the world of private banking
the world of private banking
the world of private banking
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
GERmAN PRIVAtE BANKS AND GERmAN INDUStRy, 1830–1938 173<br />
bank-industry network constituted by interlocking directorships. In 1927 <strong>the</strong>ir preeminence<br />
had even increased, since Louis Hagen, Simon Alfred v. Oppenheim,<br />
Heinrich v. Stein (I.H. Stein, Cologne) and Johann Friedrich Schröder (Schröder<br />
Bank KGaA, Bremen) held between 41 and 58 supervisory-board seats each. Only<br />
<strong>the</strong> former <strong>private</strong> banker Jacob Goldschmidt (Darmstädter und Nationalbank)<br />
and Curt Sobernheim (Commerz- und Privatbank), descendant <strong>of</strong> a former Breslau<br />
<strong>private</strong>-<strong>banking</strong> dynasty, had accumulated more seats. 44<br />
It is a significant contrast to <strong>the</strong>ir relatively small capital resources that about<br />
one third <strong>of</strong> all bank representatives among those persons with more than 15<br />
supervisory-board seats were <strong>private</strong> bankers. While <strong>the</strong> presence <strong>of</strong> great bank<br />
directors and ‘big’ industrialists can be explained by <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financial<br />
resources <strong>the</strong>y commanded, <strong>the</strong> <strong>private</strong> bankers were ‘outsiders’ having few<br />
financial resources, but were qualified by <strong>the</strong>ir capability to coordinate business<br />
policies beyond <strong>the</strong> scope <strong>of</strong> an individual company.<br />
In addition to <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> supervisory-board seats occupied by <strong>private</strong><br />
bankers, a second indicator, being named as dividend payment <strong>of</strong>fice for jointstock<br />
companies, also proves <strong>the</strong> bankers’ growing involvement in <strong>the</strong> financing<br />
<strong>of</strong> industry and commerce during <strong>the</strong> 1910s and 1920s. Between 1906 and 1927<br />
<strong>the</strong> average number <strong>of</strong> namings <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> leading houses had increased by about<br />
20 per cent. This held for <strong>the</strong> leading <strong>private</strong> bankers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Kaiserreich such<br />
as Delbrück, Schickler & Co., which increased its number <strong>of</strong> namings from 76<br />
(combined Delbrück, Leo & Co. and Gebr. Schickler) in 1906 to 98 in 1927, and<br />
Gebr. Arnhold (from 78 to 96 namings), but in particular for <strong>the</strong> ‘newcomers’ in<br />
industrial finance such as M.M. Warburg & Co. (from 7 to 61 namings) and S.<br />
Hirschland (no namings in 1906, but 36 in 1927). 45<br />
The number <strong>of</strong> namings as dividend payment <strong>of</strong>fice is not only instructive as<br />
regards <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>private</strong> bankers as a component <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> financial market<br />
as such, but also proves <strong>the</strong> continuing success <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> leading houses during <strong>the</strong><br />
first three decades <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> twentieth century. None <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> twenty most important<br />
<strong>banking</strong> houses <strong>of</strong> 1906 (defined by this indicator) had failed by 1927, and only<br />
two <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se banks had been taken over by a great bank. Those which disappeared<br />
between 1906 and 1927 had merged with ano<strong>the</strong>r <strong>private</strong> bank and reappeared<br />
as a ‘new’ bank. Mergers between <strong>private</strong> banks were no common feature <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
amalgamation movement <strong>of</strong> German <strong>banking</strong> in this period, but at times important<br />
provincial <strong>private</strong> bankers attempted to merge with a Berlin bank in order to get<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir foot in <strong>the</strong> door <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Reich’s most important financial market. The two<br />
outstanding cases are <strong>the</strong> mergers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> leading Frankfurt <strong>private</strong> banks <strong>of</strong> Dreyfus<br />
& Co. and Lazard, Speyer-Ellissen with <strong>the</strong> Berlin banks <strong>of</strong> S.L. Landsberger<br />
44<br />
D. Ziegler, ‘Geschäftliche Spezialisierungen deutscher Privatbankiers in der<br />
Zwischenkriegszeit: Ein vergeblicher Überlebenskampf?‘, in idem, Der Privatbankier:<br />
Nischenstrategien in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Stuttgart, 2003a), table 5, p. 221.<br />
45<br />
H. Wixforth and D. Ziegler, ‘Deutsche Privatbanken und Privatbankiers im 20.<br />
Jahrhundert‘, in Geschichte und Gesellschaft, vol. 23, 1997, pp. 205–35, here table 4, p. 220.