Deutsche Handelsbank (1956-2001)

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Deutsche Handelsbank AG (DHB)
legal form Corporation
founding 1956
resolution 2001
Reason for dissolution Merger with the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft (BfG)
Seat Berlin , Germany
Branch Credit institution

The German Trade Bank (DHB) was a 1956 established credit institution in Berlin's financial district , which is primarily in the foreign trade financing worked. In 2001 the bank became part of the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft (BfG).

Assignments and history

The institute was "a state bank commissioned by the Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic for the currency processing of the banking transactions resulting from foreign trade relations with capitalist countries ( non-socialist economic area , NSW)". This bank thus corresponded to the legal status of a non- resident in the GDR and was thus outside the control of the GDR Ministry of Finance .

Shareholder was initially the German central bank and from 1968 the state bank of the GDR held 64 percent of the shares in Deutsche Handelsbank AG , the GDR foreign trade company VEB " Metallurgiehandel GmbH" in Berlin 14.06 percent, and "Heimelectronic Verwaltungs-GmbH" in Berlin 10 .31 percent, the Berlin "Kali-Bergbau-Handelsgesellschaft mbH" 5.63% and the foreign and reinsurance company of the GDR (DARAG) in Berlin 1 percent. Since 1972, the Commercial Coordination - most recently under the direction of Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski - used the Deutsche Handelsbank as the main bank for the processing of its international business. General director of the DHB was Feodor Ziesche (born July 14, 1927).

Part of the foreign currency generated in business by the Commercial Coordination Department and the Ministry for State Security ended up in the so-called Honecker account and the so-called Mielke account at Deutsche Handelsbank and was used to supply the SED elite in Wandlitz .

Special accounts

Special accounts at the Deutsche Handelsbank (DHB) were:

  • 0528 - the so-called Mielke account, account balance on December 1, 1989 38 million DM; used since 1972 for special deals of KoKo main department I.
  • 0584 - Special account for the support of foreign parties and organizations (disposable party fund of the SED ); exemplary drains were z. B. 1988 DM 12.0 million for the DKP newspaper Unser Zeit (UZ), or in 1987 US $ 10 million to the Sandinista in Nicaragua and the like. v. a.
  • 0628 - the so-called general secretary account, also Honecker account, set up on March 29, 1974; According to Schalck's recollections, the account balance in December 1989 was approx. DM 2.2 billion. The German funds from family reunions and prisoner ransom were collected in the account . The account was used in particular to secure the GDR's balance of payments, alleviate acute goods bottlenecks through NSW imports, e.g. B. underwear, coffee , grain , cars, etc. v. a. used.
  • Account 0773 of the arms trading company Imes in the Koko area, which was administered by Manfred Seidel , the deputy of Schalck-Golodkowski.

Privatization by the Treuhandanstalt

At the end of 1990, shortly after German reunification , the Deutsche Handelsbank was to be privatized quickly. First, BHF-Bank was awarded the contract for 2/3 of the shares in Deutsche Handelsbank for 370 million marks, but withdrew. According to the news magazine Focus , “ Circumstances had become known that stood in the way of signing a contract”. Rumors about dark DHB financial transactions made the rounds. “On November 13th the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft (BfG) then acquired the 2/3 share for only 225.28 million marks. The Treuhandanstalt held the remaining 30 percent . From 1990 to 1995 Peter Schüring took over the chairmanship of the Board of Management of Deutsche Handelsbank AG.

The news magazine Der Spiegel wrote in 1991: "The Deutsche Handelsbank is one of the fillets from the legacy of the Schalck Empire - and its sale one of the strangest transactions since the completion of German unification ."

On July 1, 1992, Deutsche Handelsbank took over 10 percent of the shares in Kuehne + Nagel International AG on the grounds that "the bank should support the global activities of the transport company" and in May 1994 sold its block of shares in the Kuehne + Nagel IPO.

In March 2001 it became known that Deutsche Handelsbank was merged with BfG Bank AG with retroactive effect from January 1, 2001, that business operations will be discontinued and the operational organization will be dissolved.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Archives. Inventory overview of the Federal Archives and the BStU Archives. Federal Archives: 11/1/12 Deutsche Handelsbank AG (DHB) , accessed on April 14, 2015.
  2. ↑ Handelsbank. Accounts cleared, money gone. In: Focus. No. 47 of November 21, 1994, accessed April 14, 2015.
  3. ↑ Schalck-Golodkowski documents stashed in Der Spiegel 26/1991 of June 24, 1991 , accessed on April 14, 2015.
  4. ↑ Schalck alias Icarus. In: Der Spiegel. 39/1991 of September 23, 1991, accessed April 14, 2015.
  5. ↑ Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (ed.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla. KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , p. 1046 ( books.google.de ).
  6. ^ Peter Krewer: Business with the class enemy. The GDR in intra-German trade 1949–1989. Trier 2008, p. 216 ff., 299.
  7. ↑ Account cards of the Deutsche Handelsbank account 0528-60-011-027. Volume 4 in the Federal Archives ( deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de ).
  8. ↑ Reinhard Buthmann: The working group in the area of ​​commercial coordination (MfS manual). [Ed.] BStU. Berlin 2004. p. 12 ( bstu.bund.de ).
  9. ^ GDR Lexicon , section Deutsche Handelsbank AG
  10. ^ Matthias Judt: Prisoners for bananas? The ransom of political prisoners from the GDR and the "Honecker account". Retrieved July 2, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Handelsbank. Accounts cleared, money gone. In: Focus . No. 47 of November 21, 1994, accessed April 14, 2015.
  12. ^ Profile Peter Schüring, Bloomberg Business , accessed April 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ He doesn't make a mistake. In: Der Spiegel . 19/1991 of May 6, 1990, accessed April 14, 2015.
  14. ↑ Kuehne & Nagel sells stake. In: Handelsblatt. No. 126 of July 3, 1992.
  15. ↑ Kuehne & Nagel offers for DM 912.60, IPO in Frankfurt and Zurich / Deutsche Bank draws positive earnings development. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 103 of May 4, 1994.
  16. ^ Retroactive to January 1, 2001. Deutsche Handelsbank is merged with BfG. In: Handeslsblatt. March 16, 2001, accessed April 14, 2015.