Bank JH Stein

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Bankhaus Stein am Laurenzplatz (Paul Ecke, canvas; 1912)

The bank JH Stein was a Cologne private bank founded in 1790 , which originally operated commission business with leather , hardware , colonial goods , wine and porcelain and later concentrated on the banking business.

French period

The foundation phase of the JH Stein bank fell during the French era . The founder of the private bank was Johann Heinrich Stein (1773-1820), who had previously completed a commercial apprenticeship with Daniel & Karl Herf , who operated forwarding, commission, exchange and banking business in Bad Kreuznach . After his father's death in 1783, his father's grocery store with an attached tobacco factory was closed. Johann Heinrich Stein moved to Cologne in 1790, where a combined trading and banking house JH Stein was founded. On June 16, 1799, Johann Heinrich Stein married Katharina Maria Peill, a doctor's daughter from a wealthy family in Stolberg . This also brought high bank balances of the medical family to the bank.

Stein's activities up to 1799 are only incompletely documented, because books and balance sheets are only available from January 1801. In any case, Johann Heinrich Stein participated in the Niederweßlinger (today: Wesseling ) red tannery and leather trade in March 1794 together with Hubert Krings with a starting capital of 4,000 thalers and Johann Jacob Werotte from Namur . After Krings left, it traded as "Stein & Werotte" from 1799. The company JH Stein initially did business in many branches of the trade and tried its hand at the credit brokerage early on; banking activity only accounted for about 10% of total activity. The general ledger of the parent company JH Stein, which began on January 1, 1801, listed 500 customers. The equity of the parent company rose from 10,000 to 200,000 thalers in the period from 1802 to 1820. Stein was particularly active in the freight forwarding and metal trading business. Between 1801 and 1808 his company granted loans to the “Stein & Werotte” tannery, and from 1804 Stein was also involved in the grain and wine trade. In 1812 Stein bought a house at Laurenzplatz 1–3 for his company. It remained the seat of the bank until 1945 . Laurenzplatz was only completely built in 1817 after the St. Laurenz Church was demolished .

Prussian Rhine Province

The exchange business became increasingly important for Stein since 1814, and in 1818 the bank participated in the founding of the Rheinschiffahrts-Assekuranz-Gesellschaft , the predecessor of Agrippina insurance . After Karl Eduard Schnitzler (* 1792 in Gräfrath, † 1864 in Cologne) married Stein's daughter Wilhelmine on October 13, 1821, Schnitzler entered the bank as a partner on October 1, 1822. He became an active banker after bank founder Stein died unexpectedly at the age of 47 on June 18, 1820. Schnitzler ran the bank between 1825 and 1864 as senior boss and carried out the conversion into a pure banking house, because now the money and exchange business took over the majority of the business activity. The widow Katharina Stein continued the business together with Schnitzler, who also took over a number of offices from 1826. Between March 1826 and October 1851 he was a member of the Cologne city council , from 1837 president of the Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry , from 1847 he headed the Cologne-Mindener railway company .

The oldest sons of the later generations received the first names of the company's founder, Stein. Johann Heinrich Stein II (born June 5, 1803 in Cologne, † November 25, 1879 there) joined the bank as a partner in January 1830, after he had married Katharina Adelaide Herstatt on October 14, 1829. This marriage established the close connection between the two Cologne banks, as his wife was a member of the Herstatt dynasty . Such cross marriages were characteristic of Cologne's banking system . His younger brother Carl Stein followed as a partner in 1834. On November 14, 1850, Schnitzler's son Eduard Schnitzler was accepted into the bank, on January 1, 1851 he received power of attorney , and since January 1854 he has been a partner. On December 31, 1875, he withdrew from direct business activity. From January 1, 1881, his eldest son, Richard von Schnitzler , was accepted as a personally liable partner .

In the meantime, in November 1822, the liquidation of the last loss-making tannery "Stein & Werotte" was decided. Since 1837, the Stein bank was involved in several capital increases for the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft . Along with other Cologne banks, Stein also participated in the establishment of Colonia insurance , which was granted its license on March 5, 1839. All Cologne banks took part in the placement of a port loan from the city of Cologne in 1849, followed by a city loan in 1855. In 1852, Bankhaus Stein granted loans to the Hörder Bergwerks- und Hütten-Verein , as well as to the Chemische Fabrik Oedendorf (today: Gaildorf -Ottendorf), whose employee Ludwig Ammüller presented the initially unpatented invention of the match in July 1833 . In December 1843, Stein helped found the Cologne-Minden Railway Company.

