Franz Urbig

Franz Urbig (born January 23, 1864 in Luckenwalde ; † September 28, 1944 in Babelsberg ) was a German banker. From 1902 until the merger with Deutsche Bank in 1929, he was a partner in the Diskonto-Gesellschaft and subsequently chairman of the supervisory board of the merged Deutsche Bank and Diskonto-Gesellschaft until his death.

Franz Urbig

Life

Urbig grew up in simple circumstances and had to drop out of school after the early death of his father. His first professional activity was from 1878 as a clerk at the regional court in Luckenwalde. In 1884 he successfully applied to the discount company. Urbig learned languages in his spare time and was able to switch to the registry of the chief cabinet (a kind of executive secretariat) in 1889. When the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was founded, Urbig was appointed authorized representative of the bank in 1894 and transferred to Asia, where in 1895 he took over the management of the branch in Tientsin . From 1896 he was a board member of DAB and, after a short stay in Germany, negotiated for the Diskonto-Gesellschaft in 1898 to found a German-Chinese railway company. He also helped found the Hong Kong branch . In 1900 he moved to London , where he became deputy director of the newly established branch.

Due to his successful international activities, Urbig was appointed further business owner of the discount company in 1902. Accordingly, the focus of his work was on the bank's international business. As a financial expert in the negotiations of the Versailles Treaty , Urbig warned in vain of the negative consequences of the reparations . During the hyperinflation in 1923 he was chairman of the currency committee in the Central Association of German banking and banking . At the same time, he was a member of the board of directors of Deutsche Rentenbank and, in this role, contributed to the introduction of the German Rentenmark . From 1924 he was a member of the General Council of the Reichsbank .

In the course of the merger of the Diskonto-Gesellschaft with Deutsche Bank, he moved to the supervisory board of the newly formed company in 1929. After the National Socialists came to power , Urbig was actively involved in removing the Jewish members of the board of directors of Deutsche Bank und Diskonto-Gesellschaft from the board, although he was not openly close to National Socialism. In 1942 he was appointed honorary chairman of the board of directors.

The Villa Urbig at the Griebnitzsee

Villa Urbig on the Griebnitzsee

In 1915, Franz Urbig had a villa built by Mies van der Rohe on the Ringstrasse (today: Virchowstrasse 23) in Babelsberg am Griebnitzsee , which, among other things, served as a venue for the Ufa film Fresh Wind from Canada . During the Potsdam Conference attended Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee in this property. After the war the building became the guest house of the "Academy of State and Law of the GDR". Hasso Plattner has been the owner of the villa since February 2009 .

Fonts

From the life of a German banker. Historical Society of Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-000-43651-2 .

literature

Maximilian Müller-Jabusch : Franz Urbig. Revised and supplemented reprint of the first edition from 1939. Otto von Holten, Berlin 1954.
Martin L. Müller: Franz Urbig (1864-1944). In: Patrick Bormann, Judith Michel, Joachim Scholtyseck (eds.): Entrepreneurs in the Weimar Republic (= contributions to company history. Vol. 35). Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-515-11215-4 , pp. 107-119.

Individual evidence

↑ A detailed account of the process can be found in a note by Franz Urbig from the end of June 1933, printed in: The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Volume 1: Wolf Gruner : German Empire 1933–1937. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58480-6 , pp. 214-223; as a facsimile in: Avraham Barkai : Oscar Wassermann and Deutsche Bank. Banker in a difficult time. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52958-5 , pp. 157-174.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Urbig, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German bank manager
DATE OF BIRTH	January 23, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH	Luckenwalde
DATE OF DEATH	September 28, 1944
Place of death	Babelsberg

[1] A detailed account of the process can be found in a note by Franz Urbig from the end of June 1933, printed in: The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Volume 1: Wolf Gruner : German Empire 1933–1937. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58480-6 , pp. 214-223; as a facsimile in: Avraham Barkai : Oscar Wassermann and Deutsche Bank. Banker in a difficult time. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52958-5 , pp. 157-174.