Bethmann Bank

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  Bethmann Bank AG
logo
Headquarters in Frankfurt
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Seat Frankfurt am Main
legal form Corporation
Bank code 501 203 83
BIC DELB DE33 XXX
founding 1712 (oldest founding institute)
2004 (today's stock corporation)
Website www.bethmannbank.de
Business data 2018
Total assets € 8,770,285,000
Employee 500
Offices 12
management
Board Hans Hanegraaf (Chairman)
Stephan Isenberg
Nicolas from Loeper
Michael Pleske
Supervisory board Fred Bos (Chairman)

The Bethmann Bank AG is a German private bank based in Frankfurt am Main . It is a subsidiary of the Dutch ABN AMRO Bank NV and emerged in 2004 from the merger of the Delbrück & Co bank with Bethmann-Maffei. From 2004 to October 2011 it operated as Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG . On September 1, 2014, Bethmann Bank AG completed the acquisition of the private banking division of Credit Suisse (Deutschland) AG booked in Germany. This was agreed on December 5, 2013. As a result, Bethmann Bank has risen to become the third largest German provider of advisory services for wealthy private clients. Her main areas of activity are asset management , asset advice and asset planning .

history

With the founding companies of the predecessor institute Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG and LGT Bank Germany, Bethmann Bank AG represents big names in German banking history. Three of the predecessor institutes look back on almost three centuries of financial activity:

  • Delbrück & Co , since 1712, is considered the financier of the Prussian state and "supporter of young entrepreneurs" such as Siemens and Krupp . Adelbert Delbrück is considered the actual founder of Deutsche Bank .
  • The Bethmann brothers , founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1748, were partners for Maria Theresa of Austria, Pope Pius VI. , Tsar Alexander I and the Goethe family . Among other things, the private bank co-financed the construction of the Eiffel Tower and is still considered a great patron of art in Frankfurt am Main.
  • Bankhaus Maffei & Co. , founded in 1802 by a member of the Veronese entrepreneurial family of the same name, co-founded the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank (later HypoVereinsbank ) and Bayerische Rückversicherung (later Allianz ).

Delbrück & Co.

David Splitgerber and Gottfried Adolph Daum founded a trading company in Berlin in 1712 that acted as the financier of the Prussian state. When Splitgerber died in 1764, his sons-in-law Johann Jacob Schickler and Friedrich Heinrich Berendes took over the management of the company. After the distribution of assets between the individual communities of heirs (Daum, Berendes and Splitgerber) and after the heirs left through death or compensation, the banking and trading house finally came into the ownership of the two grandsons of Splitgerbers, the brothers David Schickler and Johann Ernst Schickler , who owned the The company then continued under the name Gebrüder Schickler .

In 1857, Adelbert Delbrück and Heinrich Leo founded the Delbrück, Leo & Co. bank in Berlin. Concordia Lebensversicherung and Franz Wilhelm Koenigs were silent partners . The house became the financial companion of large young companies such as Siemens, Krupp and others. Adelbert Delbrück was a founding member of Deutsche Bank AG in 1870 with other shareholders , where he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board from 1871 until his death in 1890.

In 1910, the banking houses Gebrüder Schickler & Co. and Delbrück, Leo & Co. merged to form the Bankhaus Delbrück, Schickler & Co. In 1919 the sister company Delbrück, von der Heydt & Co. was founded when the partner Karl von der Heydt entered Cologne . This bank trained Hermann Josef Abs from September 1921 to February 1923 , who broke off his studies in economics after a semester and returned to the Berlin parent company Delbrück, Schickler & Co. after a stay abroad in 1929 , before moving to the management board of Deutsche Bank in 1937. Another merger followed in 1968 through the merger of the sister companies Delbrück, Schickler & Co. and Delbrück & Co. and the entry of partner Peter von der Heydt Freiherr von Massenbach in 1970 to Delbrück, von der Heydt & Co.

At the Delbrück bank, the head of the Reich Chancellery at the time, Hans Heinrich Lammers, invested considerable parts of Adolf Hitler's assets .