In 1856, the Stein bank belonged to a consortium led by De Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam, which placed the shares in the Royal Dutch Steamship Company. Also in 1856 Stein began to provide the newly founded Kölnische Maschinenbau with loans . In addition, in 1857, Stein participated in a bank consortium that housed the shares of the Bremen shipping company licensed in 1857 . On January 27, 1862, the Stein bank succeeded in founding a cartel consisting of six tinplate manufacturers , which brought together German tinplate production. Between 1862 and 1885, the business premises of the cartel, which traded under the name “Weißblech -verkauf-Comptoir”, were in the house of the bank on Laurenzplatz. In October 1861, Bankhaus Stein financed the establishment of the Cologne chemical factory JW Weiler & Cie. (later "AG Chemische Fabriken vorm. Weiler-ter Mer"). In 1864 Stein and Oppenheim participated in the founding of the "Erste Preußische Hypotheken-AG" and Concordia insurance , and in March 1867 it helped found the Barmer Bankverein . In 1869, under the management of the Stein bank, the Buckau chemical factory was established by the descendants of Johann Kaspar Coqui . In the Cologne address book from 1868 the bank was still listed as “banking, commission, forwarding, metal and tinplate sales comptoir”, but as early as 1869 Stein stopped the forwarding and commission business.

The German Imperium

Kommerzienrat Johann Heinrich von Stein III (born August 14, 1832 Cologne, † October 16, 1911 ibid) married Maria von Mevissen (born March 8, 1847 in Cologne, † August 21, 1936 ibid), daughter of Gustav , on June 4, 1868 von Mevissen , and was raised to the nobility on July 6, 1908.

The new stock corporation law of June 1870 liberalized the establishment of stock corporations, which created new areas of activity for banks and promoted capital-intensive metal and heavy industry. A wave of founding and transformation of German industrial companies followed. Bankhaus Stein was still involved in the share consortium for the Saxon machine works in 1870 . In 1871 the Berliner Maschinenbau and Hanomag followed . Stein played an important role in financing the Rheinische Glashütten AG in Cologne-Ehrenfeld in 1872 . In March 1872 Stein led a consortium to place the shares in the Cologne brewery C. Pütz , in June 1876 Stein participated in the consortium for the ninth issue of the bonds issued by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn . Stein participated in the placement of secured Krupp industrial bonds since 1880, and in June 1880 Stein took on a placement quota for the Eschweiler Mining Association . In 1885, Raoul Stein suggested the establishment of the Minerva Retrocession and Reinsurance Company as a subsidiary of the Cologne Re , which took over the reinsurance of reinsurance ( retrocession ). The consortium was able to dissolve in February 1886 after successful placement. With the nationalization of the Rhenish Railway in February 1880, Stein was able to end his involvement with the loss-making company.

The bank ID Herstatt had to be taken over by the bank JH Stein on March 15, 1888 after more than 100 years of business activity due to a lack of descendants and was subsequently liquidated. This ended the existence of the Herstatt bank for the time being. Mediated by the mutual protection of the respective descendants, a distinctive family network developed among the Christian families Herstatt, Deichmann , Stein and Schnitzler from the first third of the 19th century, through which the Herstatt Bank could also be supported. Between 1821 and 1907 a total of 11 direct marital connections were made within the main tribes Herstatt, Stein, Deichmann and Schnitzler.

In January 1894, Stein and other Cologne institutes placed a loan from the Humboldt AG mechanical engineering institute , a forerunner of Deutz AG .

Weimar Republic

Johann Heinrich von Stein IV (born June 13, 1869 in Cologne, † May 9, 1951) joined the bank in 1892 and received an honorary doctorate in 1921 from the University of Cologne, which was only re-established in 1919 . Between 1925 and 1933 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Reichsbank .

On January 7, 1919, Mayor Konrad Adenauer accepted an invitation from the Stein bank, where the future of the Rhineland was discussed. In January 1919, a new impartial body was founded "in order to safeguard common economic interests to drive the establishment of a Rhenish republic," which Adenauer took over as chairman. Bankhaus Stein thus advanced to become the center of the separatists with the aim of establishing a Rhenish Republic . Fritz Brüggemann named in his work “The Rhenish Republic” (1919) as initiators primarily the Cologne banking circles around Sal. Oppenheim and Stein.

