Bank of German Aviation

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The bank of Deutsche Luftfahrt AG , also called Aerobank, Luftfahrtbank or BDL for short, was an investment bank of the German Reich that financed the expansion of the German aviation industry through investments and loans as part of arms production. The company was based in Berlin , initially Berlin-Schöneberg, Am Park 12. From 1941 onwards, the bank was the third largest German credit institute after Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank .

The Bank der Deutsche Luftfahrt was created on June 6, 1940 when the name was changed to Luftfahrtkontor GmbH , which was approved as a commercial bank by the Reich Commissioner for Credit in 1939. Luftfahrtkontor GmbH was founded in connection with the takeover and expansion of the Junkers Group in 1933 by the Reich Ministry of Aviation . In the years that followed, it managed the realm's equity stakes in the aviation industry in trust as a cover company. From 1934 onwards, the company served in particular to rearm the Luftwaffe by participating directly in individual companies in the German aviation industry or providing loans. Often the loans were also converted into equity investments, with the companies having the option of buying them back later. The bank's main holdings included Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke and Arado Flugzeugwerke , both of which were wholly owned by BDL, as well as Flugmotorenwerke Ostmark .

The bank's share capital was initially 70 million Reichsmarks. In 1943 it was increased to 150 million Reichsmarks. In March 1941 the investments were worth 175 million Reichsmarks, but by September 1944 they increased to 856 million Reichsmarks. The bank's loans guaranteed by the German Reich totaled 250 million Reichsmarks in June 1940 and had increased to 1.9 billion Reichsmarks by August 1944.

Fritz Rudorf , later a board member of Dresdner Bank from 1957, was chairman of the board of the Aerobank.

In March 1954 the bank went into liquidation. With the law on the liquidation of the war societies of 1960, the bank of Deutsche Luftfahrt AG iL could be finally closed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Archives: Bank der Deutsche Luftfahrt AG, R8121  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / startext.net-build.de  
  2. ↑ Bertrand Perz: Armaments Industry in Wiener Neustadt 1938–1945 (PDF; 329 kB)
  3. ^ Society of Friends of the German Aerospace Center ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Johannes Bähr: The aviation loans and the relations to the Junkers group. In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke (Hrsg.): The Dresdner Bank in the economy of the Third Reich . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57780-8 , p. 396.

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