A. Schaaffhausen'scher Bank Association
The Schaaffhausen'sche A. Bank Corporation was a bank based in Cologne and the first as a public company or at all as a legal entity organized private bank in Germany.
History
The Schaaffhausen'sche A. Bank Corporation, founded in 1791 is attributable to the trading house Abraham Schaaffhausen, which also operated banking transactions in addition to trade, freight forwarding and real estate transactions. Owner was Abraham Schaaffhausen, who was one of the first and most important sources of finance for the growing Rhine-Westphalian heavy industry with his bank. This private bank was among the first financial institutions that financed the construction of the mining companies in the Ruhr. For the actual core of the company was from 1807 the real estate business, later, the crisis in the banking association should be triggered by the. When Abraham Schaaffhausen 1815 it learned that the Rhineland was slammed by the Congress of Vienna, Prussia, he is said to have exclaimed in horror: " Jesse Maria, do hierode mer äver s poorest Familich " ( "Oh jeh, but since we marry a poor family " ). At least since 1837, the bank was one of the main financiers of the industry. It financed at this time about 170 factories, including companies such as Krupp, Hoesch, Gutehoffnungshütte or Eschweiler mining association. The Bank club was next to Oppenheim and Herstatt instrumental in the achieved through merger on June 9, 1837 establishing the Rhenish Railway Company AG. The investment financing at Eberhard Hoesch & Söhne for the construction of rail rolling mill in Düren- Lendersdorf 1836 probably came from the banking association. The founding banks of the Cologne Fire Insurance Company (later COLONIA insurance) was on July 16, 1839 Schaaffhausen again. She was also involved in infrastructure projects, for example in the financing of the Cologne -Minden Railway Company in 1843.
The namesake Abraham Schaaffhausen not live to see the rapid development of his bank. His son Joseph Louis Mertens took over in 1816 the first line and four years later a majority stake. He was succeeded by Wilhelm Ludwig Deichmann, who began as an apprentice in 1818 and the Bank led through the Great Depression from 1848 to 1857. Deichmann, like his predecessor Mertens married with daughters Schaaffhausen. Mertens ' wife was Sibyl Schaaffhausen and Deichmann's wife was Elizabeth Schaaffhausen.
Crisis
As part of the political and economic crisis of 1848, the Bank was in March 1848 with a severe liquidity crunch in particular as a result of too much of real estate speculation faced. This started the deposits of many customers in danger, as on 29 March 1848, the bank stopped its payments. So the Schaaffhausen'sche Bank Corporation Bank was also home to the Cologne industrialist Johann Jakob Lange, who maintained high balances here. Long was one of the largest creditors of the Bank ( in March 1845, he had created there 145,000 pounds). At least 170 more major business of the Rhineland had then their funds mainly in Schaaffhausen landfilled - a disaster for the local economy. The family chronicle Long reported that the bank had the task to pass on March 25, 1848, the sum of 20,000 thalers as a customs payment of the company " Langen & Söhne" for imported cane sugar. At the last second, it should be Langen succeeded in this one bill at the Royal. Bank branch to get discounted. Since the bank was a major creditor of the Rhenish industry simultaneously, Cologne bankers and merchants decided on a rescue operation, which was supported by the Prussian government. End of April 1848, the Prussian government was ready to save the private bank by reorganization into a corporation under certain conditions. With the help of state guarantees, which were granted on the advice of the Finance Minister of Prussia and later the founder of the Disconto Society, David Hanse man, it came to the rescue of the bank by other bankers, led by Gustav Mevissen. To this end, the Prussian government approved the first time a bank in the form of a corporation: the Aktiengesellschaft A. Schaaffhausen Union Bank of Cologne. In April 1848 Mevissen formed together with Hansemannplatz and Abraham Oppenheim, a "crisis management". The Prussian state took over the guarantee for a portion of the new 8 million dollars Schaaffhausen shares. Finally, when the AG was founded on August 28, 1848 Long immediately took over the mandate as a member of the Board and had 1852-1857 even hold the presidency. After conversion, the properties were introduced from the estate of Abraham Schaaffhausen as assets in the bank, whereby the bank association also became the owner of the summer house Morsbroich. This measure had contributed to increase their capital.