Kurt Freiherr von Schröder joined Bankhaus Stein as a partner in January 1921, also through marital relationships. In April 1913 he married Ottilie Marie Edith von Schnitzler (1892–1951), a cousin of Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler. Schröder's training at the bank lasted from 1919 to 1920. With partner Carl von Stein he had an important ally of Rhenish separatism, because in January 1923 he developed a plan for a central bank to issue banknotes in the Rhineland for the Rhenish Republic . Carl von Stein lived in his mother Julinka Stein's house at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring 23 .

At the beginning of 1920, Stein offered the August Thyssen-Hütte a loan of up to 100 million marks against mortgage security. In April 1929, the Stein bank, along with the Flick Group, was one of the major shareholders of Kalker Trieur , a plant for agricultural machinery owned by the Cologne silversmith Johann Mayer. As an increasing deterioration in Mayer & Cie. In June 1929, JH Stein again made a loan of 480,000 Reichsmarks available.

time of the nationalsocialism

"Villa Schröder" - Stadtwaldgürtel 35 (the meeting took place here)

Adolf Hitler made the industrialist Wilhelm Keppler his economic advisor in December 1931 . Kurt Freiherr von Schröder had belonged to the Keppler circle since 1932 , which influenced the economic policy of the Third Reich . Schröder was one of the few bankers who supported the National Socialists at an early stage. In November 1932, the politically active Schröder was one of the signatories of the industrialists' petition to Reich President Paul von Hindenburg , in which industrialists, bankers and farmers demanded Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor . The famous meeting between Papen and Hitler in the house of the banker Schröder on January 4, 1933 was about financial support for the NSDAP . As a witness in the IG Farben trial in 1947 , Schröder declared : “On January 4th (1933) Hitler , Papen , Himmler and Keppler met in my house in Cologne. The general endeavor of the men was to see a strong leader come to power in Germany. ”Between 1935 and 1936 Schröder managed to get the Reichsbank to buy open Mefo bills , although it refused to buy such bills to other companies. In a letter dated February 25, 1936, the Stein bank set up the "Special Account S" administered by Schröder for the Friends of the Reichsführer SS , which received 1 million Reichsmarks annually for Himmler.

Schröder saw for the Jews “in the new nationalist Germany no more chance for further activity”. On April 22, 1938, he compiled a list of Jewish private bankers and shareholders that served as the basis for Aryanization in the German banking system. Although the Stein bank was one of the smaller banks, it also gained economic importance through Schröder’s political activities. On September 30, 1939, Stein was ranked 5th among the most important German private banks as the “Aryan bank”; in 1933 the bank was still ranked 7. In 1940, Schröder sat on 23 supervisory boards, including as chairman of Deutsche Verkehrs-Kreditbank and Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk AG . In 1940, JH Stein provided the Flick Group with acceptance and return loans , and it also financed the acquisition of shares in Flick's companies.

In a letter from Schröder to Himmler in September 1943, he advised the NSDAP leader to transfer one million Reichsmarks "for special areas of responsibility"; shortly afterwards his bank transferred 1.1 million Reichsmarks to Himmler as a donation via Fritz Kranefuß . The fascist dictatorship turned out to be the most brilliant business for Bankhaus Stein because it benefited from Schröder's close ties to Himmler. Anti-Semite Schröder personally ensured that Jewish competitors such as the Oppenheim family were removed from the banking association and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He used his influence to oust the Oppenheim brothers from supervisory boards. In this way he managed to have Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim leave the supervisory board of Kabelwerke Felten & Guilleaume .

post war period

As early as March 1945, men from the "T-Force", the finance department of the Allied headquarters, wanted to search the JH Stein bank, founded in 1790 in Cologne. But the building at Laurenzplatz 1 was in ruins. Since Stein had distinguished itself as an “Aryan bank” in the economic persecution of the Jews, it was the only Cologne bank that did not receive an operating license from the occupation authorities after the war. It was wound up in 1946. In 1947 there were a total of 220 private banks in the British Zone alone. Schröder was sentenced to three months imprisonment and 1,500 Reichsmarks on November 12, 1947, after two appeal hearings in 1948 to a one-year prison term and a fine of 60,000 DM, and released on June 11, 1948. He officially left the Stein bank in 1950.

In August 1950, the JH Stein bank received a banking license again . Johann Heinrich von Stein V (born November 22, 1899 in Cologne, † May 9, 1985 ibid) decided not to rebuild the bank building on Laurenzplatz, which had been destroyed in the war, and rented office space in the Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry , Unter Sachsenhausen , which was reopened on February 4, 1952 10-26. On January 1, 1951, the former syndic of the Cologne Re , Paul Viktor Bürgers (born May 22, 1913 in Berlin, † November 1, 1976 in Cologne), joined the bank as a further managing partner. In December 1965, the JH Stein bank celebrated the 175th anniversary of its existence.

