the world of private banking

INtRODUctION
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She maintains that ‘for the scholar of banking history ... the Oppenheim Archive is
a must if doing research on the industrialization process in Germany between 1825
and 1870’. The archive, formally established in 1939 as one of the first banking
archives in Germany, was not initially supposed to be used by outsiders, but to
serve as a quick-and-easy means of information for members of the Oppenheim
family, writes Teichmann. The establishment of the archive came at a time when
the family was under great pressure from the Nazi regime because of its Jewish
ancestry. The archive therefore became a symbol of the family’s unbroken sense of
tradition and its will to persevere. The archival records pertaining to their activities,
mainly in shipping and railways, mining and heavy industry, insurance business
and banking, are arranged in files devoted to the various companies. In addition,
there is the business and private correspondence of the two Oppenheim brothers
who ran the bank through the crucial years 1825–70.
Religion, Culture and Society
Socio-cultural factors, primarily religion, have been an integral part of private
banking, possibly more so than in any other economic activity. In chapter 12 Ginette
Kurgan-van Hentenryck provides an analytical survey of the economic role, social
position and political influence of Jewish private bankers in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, emphasizing the importance of personal and family networks.
Their activities originated in the eighteenth century in trade finance in Britain,
in international finance in France, in the securities business in the Netherlands,
and in the business activities of the Hofjuden in Germany. From then on their
financial transactions, and often the families themselves, spread across Europe’s
main financial centres and, later in the nineteenth century, New York. Government
loans, as well as trade finance in Britain, made up an essential part of their business,
though railway promotion should not be underestimated, especially in France and
Germany. Jewish private bankers were also instrumental in the creation of the early
joint stock banks, beginning with the Banque de Belgique in 1835 and including
the Crédit Mobilier of the Pereire brothers in France as well as the four ‘D’ Banks
in Germany – Darmstädter, Disconto, Deutsche and Dresdner. Their economic
influence waned after the First World War, and they were eliminated by the Nazi
regime in Germany. However, throughout the twentieth century, they retained a
high degree of creativity, as witnessed by the role of Lazards in the merger and
acquisition business or of Warburgs in the birth of the Euromarkets.
The economic achievements of Jewish private bankers were partly the result of
the nature of their networks – based on strict endogamy; extending internationally;
and with loyalty to Judaism being in many cases less a question of religiosity and
more a clannish attitude. On the other hand, the wealth and status provided by
these achievements did not lead to the same level of integration in all countries,
with Jewish private bankers gaining greater acceptance in England, where anti-
Semitism was less virulent than elsewhere, and Belgium and France than Germany.