From August 2001, the small private bank suffered from a crisis because risky loans required write-downs of EUR 80.9 million (with limited partner capital of EUR 60 million). In the crisis phase, the repayment of a deposit of 17 million euros to the heir to the city map publishing house Alexander Falk , which the bank had secured by pledging shares in the Berliner Aktiengesellschaft für Industriebeteiligungen (Beag), became due. With this contribution, Falk wanted to gain entrepreneurial access to the bank, because previously he had already acquired 68 percent of the Berlin bank Oswald Kruber KG . Shortly thereafter, he joined Hornblower Fischer , which included the Kruber Bank. However, the Cologne private bankers were not interested in Falk's entrepreneurial involvement. However, the bank's crisis forced new shareholders to be accepted. In September 2002 the bank finally lost its independence after 290 years of independent history and was taken over by ABN AMRO Bank NV.

Foundation of Deutsche Bank

As early as the spring of 1869, Adelbert Delbrück had the idea of ​​"creating a large bank, mainly for overseas trade, which should make us independent from England and the loans that German merchants could only find and seek in London". The founding committee consisted of six members, in addition to Delbrück Victor Freiherr von Magnus , Hermann Zwicker , Adolph vom Rath , Gustav Kutter and Gustav Müller . The statute was approved on March 10, 1870 by the Prussian Ministry of Commerce. It was only the second concession for a stock corporation after A. Schaaffhausen'schen Bankverein in 1848.

Bethmann brothers

Inner courtyard of the former Bethmann bank
Letter from the Bethmann brothers to Johann Maria Farina across from Jülichs-Platz in Cologne, July 12, 1875
The Bethmann Bank building between the City Hall and the Court of Auditors

The banking house Gebrüder Bethmann was founded in 1748 by the merchant and banker family Bethmann . The younger brother Simon Moritz Bethmann's entry into the business of the older brother Johann Philipp Bethmann (1715–1793) on January 2, 1748, is set as the foundation date of the bank . In 1746 he had inherited the business of his uncle Johann Jacob Adamy (1670–1745). The company was in Gebrüder Bethmann renamed and initially focused on trade with colonial goods , textiles and colors .

Even if the banking house Gebrüder Bethmann continued to trade in goods until the second half of the 19th century, soon after it was founded it transformed into one of the leading German banking houses. The bond business , which the bank entered into in 1754, was particularly responsible for this .

A financial innovation taken over from the Netherlands brought the decisive breakthrough in 1778. For the first time in the German Empire, the bank issued a “partial bond” for the Austrian imperial family. It had a total value of 200,000 guilders and was divided into 200 individual bonds of 1,000 guilders each. By 1793 Bethmann was able to sell further Austrian bonds totaling 17.2 million guilders. For other royal houses and imperial cities, loans of the new type of 20.5 million guilders were added during this period. With this great financial success, the Bethmann Brothers banking house laid the foundation for the modern bond market in Germany. If bonds had previously been placed with one or a few very wealthy investors who held them until repayment, the new partial bond was divided into small, freely tradable pieces. This not only significantly increased the number of potential investors , but also gave them the opportunity to cash in on their investment or expand it before the end of the term . Between 1778 and 1818 the money house issued a good 80 bonds in this way.

It was not until the mid-1820s lost Bankhaus Gebrüder Bethmann slow its dominant position in the European bond trading in favor of another Frankfurt banking house, the Rothschilds . While the latter began to dominate the financing of European countries, Bethmann now increasingly concentrated on industrial bonds. In the course of the 19th century, the bank was instrumental in financing the construction of the railway . In 1836 Bethmann financed the Taunus-Eisenbahn AG together with the Rothschild banking house , in 1844 it initiated the Frankfurt-Hanauer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft and the Kurhessische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn-Gesellschaft . In the 1850s, Bankhaus Bethmann u. a. at the Italian Central Railway , the Austrian State Railway and the Rhein-Nahe-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft .

