German gold reserves

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Gold Storage of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

German gold reserves is a name for the gold stocks owned by the Deutsche Bundesbank . As of December 31, 2017, they comprised 3,373,662.4079 kg of fine gold in physical stocks ( gold bars ). These gold holdings were shown in the Bundesbank's balance sheet at EUR 117,347 million. In addition, the Bundesbank has extensive currency reserves .

The Bundesbank's gold reserves have been the second largest in the world since the late 1960s. Only the United States has greater gold reserves.

The Bundesbank could pledge or sell the reserves in the wake of a currency crisis .

Inventory and storage locations

German gold reserves
fine weight in t (rounded)
Warehouse location December 31
1998 		December 31
2016 		December 31
2017 		December 31
2018 		December 31
2019
GermanyGermany Bundesbank, Frankfurt 119 1,619 1,710 1,710 1,710
United StatesUnited States FED, New York 1,537 1,236 1,236 1,236 1,236
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Bank of England, London 1,521 432 427 423 420
FranceFrance Banque de France, Paris 374 91 0 0 0
All in all 3,551 3,378 3,374 3,370 3,367

The gold holdings of 3,378 tons (as of December 31, 2016) camped 1,236 tonnes (36.6%) with the US Federal Reserve Fed in New York, 432 tonnes (12.8%) at the Bank of England in London and 91 tons (2.7%) at the Banque de France in Paris. The Bundesbank kept 1619 tonnes, roughly half (47.9%) of the inventory, in its own domestic vaults.

At the beginning of 2013, German gold reserves had a market value of 131.4 billion euros. In 2013 the gold price fell ; In the course of the euro crisis and the years of rising gold prices, public interest in them grew.

Since 2013, 300 tons of gold from New York and 374 tons from Paris have been brought to Frankfurt, as the storage of gold abroad has long been criticized.

The Bundesbank sells around five to six tons of gold annually to the Federal Ministry of Finance for the minting of commemorative coins ; otherwise the Bundesbank does not buy or sell gold.

development

Wilhelminian and First World War

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the German Empire demanded and received reparations from France amounting to five billion French francs. Large amounts of gold and silver flowed to the German Reich in coin form (5-franc pieces contained 45 grams of fine silver, 10-franc pieces contained 2.9032 grams of fine gold). These were one of the triggers for the economic boom in the early days .

A small part of FF 120 million was stored as Imperial War Treasury in the Julius Tower of the Spandau Citadel and fell back to France after the end of the First World War .

Second World War

Shortly after the annexation of Austria in March 1938, the Nazi regime had Austria's gold reserve and foreign exchange reserves, which had reached considerable levels due to the deflationary economic policy of the governments in the 1930s, transported to Germany with little foreign exchange. More than 2.7 billion schillings in gold and foreign exchange came under Nazi control.

After Germany's western campaign in 1940, the German Foreign Ministry demanded the transfer of Belgium's gold reserve. In 1941, French officials handed over 41 tons of this Belgian gold to representatives of the German Reichsbank in Marseille . After a few sham political maneuvers, this gold reserve officially came into German possession on October 9, 1942. The bars were melted down and brought to Switzerland.

Bretton Woods

Today's German gold reserves date from the time of the Bretton Woods system (1944–1973) and the European Payments Union (1950–1958), when countries with current account deficits states with current account surpluses overwritten gold.

From 1945 to 1950 Germany had no gold reserves. In 1948 the Bank deutscher Länder (predecessor of the Bundesbank) was founded. She owned gold for the first time in 1951; the stock at the end of 1951 was 24.5 tons. In 1968 the amount of gold owned by the Bundesbank reached an all-time high; at the end of 1968 it was 4,033.8 tons. The Bundesbank (until August 1, 1957 Bank of German States) received the gold in New York (seat of the FED), London (seat of the Bank of England ) and Paris (seat of the Banque de France ) and left it there in the face of the Cold War .

In 1969, the sale of 14 million ounces of gold to the FED reduced the gold holdings to 3,625.4 tons. In the years 1970 to 1973, the gold inventory increased slightly.

After Bretton Woods

After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1973, this stock remained almost unchanged until 1977 at around 3,658 tons. In 1977 the Bundesbank had gold holdings transferred from its custody account at the Bank of England to the BIS custody account at the Bank of England and in return received a credit on its gold account at the BIS ( Bank for International Settlements ) in Basel.

After the Bundesbank transferred 6.5% of its physical gold reserves to the ECB in 1999 (as the German share of the currency reserves), in January 2004 it considered reducing the reserves by a further 20% within the next five years. At that time the amount of reserves was 3,440 tons, a year later 3,433 tons. In the third Central Bank Gold Agreement in 2009, the Federal Republic of Germany, together with other European countries, undertook not to sell more than 400 tons of gold per year over a five-year period. In March 2012, however, the stock was still 3396 t.

Due to the high gold price at the time, the market value was at times 136 billion euros. At the end of 2014, the Bundesbank named gold holdings of 3,384.2 tons of gold.

