J. Dreyfus & Co.

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Bank house J. Dreyfus & Co. was one of the leading German-Jewish private banks in the German Reich , particularly during the Weimar Republic .

history

The banking house J. Dreyfus & Co. was founded on December 1, 1868 by Jacques Dreyfus-Jeidels (1826–1890) in Frankfurt am Main under the name Dreyfus-Jeidels . The founder's father, Isaac Dreyfus-Bernheim (1786–1845), founded Dreyfus Söhne & Cie. launched in Basel . Taking advantage of the business and family connections in Switzerland , Dreyfus-Jeidels was particularly successful in the field of stock exchange commission business and arbitrage . Among other things, Dreyfus-Jeidels participated alongside the companiesA. CHENEVIERE & Co. ( Geneva ) and Moritz B. Goldschmidt (Frankfurt) at a large arbitrage business, which according to the French German War 1870/71 to the war indemnity joined and the decline of the French Monetary prevented. At that time, the banks bought up the French banknotes , which threatened to flood the German market .

In 1890, the converted Dreyfus Jeidels under the name J. Dreyfus & Co. in a limited partnership in order. As limited partners of the goods Basel banker Association ( Basel ), the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt ( Zurich ), the Banque de Mulhouse ( Mulhouse in Alsace ,) and Jacob Schiff ( New York ) involved.

In 1897 J. Dreyfus & Co. was taken over by the Hamburg Commerzbank and Disconto Bank . The suggestion for this came from the banker Saemy Japhet (1858–1954), who came from Frankfurt am Main and worked in London , who had recognized the great urge of the big banks to use branch systems. With this takeover, Commerzbank and Disconto Bank , which was previously only active in Hamburg , was given the opportunity to operate an important branch not only in Frankfurt am Main, but also in Berlin , as J. Dreyfus & Co. has had a branch there since 1891 had entertained.

While the Berlin branch was developing successfully, tensions arose between the Hamburg headquarters of Commerzbank and Disconto Bank and their branch in Frankfurt , despite family and commercial ties . The Commerzbank and Disconto Bank therefore decided to close their Frankfurt branch. In this extraordinary situation, the son of the company founder, Isaac Dreyfus (1849–1909), who was a member of the supervisory board of the major bank, decided to run his core business again independently and to turn the major bank branch in Frankfurt into a private bank . He decided to take this unusual step in order to keep the Frankfurt jobs. Isaac Dreyfus and the Commerzbank- und Disconto-Bank agreed in 1904 that the re-established Bank J. Dreyfus & Co. in Frankfurt would take over the day-to-day business and the entire staff and that the Commerzbank- und Disconto-Bank would receive all syndicated business and real estate. In addition, the latter invested three million marks as a limited partner in the resurrected J. Dreyfus & Co. This contribution from Commerzbank and Disconto Bank was repaid in 1909.

To expand their current accounts and deposit banking in Frankfurt am Main, decided J. Dreyfus & Co. in 1913 under its new business partner Willy Dreyfus (1885-1977) to buy domiciled in Frankfurt also Bankhaus MW Koch & Co. After the First World War began J. Dreyfus & Co. continues its expansion. In October 1919, it took over the business of the Berlin bank SL Landsberger, founded in 1818, and opened a new branch in Berlin. This offshoot soon outperformed the Frankfurt headquarters in terms of business. In Vienna, this was followed by a stake in Bank Reitler & Co. In order to further expand international business relationships, J. Dreyfus & Co. took a stake in 1923 together with the bank Dreyfus Söhne & Cie., Which is family and business related to it . on the founding of the New York bank Strupp & Co.

The bank built up an extensive network of valuable business relationships at home and abroad through extensive issuing , consortium and remuneration transactions. The main customers included leading German companies in the mechanical engineering and construction industries as well as the electricity industry, who knew how to benefit from the good connections of J. Dreyfus & Co., particularly in Switzerland , the Netherlands , Great Britain and the USA . With a working capital of 12 million Rentenmarks in 1930, the bank, headed by senior partner Willy Dreyfuss and the partners Kurt Landsberg, Paul Wallich , Friedrich Flersheim and Werner Mankiewitz , was one of the leading private banks in the German Reich at the end of the Weimar Republic .

During the Third Reich the business decline of J. Dreyfus & Co. began , at the end of which in March 1938 was the forced Aryanization . While the Frankfurt headquarters with the business located there went to the Metzler bank, which is also based in Frankfurt , the Berlin branch with the activities located there was taken over by the Munich bank Merck Finck & Co. Wallich, head of the Berlin branch, was forced to liquidate in May 1938 and committed suicide six months later - the day after the November pogroms and with no means of subsistence.

literature

  • J. Dreyfus & Co. (Ed.): “In memory of the keystone laying of the new bank building of the J. Dreyfus & Co.”, Frankfurt am Main 1914;
  • Heilbrunn, Rudolf M .: “The J. Dreyfus & Co. Bank, Frankfurt am Main - Berlin 1868–1939”, Frankfurt am Main 1962;
  • Kirchholtes, Hans-Dieter: "Jewish private banks in Frankfurt am Main", Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-7829-0351-X .
  • Köhler, Ingo: "The" Aryanization "of the private banks in the Third Reich". In: "Series of publications on the journal for corporate history", Volume 14, 2nd edition, 2008.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Jacques Dreyfus married Eva Berbe Jeidels (1824–?) From Würzburg in 1848 and, according to Swiss custom, appended his wife's surname to his name.
  2. ↑ Kirchholtes, Hans-Dieter: "Jewish private banks in Frankfurt am Main", Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 43 f.
  3. ↑ Founded a bank in Frankfurt am Main in 1880, which moved its headquarters to Berlin in 1891 and opened a branch in London in 1896. In 1900 Saemy Japhet moved to London and set up the headquarters of his bank S. Japhet & Co. there. Immediately after Japhet's death in 1954, this company was sold to the London bank Charterhouse and continued under the name Charterhouse Japhet & Thomasson .
  4. ↑ Kirchholtes, Hans-Dieter: "Jewish Private Banks in Frankfurt am Main", Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 44.
  5. ↑ Kirchholtes, Hans-Dieter: "Jewish private banks in Frankfurt am Main", Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 45.
  6. ↑ Bank founded in 1920 by Emil Reitler (1886–1949) in Vienna. Emerged from the long-established "Wiedner Wechselhaus Robert Reitler". Reitler & Co. dealt mainly with foreign exchange transactions.
  7. ↑ Köhler, Ingo: "The" Aryanization "of the private banks in the Third Reich". In: "Series of publications on the journal for corporate history", Volume 14, 2nd edition, 2008, p. 305.
  8. ↑ Köhler, Ingo: The "Aryanization" of the private banks in the Third Reich . In: Series of publications on the journal for corporate history , Volume 14, 2nd edition, 2008, pp. 305 ff.