Berliner Sparkasse

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Logo of the savings banks  Berliner Sparkasse
Head office in Alexanderplatz
Company headquarters at Alexanderplatz
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Seat Berlin
legal form Branch of Landesbank Berlin AG,
public law institution with partial legal capacity
Bank code 100 500 00
BIC BELA DEBE XXX
Association Savings Bank Association Berlin
Website www.berliner-sparkasse.de
Business data 2019
insoles EUR 28.565 billion
Employee 3,170
management
Board Johannes Evers (Chairman), Michael Jänichen, Hans Jürgen Kulartz, Tanja Müller-Ziegler
List of savings banks in Germany

The Berliner Sparkasse is a public-law savings bank and is based in Berlin-Mitte . It is run by Landesbank Berlin AG . With 1.7 million customers, 125 locations and more than 1.4 million current accounts, the Sparkasse, founded in 1818, is the market leader in Berlin . As part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe , Berliner Sparkasse offers comprehensive financial services for private and corporate customers.

history

Foundation of the Berliner Sparkasse

The Berliner Sparkasse was opened on June 15, 1818 by the Magistrate of Berlin as the first Sparkasse in Prussia and one of the first Sparkassen in Germany and was located in the Berlin City Hall. As a savings bank for the “poorer class”, it should counteract the ubiquitous mass poverty of the early 19th century and be available as an instrument of indirect help for self-help.

According to its founding statute, it was the task of the Sparkasse “to give the local residents the opportunity to store their small savings at interest rates and safely, and thereby to help them to collect capital that they would use in the event of marriage, establishment of a business, in old age or can use in cases of need ”. At the end of the founding year, Berliner Sparkasse already had 551 customers.

Only a few years after the founding of the Empire in 1871 , Berlin became a metropolis of millions. In order to cope with the rush of customers, the savings bank moved in 1875 from the Red Town Hall to the Abbey Road location Palais Podewils . In 1893, the Sparkasse headquarters were relocated to the former grain mill on Mühlendamm . In 1895 it had around 571,000 customers. In addition to the headquarters, there were 92 collection points at the turn of the century, which were operated by merchants in their shops. In 1915, cashless payment transactions were introduced under the name “savings settlement transactions”.

The Berliner Sparkasse in the 1920s

With the emergence of Greater Berlin , the savings banks of the incorporated communities of Spandau, Charlottenburg, Neukölln, Schöneberg, Köpenick, Wilmersdorf, Lichtenberg, Weißensee, Pankow, Reinickendorf, Steglitz, Lichterfelde, Treptow and Tegel merged with the previous Sparkasse in Berlin on October 1, 1920 to the Sparkasse of the city of Berlin. Even then, around half of Berliners had a savings account with the Sparkasse.

In 1920 the Sparkasse was divided into two departments: Department A - the savings bank headquarters of the city of Berlin - was responsible for general savings transactions, while Department B - the giro center of the city of Berlin - was responsible for banking tasks and municipal giro traffic. After the period of inflation, which reached its peak in November 1923, the Berliner Stadtbank - Girozentrale der Stadt Berlin, which was closely associated with the Sparkasse, was founded on May 1, 1925. The tasks of department B were assigned to the city bank. It took over the short and medium-term lending business as well as the custody, deposit and service business and was approved as a foreign exchange bank. With its department A, the Sparkasse limited itself to savings transactions and long-term credit business.

The Berliner Sparkasse under National Socialism

Historic advertising Sparkassen - Sparkassenbuch in Wittenbergplatz underground station , Berlin

When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the “ Gleichschaltung” also affected the Berliner Sparkasse. Jewish and politically unpleasant employees were dismissed. The Berliner Sparkasse had to align its business policy with the goals of the new regime and was included in the Nazi economic policy.

In July 1933, the headquarters of the Berliner Sparkasse moved to that of Peter Behrens newly built Alexander House to Alexanderplatz.

Post-war period and division of the Berliner Sparkasse

Due to the war damage, the Berliner Sparkasse ceased operations on April 23, 1945. In May 1945, however, the still usable branches were reopened. The Berliner Sparkasse was the only bank that was allowed to remain active in Berlin without interruption.

In the post-war period , the division of the city began with the currency reform in 1948 and the blockade of Berlin in 1948/1949 . The Berliner Sparkasse had to complete the split. At the end of 1948, by order of the western allies, the Sparkasse der Stadt Berlin West was founded in the western sectors.

In the western part of the city, the Sparkasse developed under market conditions with a diverse range of products for customers. She also actively financed the reconstruction of the city. For example, the large housing estates in Märkisches Viertel, Hansaviertel and Gropiusstadt were built with the help of the Sparkasse.

The Sparkasse der Stadt Berlin in the eastern part of Berlin fulfilled its task as an instrument of the economic and financial policy of the GDR (see Sparkasse (GDR) ). Their range of tasks included the savings and payment transactions of the population, the financing of housing construction as well as the financing and control of businesses in the local utility industry. In the fall of 1951, the Ostberliner Sparkasse moved back into the traditional building on Alexanderplatz.