Discussion about storage abroad

Since 1998 the Bundesbank has no longer differentiated in its balance sheets between (physically present) gold and gold claims .

Members of the Bundestag such as Martin Hohmann received imprecise answers from the federal government to the questions they had asked repeatedly. So said Barbara Hendricks , Parliamentary State Secretary , on 1 October 2002: "The German Federal Bank holds a large portion of their gold reserves in own vaults in Germany." The secrecy of the Bundesbank and German government custody until that is "a lot of yarn spun" and Conspiracy theories arise. In connection with this, it became known that the central banks in New York, London and Paris rejected the request of the Bundestag members Philipp Missfelder (CDU) and Marco Wanderwitz (CDU) to inspect the Bundesbank's physical gold holdings.

In May 2012 a citizens' initiative called “Get our gold home!” Was formed. More than 13,000 people signed their call for the return of gold reserves to Germany. The Association of Taxpayers Bavaria e. V. and the former BDI boss Hans-Olaf Henkel .

On behalf of the Bundestag , the Federal Audit Office determined whether the Bundesbank subjects its foreign gold holdings to a regular inventory. On October 22, 2012, the Federal Audit Office published a report to the Bundestag budget committee , in which a regular inventory of the German gold reserves held abroad was required, as the currency reserves reached a high value.

After the complaint from the Court of Auditors, the Bundesbank declared that it wanted to bring 50 tons annually from New York to Frankfurt. The stocks are to be melted down there, checked for quality and poured into new bars . According to the Federal Audit Office's report, the stocks held in the Bundesbank's headquarters consist of 82,857 bars, most of which are stored in sealed containers with 50 bars each, which are stored in four separately locked safe boxes, some of which (6183 bars) on open shelves in a separate one Safe.

In a press release from January 16, 2013, the board member of the Bundesbank Carl-Ludwig Thiele announced that by 2020 a total of 19% of the German gold holdings from abroad to Frankfurt, corresponding to 674 tons of gold from the United States and France, with a total value of 27 billion euros. The gold deposit in Paris is to be completely dissolved. 37% of the German gold remains in New York instead of the previous 45%. Gold reserves of 13% held in the Bank of England remained unchanged. The Paris gold depot will be closed due to the common currency and because storage capacities are free in Frankfurt. The Federal Audit Office emphasized that it was never about relocating the gold to Germany, but rather about creating a clear concept explaining why and how much gold was stored where. The complete return from France takes place, among other things, because in a currency crisis in Paris no foreign currency is available due to the common currency.

Relocation to Germany

Gold bars with a common weight for central banks of 12.441 kg

In 2013, the Bundesbank began the announced relocations, often referred to as “retrieval”. Since this gold was not previously stored in Germany, this designation is linguistically incorrect.

The transports started in 2013 mainly with gold from Paris, which was quicker to organize because of the short distance. A total of almost 37 tons of gold were transported to Frankfurt, of which only 5 tons from New York for the time being. Since the outdated shape of the bars from New York did not match the bar shape ( corresponding to the current standard ) as it already had the gold from London and Paris, the Bundesbank had the bars from New York melted down after their arrival in Europe and given new shapes to water. According to Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, the transport of the numbered bars was checked by Bundesbank employees from removal to the smelting plant and storage in Frankfurt on the basis of the inventory lists. There was no reason to complain about weight and fineness. As part of swap transactions in the 1960s, the Bundesbank had also accepted gold under the Good Delivery standard and had it remelted at the expense of the USA.

Largely unnoticed, gold had already been shifted from London to Frankfurt on a large scale at the turn of the millennium. Approx. 929 tons (2000: 661 tons and 2001 approx. 268 tons) were transferred from the Bank of England for permanent storage in the Frankfurt vaults. The four to six tons of gold sold annually by the Bundesbank for the minting of commemorative coins have also been fetched from London since 2008.

Relocation

in t (rounded)

Should 1 2000 2001 Should 2 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Bank of England, London 929 661 268 - - - - - -
United StatesUnited States Federal Reserve Bank, New York - - - 300 5 85 99 111 -
FranceFrance Banque de France, Paris - - - 374 32 35 111 105 91
All in all 929 661 268 674 37 120 210 216 91