But they were also significantly involved in the creation and financing of steam shipping on the rivers Rhine and Main and in the founding of the first Frankfurter Aktienbank . Together with the leading Frankfurt banks Grunelius & Co. , Rothschild and the Frankfurter Vereinskasse , Bethmann received the license to found the Frankfurter Bank on April 11, 1854 from the mayor and the city council of Frankfurt . The new institute was supposed to act as the central bank of the Frankfurt private banking houses and soon rose to become one of the leading banks in southern Germany. The Eiffel Tower in Paris was also built in 1889 with funds from the Bethmann Brothers banking house.

In the area of asset management , Bethmann quickly expanded its sphere of activity beyond the city limits of Frankfurt. Historical personalities entrusted their private assets to the bank. In addition to Empress Maria Theresa and Tsar Alexander I, this also included Pope Pius VI. In 1786, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had his trip to Italy financed by the Bethmann bank. Napoleon's visit to the Bethmann family's country house in 1813 as an undesirable but politely treated guest once again underlined their economic and social position in Europe at that time. Until well into the 20th century, Bethmann Bank was able to maintain its leading position in Germany in matters of wealth and in complex industrial financing.

After the First World War , Bankhaus Bethmann developed successfully from a specialist bank for securities issues and asset management to a general commercial bank. The first branches were opened in 1964.

Bank Maffei & Co.

Maffei Bank was founded in 1802 by a member of the Veronese entrepreneurial family of the same name . In 1774 Peter Paul von Maffei came to Munich and founded a bank that bore his name and was family-run for more than 100 years. As early as 1808, the bank moved into its current premises - the Palais Seinsheim on Promenadeplatz in Munich . In the same year Maffei was raised to hereditary nobility.

Peter Paul's son, Joseph Anton Ritter and Edler von Maffei , turned out to be an extremely forward-looking businessman. He not only expanded his own banking business, but also co-founded the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank (later HypoVereinsbank ) in 1835 . In 1836 he invested in a risky future market and founded the JA Maffei locomotive works, from which one of the largest German industrial groups emerged: Krauss-Maffei AG. The Bayerischer Hof , a luxury hotel and still a figurehead for Munich today, was also created with the help of Joseph Anton Maffei.

Joseph Anton's nephew and successor, Hugo Alois von Maffei , further expanded the company's activities and became even more closely intertwined with German economic history. In 1880 he was one of the founding members of the Bayerische Rückversicherungsgesellschaft (later Allianz ). From 1890 he became deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG and, until his death in 1921, chairman of the supervisory board of Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank AG. This took over the full capital of Maffei Bank in 1990 and thus closed the circle.

In 1954 Gabriele von Maffei reopened the bank. The first shareholders included the Berliner Handelsgesellschaft and the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank. In order to strengthen the energy industry orientation, Maffei merged in 1969 with LUK-Bank GmbH Bank of the AG for light and power supply of the VEBA group. In 1977 the original limited partnership Bankhaus Maffei & Co. was converted into a limited liability company and renamed Bankhaus Maffei & Co. GmbH . In the early 1980s, the bank developed from a specialist in securities and finance in the energy sector to a wealthy retail bank. After the takeover by Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel-Bank AG in 1990, internal teams of consultants were set up to manage complex assets. In 1997 there was another change in legal form from the GmbH to a limited partnership based on shares and the name was changed to Bankhaus Maffei & Co. KGaA .

Entry of the Bayerische Vereinsbank and association with Bethmann-Maffei

A break in the tradition of the family-owned Bethmann bank did not occur until 1976, when Bayerische Vereinsbank initially took over 50% of Bethmann-Bank and then in 1983 also took over the remaining shares. Bankhaus Bethmann became a subsidiary for asset management in private customer business. The house had branches in Frankfurt on the corner of Schweizer and Gartenstrasse (from 2003 to HypoVereinsbank) and in Bornheim (from 2003 to HypoVereinsbank, closed in 2010) and continued to be run as a separate bank. In 2003, the parent company, which had meanwhile itself merged into HypoVereinsbank, merged the house with the Munich-based bank Maffei & Co. to form Bethmann Maffei AG & Co. KG .

