|
|
Under the Empire
1870 - 1918
When the idea of founding Deutsche Bank became reality in 1870, banking was in the throes of radical change: industrialization meant that industry's financing needs were growing and the highly traditional banking sector was going to have to move with the times.
|
Adelbert Delbrück |
In Berlin, a number of private bankers were open to new ideas. Their leading light was Adelbert Delbrück, regarded as the "true founder" of Deutsche Bank. The bank's statute was adopted on 22 January 1870, and on 10 March 1870 the Prussian government granted it a banking license. This was the last license issued to a joint-stock bank in Prussia: In that same year, the license requirement was abolished.
The statute laid great stress on foreign business: "The object of the company is to transact banking business of all kinds, in particular to promote and facilitate trade relations between Germany, other European countries and overseas markets." The direct aim was to challenge the hegemony of British banks, which continued to dominate the financing of German foreign trade. From the outset, international business was built up steadily. Between 1871 and 1873 Deutsche Bank opened five branches: in Bremen, Yokohama, Shanghai, Hamburg and London.
The founders, all of them bankers, showed vision in choosing the name Deutsche Bank. However, little did they suspect that they were creating tough competition for themselves. Financing foreign trade was not, in the long run, viable on its own, so the newly-founded bank was soon on the lookout for other areas of business.
|
First share certificate of Deutsche Bank |
In the very year of its foundation, Deutsche Bank began to accept deposits "in cash". Nowadays that sounds self-evident, but for the German banking world it was little short of revolutionary. The bank needed a solid base and found it in the deposit-taking business. Georg von Siemens, one of the two original members of the board of managing directors and a beacon in the history of Deutsche Bank, realized this from the start. By promoting this area of business he not only created a broad capital base for the company; he also helped deposit-taking business to become firmly established in Germany.
|
First premises at Französische Straße, Berlin |
When Deutsche Bank started business on 9 April 1870 its first office was at 21 Französische Strasse in Berlin, on the first floor of a rather ordinary-looking building. The bank remained there for just over a year and then moved, together with around fifty staff, to premises very near the Berlin Stock Exchange. In 1876, construction began on new head-office buildings at the junction of three streets - Behren-, Mauer- and Französische Straße. The view of the two connecting "bridges" was to become something of a trademark for the bank.
|
Deutsche Bank's first head office in Berlin |
Deutsche Bank's early decades were a period of rapid expansion. An eye for good commercial prospects was combined with a sound feeling for risk. Issuing business began to grow in importance in the 1880s, and in the 1890s it really took off. The bank played a major part in the development of Germany's electrical-engineering industry, but it also gained a strong foothold in iron and steel. A solid base in Germany permitted the financing of business abroad, which in some cases kept the bank occupied for years, the best-known example being the Baghdad Railway.
The second half of the 1890s saw the beginning of a new period of expansion at Deutsche Bank. The bank formed alliances with large regional banks, giving itself an entrée into Germany's main industrial regions. Joint ventures were symptomatic of the concentration then under way in the German banking industry. For Deutsche Bank, domestic branches of its own were still something of a rarity at the time; the Frankfurt branch dated from 1886 and the Munich branch from 1892, while further branches were established in Dresden and Leipzig in 1901.
In addition, the bank rapidly perceived the value of specialist institutions for the promotion of foreign business. Gentle pressure from the Foreign Ministry played a part in the establishment of Deutsche Ueberseeische Bank in 1886 and the stake taken in the newly established Deutsch-Asiatische Bank three years later, but the success of those companies in difficult times showed that their existence made sound commercial sense.
When in spring 1914 the "Frankfurter Zeitung" told its readers that Deutsche Bank was "the biggest bank in the world", the claim marked the highpoint but at the same time the end of an era. During the First World War, the source of the visionary vigor that had driven many a determined company to succeed gradually dried up.
|
1870
Deutsche Bank is founded in Berlin
1871-72
First branches in Bremen and Hamburg
1873
1873 Branch in London - Deutsche Bank's most important foreign branch until its closure on the outbreak of the First World War in 1914
1876
Acquisition of Berliner Bank-Verein and Deutsche Union-Bank
1883
Participation in Northern Pacific Railroad Company
1886
Foundation of Deutsche Ueberseeische Bank
Opening of the Frankfurt branch
1888
The Turkish government grants a Deutsche Bank-led consortium the first franchise to build and run the Anatolian Railway, linking Istanbul and Ankara.
1889
Foundation of Deutsch-Asiatische Bank
1892
Opening of Munich branch
1894
Participation in the founding of Banca Commerciale Italiana
1901
Branches in Leipzig and Dresden
1903
Signing of the franchise to build the Baghdad Railway
Acquisition of Romanian oil company Steaua Romana
1905/06
Opening of branches in Nuremberg and Augsburg
1909/10
Opening of branches in Istanbul and Brussels
1914
Merger with Bergisch Märkische Bank in Elberfeld and its branches in the Rhineland-Westphalia industrial region, boosting Deutsche Bank's branch network from 8 to 46 outlets.
1917
Merger with Schlesischer Bankverein in Breslau and Norddeutsche Creditanstalt in Königsberg
Deutsche Bank participates in founding Universum Film Aktien-Gesellschaft (UFA)
|
|
Corporate Social Responsibility
The CSR portal provides a comprehensive overview of the corporate citizenship activities of Deutsche Bank and its foundations.
[more]
History of our Logo
Find out more about the history of our Logo.
[PDF / 97 KB]
|