With the storage of 91 tons of gold from Paris in Frankfurt in 2017, the depot at the Banque de France was closed. This means that the relocation is already completed much earlier than originally planned. In total, the relocation of the gold bars to Frankfurt cost over 7 million euros from 2013 to 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gold bars inventory list of the Bundesbank (as of December 31, 2017) - accessed on March 2, 2018
  2. ↑ Balance sheet of the Deutsche Bundesbank as of December 31, 2017
  3. ↑ Lorenz Wolf-Doettinchem; Jan Christoph Wiechmann: The last treasure of the Germans. In: Stern from July 1, 2004 ( online ( Memento from August 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive )).
  4. ↑ Daniel Gratzla: The gold treasure of the Bundesbank. In: Focus Online. from March 4, 2011 ( online ).
  5. ↑ a b Dorit Hess: The gold treasure goes on a journey . In: Handelsblatt . No. 50 , March 12, 2013, p. 29 .
  6. ↑ a b c d table: Development and breakdown of the gold holdings of the BdL / BBk since 1950 (PDF)
  7. ↑ Gold bars inventory list of the Bundesbank  ( 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. (As of December 31, 2016) - Accessed January 22, 2018@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bundesbank.de  
  8. ↑ Gold bars inventory list of the Bundesbank (as of December 31, 2018) - accessed on April 2, 2019
  9. ↑ Bundesbank Annual Report 2019 (PDF), page 53 (as of December 31, 2019) - accessed on March 28, 2019
  10. ↑ Bundesbank withdraws 300 tons of gold from New York. In: Der Spiegel online February 9, 2017.
  11. ↑ Frank Stocker: 300 tons of gold brought to Germany from New York. In: The world. February 9, 2017.
  12. ↑ dpa: The gold treasure is back. In: Handelsblatt. 23rd August 2017.
  13. ↑ Bundesbank.de: Diagram (January 16, 2013) (PDF)
  14. ↑ Dorit Heß, Norbert Härling: The golden boy . In: Handelsblatt . No. 11 , January 16, 2013, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 46 .
  15. ^ Manfred Jochum: The First Republic in documents and pictures. Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagbuchhandlung, Vienna 1983, p. 247.
  16. ↑ Other sources, such as Werner Rings: Raubgold aus Deutschland , even speak of the entire Belgian gold reserve - 221 tons in 5,000 boxes.
  17. ↑ Götz Aly: Hitlers Volksstaat , Fischer, Frankfurt 2005, p. 162 ff.
  18. ↑ a b c Development of gold stocks at Bundesbank.de of January 18, 2013 - Accessed on February 6, 2018.
  19. ^ Deutsche Bundesbank: Board decision to renew the gold agreement. ( Press release of January 29, 2004 ( Memento of January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive )).
  20. ^ NN: Union criticizes planned sales of the gold reserve . In: Manager-Magazin from January 30, 2004 ( online ).
  21. ↑ Gerald Braunberger: Urges gold, everything depends on gold. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , No. 15/2005 (April 17, 2005), p. 47 ( faz.net ).
  22. ↑ Gold reserves should be examined. In: Die Wirtschaftswoche. October 23, 2012.
  23. ↑ 109,194 thousand ounces . Deutsche Bundesbank: Currency reserves and foreign currency liquidity of the Federal Republic of Germany. I. Currency reserves and other foreign currency assets ( online ( memento of February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )), accessed on May 5, 2012.
  24. ^ A b Manfred Gburek: The secret of the German gold treasure. In: Wirtschaftswoche of November 3, 2011 ( [1] ).
  25. ↑ 1997 Annual Report ( Memento of February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, p. 172)
    1998 Annual Report ( Memento of September 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, p. 198).
  26. ↑ Peter Vollmer: The hunt for the gold treasure of the Bundesbank. In: Financial Times Germany. of November 7, 2011 ( online ( memento of November 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ))
  27. ↑ Ralf Schuler: BILD at the gold treasure of the Germans in New York , Bild.de from March 6, 2012.
  28. ↑ Stay away from the Bundesbank's gold! - Handelsblatt.com from January 16, 2013 - Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  29. ↑ Court of Auditors calls for an inventory - politicians are not allowed to see gold reserves - Handelsblatt.com of October 22, 2012 - Retrieved on February 6, 2018.
  30. ↑ Bundesbank takes reserves from abroad: 674 tons of gold come to Germany. tagesschau.de, January 16, 2013, archived from the original on January 18, 2013 ; Retrieved January 16, 2013 .
  31. ↑ Rolf Benders, Dorit Hess: classified information: Bundesbank gold . In: Handelsblatt . No. 10 , January 30, 2013, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 30 f .
  32. ↑ Bundesbank retrieves 37 tons of gold from abroad | impulses . January 21, 2014 ( impulse.de [accessed July 10, 2017]).
  33. ↑ FOCUS Online: Bundesbank empties the gold vaults in the USA . In: FOCUS Online . ( focus.de [accessed on July 10, 2017]).
  34. ↑ Welt Online: The whole truth about the gold of the Bundesbank . In: Welt Online . ( welt.de [accessed on July 12, 2018]).
  35. ^ Deutsche Bundesbank: Back to the 60s: barter transactions . ( bundesbank.de [accessed on July 17, 2018]).
  36. ↑ Deutsche Bundesbank: Bundesbank completes gold relocations ahead of schedule . In: press releases . ( bundesbank.de [accessed on July 12, 2018]).
  37. ↑ Stuttgarter Nachrichten: Seven million euros for relocating the gold reserves . In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten . ( stuttgarter-nachrichten.de [accessed on July 12, 2018]).