Sale to ABN AMRO and association to Delbrück Bethmann Maffei

In January 2004, HypoVereinsbank sold the private bank to the Dutch ABN AMRO Bank for EUR 110 million. This then merged Bethmann Maffei AG & Co. KG with the Cologne-based private bank Delbrück & Co, which had already been acquired in 2002, to form the Delbrück Bethmann Maffei AG bank, based in Frankfurt am Main.

In the course of a lengthy bidding competition with the British Barclays Bank, the Belgian-Dutch Fortis Bank took over the competitor ABN AMRO together with the British Royal Bank of Scotland and the Spanish Banco Santander . The aim of the three acquiring banks was to split ABN AMRO among themselves. It was planned to add the Delbrück Bethmann Maffei bank to Fortis Bank. However, in October 2008 this got into existence-threatening difficulties. In order to prevent a complete collapse, it had to be taken over by the states of Belgium , Luxembourg and the Netherlands and dismantled as part of the renovation. In this context, ABN AMRO, together with its daughter Delbrück Bethmann Maffei, came into complete possession of the Netherlands.

On September 29, 2011, Delbrück Bethmann Maffei announced that the LGT Group would take over the German business with wealthy private customers. No information was given about the price. In December 2011, Bethmann Bank acquired LGT Bank Germany.

Change of name to Bethmann Bank

On October 4, 2011, the company announced that it would in future only operate as Bethmann Bank AG .

Bethmann Bank from the 2010s

Bethmann Bank focuses on the management, advice and planning of large private assets. In addition, support is offered in the succession planning of family businesses and in setting up charitable foundations. The bank's archive is now in the Frankfurt City Archives . In September 2014, Bethmann Bank AG took over the private client business of Credit Suisse (Deutschland) AG.

Lehman certificates

The forerunner of Bethmann Bank, Delbrück Bethmann Maffei, had sold Lehman certificates . In this context, the Hamburg Regional Court sentenced the bank to compensation for damages in November 2009, February 2010, March 2010, April 2010, and February 2011. The ruling of November 2009 has been legally binding since August 2010 after the bank withdrew its appeal two days before the verdict was announced by the Hamburg Higher Regional Court. According to the chairman of the board in an interview, the vast majority of the Lehman disputes heard in court were decided in favor of Delbrück Bethmann Maffei. In August 2012 it became known that the bank had been sentenced by the Hamburg Higher Regional Court in May 2012 to reimburse an injured couple the sum of 7.4 million euros (AZ: 14 U 291/10). The judgment is final as the bank decided not to appeal to the BGH.

literature

  • Banking portrait Bethmann Bank . In: Bernd Baehring et al. (Ed.): Finanzzentrum Frankfurt . Econ, Düsseldorf / Vienna / New York 1987, ISBN 3-430-15009-4 , pp. 74-19 .
  • Claus Helbing: The Bethmanns. From the history of an old trading house in Frankfurt am Main . Verl. Der Greif, Wiesbaden 1948.
  • Dagmar Frings, Jörg Kuhn: The Borchardts. On the trail of a Berlin family . Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-942271-17-2 (to the house Französische Straße 32 in Berlin-Mitte as property of Delbrück, Schickler & Co. / Delbrück & Co.).
  • Udo Heyn: Private Banking and Industrialization. The Case of Frankfurt am Main, 1825-1875 . Arno P, New York 1981, ISBN 0-405-13994-2 .
  • Rüdiger von Wedel: Delbrück Bethmann Maffei - A model for contemporary private banking . In: Albrecht F. Schirmacher (Ed.): The investment strategies of the capital market elite. Use opportunities - manage risks . Gabler, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8349-0397-3 ( books.google.de ).
  • Erich Achterberg: The Frankfurt am Main banking center. Frankfurt am Main 1955.
  • Rüdiger von Wedel: Delbrück Bethmann Maffei - A model for contemporary private banking. In: Albrecht F. Schirmacher (Ed.): Investment strategy of the capital market elite . Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8349-0397-3 .

