1938 171<br />
AV a £100,000 sterling credit, granted by a group <strong>of</strong> London bankers. Not only<br />
was this credit renewed several times during 1924/25, but Hirschland also acted<br />
as an intermediary for fur<strong>the</strong>r credits, variously denominated in ei<strong>the</strong>r Sterling or<br />
Dollars, supplied internationally to Guteh<strong>of</strong>fnungshütte. The Essen bank obtained<br />
comparable facilities for Mannesmann Röhrenwerke, August Thyssen-Hütte,<br />
Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks AG, Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerke,<br />
Klöckner, Phoenix, Krupp and Vereinigte Stahlwerke. 39<br />
No less important than Hirschland in <strong>the</strong> intermediation <strong>of</strong> foreign capital<br />
– in this case particularly US capital – were Warburg, <strong>the</strong> Hamburg bankers. Paul<br />
Warburg, a bro<strong>the</strong>r <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Hamburg banker Max, was a founder <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> International<br />
Acceptance Bank, established in New York in 1921, which specialized in granting<br />
dollar-denominated credits to foreign industrial concerns. The International<br />
Acceptance Bank not only collaborated with <strong>the</strong> Equitable Trust Company, one <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> largest New York banks, but also had an interest in <strong>the</strong> <strong>banking</strong> house Dillon,<br />
Read & Co., one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most important New York issuing houses. Several German<br />
industrial companies (Thyssen, Rheinelbe-Union and Vereinigte Stahlwerke)<br />
utilized <strong>the</strong> connection between M.M. Warburg & Co., <strong>the</strong> International Acceptance<br />
Bank and Dillon Read to issue stock in New York on substantially better terms<br />
than those <strong>the</strong>n obtainable in Germany. 40<br />
There are o<strong>the</strong>r examples <strong>of</strong> <strong>private</strong> <strong>banking</strong> houses putting <strong>the</strong>ir international<br />
contacts at <strong>the</strong> disposal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir industrial customers. Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie.,<br />
which had traditional close ties with French banks, negotiated franc-denominated<br />
credits for German customers during inflation and stabilization. Even Mendelssohn<br />
& Co., which had terminated its contact with industrial customers in <strong>the</strong> 1870s,<br />
obtained foreign credits for some large industrial customers (Phoenix and<br />
Vereinigte Stahlwerke) between 1924 and 1932 through its Amsterdam 41 and New<br />
York branches. 42<br />
39<br />
H. Wixforth, Banken und Schwerindustrie in der Weimarer Republik (Cologne,<br />
1995), pp. 118, 138; K. Ulrich, ‘Von Simon Hirschland zu Burkhardt & Co.: Die Geschichte<br />
des traditionsreichsten Bankhauses des Ruhrgebietes’, in J.-P. Barbian and L. Heid (eds),<br />
Die Entstehung des Ruhrgebietes (Düsseldorf, 1996), pp. 430–33; K. Ulrich, Aufstieg und<br />
Fall der Privatbankiers: Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung von 1918 bis 1938 (Frankfurt/<br />
Main, 1998), pp. 115–18.<br />
40<br />
R. Chernow, Die Warburgs: Odyssee einer Familie (Berlin, 1994), p. 285; Ulrich,<br />
Aufstieg, pp. 106–8; E. Kleßmann, M.M. Warburg & Co.: Die Geschichte eines Bankhauses<br />
(Hamburg, 1999), p. 77.<br />
41<br />
The Amsterdam new-issue market was dominated by two syndicates. The most<br />
important syndicate, responsible for a market share <strong>of</strong> about 40 per cent during <strong>the</strong> second half<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1920s, consisted <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij, Pierson & Co., Mees &<br />
Zoonen and Mendelssohn & Co. See C. Kreutzmüller, Händler und Handlungsgehilfen: Der<br />
Finanzplatz Amsterdam und die deutschen Großbanken (1918–1945) (Stuttgart, 2005), p. 42.<br />
42<br />
Wixforth et al., ‘Niche’, p. 115.