Numerous acquisitions

When Hannover Rückversicherungs AG acquired 37.4% of the limited partnership capital of Bankhaus Stein in 1978 , it had total assets of over DM 300 million and was one of the small private banks. In June 1985 Banque Indosuez (today: Crédit Agricole ) took over 33% of the limited partnership capital, with Hannover Re and the Stein family each holding 33%. Indosuez merged the fund broker house Marcard & Co. in January 1987 with the banking house JH Stein to Marcard, Stein & Co , which still resides at Unter Sachsenhausen 10-26. The Stein family dynasty was represented here by Johann Heinrich von Stein VI. Marcard, Stein & Co has been a subsidiary of the major bank MM Warburg & CO since July 1998 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Alfred Krüger, Das Kölner Bankiergewerbe from the end of the 18th century to 1875 , 1925, p. 58
  2. ^ Friedrich Knapp Verlag, Contributions to Banking History , Volumes 14–23, 1977, o. P.
  3. ↑ Chronicle of the von Stein family
  4. ↑ at the place of the medieval court "zur Stessen" from the town bailiff
  5. ↑ closed as part of secularization since July 7, 1803
  6. ↑ Peter Fuchs (ed.), Chronik zur Geschichte der Stadt Köln , Volume 2, 1991, p. 121
  7. ^ Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.), German Biography Enzyklopädie , 2008, p. 118
  8. ↑ Kurt Wolfram, The economic history of the city of Neuwied , 1927, p. 24
  9. ↑ Hans Pohl / Manfred Pohl: Deutsche Bankengeschichte , 2. Das deutsche Bankwesen (1806-1848) , 1982, p. 167
  10. ↑ Robert Steimel, JD Herstatt - The old and the new banking house , December 1963, p. 44
  11. ↑ Dieter Ziegler (Ed.), Großbürger und Unternehmer , 2000, p. 126
  12. ↑ Hugo Stehkämper, Konrad Adenauer, Lord Mayor of Cologne , 1976, p. 220
  13. ^ Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Unity , Volume 7, Issues 1-6, 1952, p. 10
  14. ↑ Henning Köhler, Adenauer and the Rhenish Republic , 1986, p. 237
  15. ^ Rudolf Martin, Yearbook of the wealth and income of millionaires in Prussia 1912, 1912 , p. 449
  16. ↑ Kölnischer Geschichtsverein, Jahrbuch , Volume 78, 2008, p. 174
  17. ↑ Keith Ulrich, Rise and Fall of Private Bankers: The Economic Importance from 1918 to 1938 , 1998, p. 249
  18. ↑ Kurt Bachmann, We must be champions of human rights , 1999, p. 42
  19. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 26/1973 of June 25, 1973, Armaments Aid for the Germans , p. 106
  20. ↑ Kurt von Schröder, Future prospects of the German private banking status , in: Der deutsche Volkswirt. Special edition: The economy in the new Germany in detail , 13th episode: Expenses and profitability in the German banking industry , February 28, 1936, pp. 58–61, here: p. 59
  21. ↑ a b Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Historical Commission, New German Biography , Volume 23, 1953, p. 555
  22. ↑ Johannes Bähr / Axel Drecoll / Bernhard Gotto / Kim Christian Priemel / Harald Wixforth, The Flick Group in the Third Reich , 2008, p. 35
  23. ↑ Freiherr Viktor von der Lippe, Nürnberger Diary Notes, November 1945 to October 1946 , 1951, p. 69
  24. ↑ Peter-Ferdinand Koch, Die Dresdner Bank and the Reichsführer-SS , 1987, p. 31
  25. ↑ Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler , Meine Schlösser, or, How I found my fatherland , 1995, p. 42
  26. ↑ Ulrich Völklein, Business with the Enemy: The Secret Alliance of Big Money During the Second World War on Both Sides of the Front , 2002, p. 38
  27. ↑ Dieter Ziegler, Der Privatbankier , supplement 41, 2003, p. 45
  28. ^ Journal for the entire credit system, Volume 19, 1966, p. 5

Web links

literature

  • Christian Eckert : JH Stein 1790–1940. Becoming and growing a Cologne bank in 150 years , Cologne 1940.