Web links

Commons : Bethmann Bank  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Master data of the credit institute at the Deutsche Bundesbank
  2. ↑ Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2013 of Bethmann Bank AG in the Federal Gazette / company register
  3. ^ Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt: Berlin bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries. Entrepreneurial careers and migration, families and traffic circles in the capital of Brandenburg-Prussia, the oldest of the corporation of merchants in Berlin. 2002, p. 122, ISBN 3-11-016560-0 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  4. ↑ Central database of bequests: Abs, Hermann Josef (1901–1994). In: nachlassdatenbank.de. Retrieved January 19, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Da .: Investor talks at Bankhaus Delbrück are on schedule. In: welt.de . August 26, 2002, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Traditional bank Delbrück & Co. gets into turbulence. In: handelsblatt.com . January 17, 2002, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  7. ^ Carsten Burhop: The credit banks in the early days. 2004, ISBN 3-515-08413-4 , p. 92. ( limited preview in Google book search)
  8. ^ Jakob Adamy (1670-1745): Brockhaus: General German Real Encyclopedia for the educated classes (Conversations Lexicon). Brockhaus, 1822, p. 334 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  9. ^ Rüdiger von Wedel: Delbrück Bethmann Maffei - A model for contemporary private banking. In: Albrecht F. Schirmacher (Ed.): Investment strategy of the capital market elite. Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8349-0397-3 , p. 172. ( limited preview in Google book search)
  10. ^ Exhibition Gründerzeit - Industry and Lifelong Dreams between Vormärz and Empire . German Historical Museum. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
  11. ^ History of the Bayerischer Hof ( Memento from December 28, 2004 in the Internet Archive ). Homepage of the Bayerischer Hof. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
  12. ↑ Research in the commercial register of the Munich Local Court (HRA 47873, HRB 53581 and HRB 116480) under register portal . In: handelsregister.de. May 16, 2005, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Research in the commercial register of the Munich Local Court (HRA 82240) under register portal . In: handelsregister.de. May 16, 2005, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  14. ↑ ABN Amro takes over Bethmann-Maffei. In: handelsblatt.com . December 10, 2003, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Bethmann-Bank removes Delbrück and Maffei from their names . In: Handelsblatt . October 4, 2011 ( handelsblatt.com ).
  16. ^ History of the Bethmann Bank. Retrieved November 4, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Delbrück sentenced to damages. In: Abendblatt.de . December 1, 2009, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Delbrück has to compensate Lehman victims. In: Abendblatt.de . February 12, 2010, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  19. ↑ LG Hamburg: On the disclosure obligations of a bank (Delbrück) when selling Lehman certificates. ( Memento from March 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: diekmann-rechtsanwaelte.de
  20. ↑ NIELSEN & SØRENSEN - WHITE & CASE ADMINISTRATOR STARTS THE RENOVATION PROCESS. (No longer available online.) In: rws-verlag.de. May 31, 2010, archived from the original on March 3, 2015 ; Retrieved January 19, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rws-verlag.de
  21. ^ LG Hamburg: Lehman victim wins claim for damages against the private bank Delbrück ( Memento from February 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: diekmann-rechtsanwaelte.de
  22. ↑ Lehman victim wins claim for damages against the private bank Delbrück before the district court Hamburg ( Memento from February 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: diekmann-rechtsanwaelte.de
  23. ^ Lehman certificates: Bankhaus Delbrück withdraws its appeal to the Hamburg Higher Regional Court two days before the judgment is announced. (No longer available online.) In: pressinfocom.com. August 10, 2010, archived from the original on January 19, 2015 ; Retrieved January 19, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pressinfocom.com
  24. ↑ Steffen Preißler: Money back for Lehman victims - new hope for victims. In: Abendblatt.de . August 11, 2010, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  25. ↑ Karsten Seibel: The wealthy are less afraid of inflation. In: welt.de . February 3, 2011, accessed January 19, 2015 .
  26. ↑ Compensation of millions after Lehman's bankruptcy ( Memento of August 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: ndr.de
  27. ↑ Worthless certificates: German Lehman victims win 7.4 million euros. In: Spiegel Online . August 22, 2012, accessed January 19, 2015 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 37.3 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 44.9"  E