Overcome the crisis
The rescue of the bank was successfully completed. Between 1848 and 1859 6.25% dividends were paid out of profits annually on average. Early as 1852 could fully return the state aid again the bank, so that in the same year ended state control over the banking club after the expiry of the guarantees.
In particular, from 1852 helped Schaaffhausen in the creation of numerous companies or their transformation into joint stock companies. SBC supported on 16 September 1852, the founding of Phoenix AG of Mining and Metallurgical Plant ( Schaafhausen retained 70 % of the shares ), the Bank for Trade and Industry ( conversion to AG; 1853), the Cologne cotton spinning and weaving AG (30 January 1853, first in Cologne industry -AG), in 1854 with the transformation of Mayer & Kühne in an AG ( since Bochum Association of Mining and cast-steel AG ), in establishing the Cologne mechanical Engineering Institute ( 1855), the Cologne life insurance Concordia ( 1858) or the Cölnische transportation insurance company Agrippina (1858 ).
From 1859 to 1862, the architect Hermann Otto Plum built with the A. Schaaffhausen'sches Bank Palais a representative column- based bank building for the bank at today's Bank mile " Unter Sachsenhausen ", on which he built still more magnificent buildings. On 8 November 1871, the Dutch King William III granted. a consortium, which also included the Schaaffhausen'sche Bank Corporation, the concession for the establishment of the Bank of Amsterdam. 1891 were from the A. Schaaffhausen'sche Bank Corporation new shares to increase its then capital of 36 to 48 million marks, so that statement was the rapid growth of bank worn. Under the leadership of the banking association came in 1894 establishing the RWTH ground -Credit Bank by banks and industrialists. SBC finally also supported the establishment of the cotton mill Dülkener AG (June 1897). At the General Assembly of the German -Atlantic Telegraph Company on 30 January 1900, the bank association was determined as the consortium for the financing of overseas cable laying in the West ( South America).
Until the turn of the century A. Schaaffhausen'sche Bank club was organized centrally, except in Cologne and Berlin, there were no branches. The competition from other regional banks in the Rhenish- Westphalian industrial area, especially the Essenes Credit-Anstalt and the Bergisch- Märkischen Bank, led Schaaffhausen also to develop a branch network. 1901 a first store in Essen was built, a second store followed in 1902 in Dusseldorf. 1904 took over the Union Bank, the West German bank, vorm. Jonas Cahn in Bonn and thus their offices in Bonn, Duisburg, Krefeld, Neuss, Reydt, Ruhr place and Viersen, which were continued as branches. The Cologne banker Louis Hagen (owner of the Cologne-based bank A. Levy & Co.) initiated in 1904 a community of interest of the banking association with Dresdner Bank, 1909 Disconto Society. 1910 opened a branch in Berlin, followed by a subsidiary in Neuwied 1911. Thus decreed Schaaffhausen 1912 a total of eleven branches, all lay in the Rhine province except Berlin.
In 1906, it is founded in the German - South American Bank, Berlin (now Dresdner Bank Latin America AG, Hamburg) and the Deutsche Orient Bank, under the leadership of Dresdner Bank, together with the A. Schaaffhausen Bank Corporation and the National Bank for Germany. 1913 was the Schaaffhausen'sche Bank Corporation, the largest German regional bank and had numerous industrial holdings.
1914, the Union Bank was taken over by the Disconto company, but remained as an independent financial institution exist until 1929. From 1919 Robert Pferdmenges became CEO. Only in the context of the merger Disconto Society with Deutsche Bank 1929 Bank Corporation was merged into Disconto society and thus came to the German Bank Group.
Personalities
Well-known bankers of the Bank Association were:
- Joseph Ludwig " Louis " Mertens, CEO and co-owner from 1816 to 1830
- Ludwig Wilhelm Deichmann, Director 1830-1857
- Gustav Mevissen, Chairman 1848-1857
- Karl Mathy, Director 1854-1855
- Carl Klönne, Chairman 1879-1900
- Hermann Fischer, Chairman 1912-1919