Harald Kühnen

Harald Kühnen as a witness at the Nuremberg trials.

Harald Kühnen (born August 6, 1912 in Rheydt ; † December 16, 2002 in Munich ) was a German banker. Kühnen became known, among other things, as chairman of the Association of German Banks (1979–1983).

Live and act

Kühnen was the son of August Kühnen and his wife Emma, ​​née Rolshoven. After attending school, he completed a traineeship in his father's silk weaving mill. In 1931 he joined Dresdner Bank in Mönchengladbach .

From 1934 to 1935 Kühnen worked in the Secretariat of Dresdner Bank in Mainz and then from 1936 to 1939 in the Secretariat in Frankfurt am Main . In May 1939 he moved to the Berlin headquarters of the Dresdner Bank, where he was head of department II of the consortium department until 1945 as a clerk and special adviser available to the board. In this capacity he was mainly involved in aryanization and interlinking business during the Second World War . From 1944 to 1945 he was assistant to the chairman of the supervisory board, Carl Goetz, mainly in the board of directors.

In the post-war period, Kühnen was briefly interned in the Nuremberg witness prison as a witness for the Nuremberg trials . As a personally liable partner of the Heinrich Kirchholtes and Co. in Frankfurt (1947–1955), he actively returned to the banking business.

At the same time, in 1950 Kühnen became General Manager of the Salomon Oppenheim Jr. and Cie. , of which he was personally liable partner from 1951 to 1985. From 1979 to 1983 Kühnen also held the post of Chairman of the Association of German Banks. From 1985 to 1993 he still served as chairman of the partners and shareholders' committee of Salomon Oppenheim.

Kühnen was also a board member of the Peter Klöckner Foundation , honorary chairman of the Salomon Oppenheim bank, an honorary doctorate and honorary senator of the University of Cologne .

Honors

• 1983: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1991: Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Web links

• Sven Felix Kellerhoff : "Like other German financial institutions in the Third Reich, Dresdner Bank was significantly involved in displacement, genocide and war." Today she is presenting a study on this. , accessed July 11, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ralf Ahrens, Ingo Köhler, Harald Vixforth, Dieter Ziegler: The Dresdner Bank from 1945–1957: Consequences and Continuities after the End ... , accessed on July 22, 2012
2. ↑ Dr. Harald Kühnen passed away ( Memento of the original from March 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 81 kB), accessed on July 22, 2012  
3. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 . 

literature

• Ralf Ahrens: The Dresdner Bank 1945–1957: Consequences and Continuities after the End of the Nazi Regime. 2007, p. 469.
• Henke, Klaus-Dietmar (Ed.): The Dresdner Bank in the Third Reich . Munich: R. Oldenbourg 2006, 4 volumes, 2,372 pages, 4 maps, numer. Photos, doc.-illustrations, tables and graphics, ISBN 3-486-57780-8 (short version http://www.eugen-gutmann-gesellschaft.de/bericht.html online (link not available); reviews: review forum in Sehepunkte 6 (2006), No. 11 ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ); www.rezensions.ch )