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| Home > Topics > The reconstitution of Deutsche Bank 50 years ago |
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Head Office Berlin 1945 |
Break up and reconstruction 1947-57
The break up of Germany's big banks in 1947-48 was a result of the Second World War.
Influential members of the American military government considered the German universal bank system to be a culprit for the criminal policies of the National Socialist regime. The direct consequences of this perception were the decentralization of the three big banks in Berlin, including Deutsche Bank, and the continuation of their business by regional banks that were permitted to operate only at the state level.
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| Norddeutsche Bank in Hamburg |
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Deutsche Bank was split up into ten regional banks, some operating like Norddeutsche Bank under the name of a predecessor bank, while others, such as Hessische Bank, had purely regional names. However, the operation of banking business was prohibited using the name “Deutsche Bank”. The management of Deutsche Bank objected vehemently to the break up: “Deutsche Bank’s reputation and credit domestically and abroad are such a great asset to the German economy that everything must be done to retain them.
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Hessische Bank in Frankfurt |
If Germany is to be reintegrated into the world economy, even 20 regional banks will not be capable of replacing Deutsche Bank.” Although it soon became apparent that the status created was untenable, five years went by before the first partial correction took place. With the Act on the Regional Scope of Credit Institutions of 1952, the establishment of the West German business of the former Deutsche Bank was permitted in three regional stock corporations that were legally independent from each other.
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| 1952: forming of three successor banks |
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These were Norddeutsche Bank AG in Hamburg (NDB), Rheinisch-Westfälische Bank AG in Düsseldorf (RWB) and Süddeutsche Bank AG in Munich and Frankfurt (SDB).
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