The reunification of the two Berlin savings banks

After the fall of the wall , the two Berlin savings banks came together immediately. Together they prepared for monetary union on July 1, 1990. In October of the same year, after more than 40 years of separation, both institutes were reunited as Berliner Sparkasse under the umbrella of the newly founded Landesbank Berlin.

The Berliner Sparkasse as part of the Bankgesellschaft Berlin

On January 1, 1994, the Bankgesellschaft Berlin was founded through a merger of Landesbank Berlin including Berliner Sparkasse, Berliner Bank and Berliner Hypotheken- und Pfandbriefbank . The aim was to create a powerful banking group for Berlin. This meant that a major bank should again have its headquarters in Berlin. In 2001 Bankgesellschaft Berlin got into a serious crisis and had to be extensively restructured. With the Berlin Savings Banks Act of June 28, 2005, the Berlin House of Representatives determined the transformation of Landesbank Berlin into a stock corporation on January 1, 2006 and entrusted it with the sponsorship of the Berliner Sparkasse. In 2006, Landesbank Berlin AG took over the entire business of its parent company, Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG. This lost its bank function, became a mere financial holding without its own banking business and changed its name to Landesbank Berlin Holding AG .

Sale of the LBB Group to the German savings banks

In June 2007, the state of Berlin implemented the restructuring requirement of the European Commission by selling its 81% stake in Landesbank Berlin Holding AG in a bidding process to a total of around 420 German savings banks that had merged to form an acquisition company. The Berliner Sparkasse as part of the Landesbank Berlin AG is now owned by the German savings banks.

Also in June 2007, the Citizens' Initiative Berliner Bankenskandal, together with the Berlin Alliance against Privatization, launched a referendum entitled What we want - A Berlin savings bank: regional - social - transparent - democratic! The aim of the referendum was to change the Berlin Savings Banks Act by u. a. the introduction of a "current account for everyone", the installation of a board of directors and specifications for the partial appropriation of profits. Since not enough signatures could be collected for this referendum, the organizers did not pursue it.

At the beginning of 2014, the Landesbank Berlin brand withdrew from the market. With the exception of the supraregional credit card business, all business areas of the bank have been operating under the Berliner Sparkasse brand since then .

Business areas

As a universal bank, Berliner Sparkasse advises its customers on all financial matters. The focus of activity is on private and corporate customer business as well as regional commercial real estate finance.

The offer ranges from daily payment transactions and traditional investments to the financing of private or business investments, advice on insurance issues, products for old-age provision and asset accumulation to private and commercial real estate financing.

The focus is on personal advice in one of the 125 locations. In addition, customers can take advantage of online and telephone banking as well as mobile advice, where the advisor comes to the customer. In addition, around 1,100 self-service devices are available in the Berlin city area.

Social Commitment

In addition to its classic tasks such as supplying the population with financial services or promoting savings and commerce, the focus on the common good is also at the heart of the activities of Berliner Sparkasse in the context of fulfilling its public mandate. A major part of this is social engagement. Through its three foundations, the Berliner Sparkasse supports a wide range of projects in the fields of education, health, science as well as art, culture and sport.

Balance sheet figures

Business development figures and data are not published separately but only as part of the Landesbank Berlin AG annual report.

literature

  • Herbert Krafft: It was always about money - one hundred and fifty years of the Sparkasse in Berlin. Sparkasse der Stadt Berlin West (Ed.), Berlin 1968
  • Willi A. Boelcke, Wolfgang Quast, Wolfgang Schröder: Sparkasse history in Berlin. , In: Regional history of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. Volume 1, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-09-303810-5 .

Web links

Commons : Sparkasse in Berlin  - 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 of Landesbank Berlin AG as of December 31, 2019 , p. 15, accessed on March 31, 2020 (PDF).
  3. ↑ Report by Berliner Sparkasse 2017 , Berliner Sparkasse in Figures, p. 43, accessed on March 15, 2019 (PDF).
  4. ^ Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, Rep. 2a. I Kom 32. Foundation of a savings bank for the city of Berlin by the city council meeting there from 1817 to 1857 (file).
  5. ↑ Law on the Berliner Sparkasse and the transformation of Landesbank Berlin - Girozentrale - into a stock corporation (Berliner Sparkassengesetz - SpkG) of June 28, 2005 .
  6. ^ Ulli Gericke: First dividend of the new Berliner Sparkasse 2017 . In: Börsen-Zeitung . No. 9 , January 15, 2014, p. 4 ( boersen-zeitung.de ).
  7. ↑ Portrait berliner-sparkasse.de, accessed on March 15, 2019.
  8. ↑ Report by Berliner Sparkasse 2017 , Berliner Sparkasse in Figures, p. 43, accessed on March 15, 2019 (PDF).
  9. ↑ The Foundations of Berliner Sparkasse , accessed on March 15, 2019.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 14.9 ″  N , 13 ° 24 ′ 49.5 ″  E