Otto Christian Fischer

Otto Christian Fischer (born January 16, 1882 in Greifswald , † 1953 ) was a German lawyer and economist. From 1909 he worked for various banks. During the National Socialist era , he rose to head the Reichsgruppe Banken and became a partner in various banks. After the war ended, he was abducted by the Soviets.

Family, studies and doctorate

As the son of the lawyer and professor at the University of Wroclaw Otto Fischer and his wife Katharina Hörling, he attended the Matthias Gymnasium in Wroclaw and passed the Abitur exam in 1900. He then began studying law and political science at the universities of Lausanne , Munich and Wroclaw. At the University of Breslau he obtained in 1904 the doctorate to the Dr. jur. with a topic on the law of creditors, on which he published a year later the treatise The violation of the law of creditors as an unlawful act under the civil code for the German Reich .

Doctorate with distinction and military service

After his appointment as a trainee lawyer , he wrote the work The Economic Development of Warrant Traffic in Europe and America by 1908, with which he was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD and which was awarded a prize by the Berlin merchants. In 1909 he passed the exam to become an assessor and took a position at the Breslauer Disconto-Bank. In 1914 he went to the Darmstädter Bank in Berlin . During the First World War he served as an officer at the front with Field Artillery Regiment 6 for two years and most recently managed the East Loan Fund at Headquarters East. He finished military service as captain of the reserve.

Banking career

After the war he resumed his work at Darmstädter Bank and in 1920 became a deputy member of the bank's board of directors. In 1923 he reached the position of a full member of the board of the Commerz- und Privatbank in Berlin. From 1925 he took over the duties of a full member of the board of the Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft AG (RKG) in Berlin. He lived in Berlin-Zehlendorf , Grunewaldallee 25.

Approach to the National Socialists

In 1931, the then editor Walther Funk arranged a meeting with Adolf Hitler , because Fischer was politically open to the National Socialists. Fischer approached the NSDAP by becoming an employee of the economic policy department of the NSDAP . He was also a member of the Society for the Study of Fascism , an organization in which the National Socialists and conservative elites worked together. In the German Fuehrerbriefe he influenced the emotions of the German entrepreneurs who feared a radical policy of the NSDAP with regard to banks and companies.

Chairman of the Central Association of German Banks

Fischer was therefore considered trustworthy by the NSDAP to replace the previous chairman of the Central Association of German Banks and Bankers (CVBB) Georg Solmssen on May 2, 1933 . In his inaugural address, Fischer tried to point out the responsibility of the banks and the CVBB. In doing so, he probably wanted to emphasize a certain independence from the claims of the Nazi regime, as the historian Ingo Köhler noted. But this hope was dashed with the founding of the Reichsgruppe Banken . For the historian Lothar Gall , despite this attempt to distance himself from the Nazi regime, he was a staunch National Socialist banker. This change in the chairmanship of the CVBB was also fully approved by Hjalmar Schacht , since Fischer was supposed to act as an intermediary between the private banks and the Reich government.

Head of the Reichsgruppe Banken

Fischer passed his first acid test when the Centralverband was to serve as a collection point for funds for the NSDAP. Gustav Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach's initiative to make an Adolf Hitler donation to German industry led the Central Association to decide to contribute 1.25 million Reichsmarks (RM). With Carl Tewaag , Fischer organized the individual donations from the private banks. When the first implementing ordinance ( RGBl . I p. 1194) for the law for the preparation of the organic structure of the commercial economy of February 27, 1934 (RGBl. IS 185) was passed on November 27, 1934, the Central Association became part of the Reichsgruppe Banken . Although the association now became the private banking business group , the old name could still be used. Since Fischer von Schacht was appointed head of the Reichsgruppe in March 1934, he had to hand over the management of the converted economic group to the chairman of the supervisory board of Commerzbank Friedrich Reinhart .

"Aryanization" of Jewish property

When the National Socialists began to confiscate Jewish assets in the course of the "Aryanization", it was also a matter of blocking the assets of bank deposits against the access of the owners. Fischer did not resist these measures in his area of ​​the Reichsgruppe, nor did he delay such actions. However, he also took no initiatives. He simply enforced it and, according to the historian Christopher Kopper, made a contribution to the destruction of the economic livelihoods of Jewish citizens and societies.

In a letter of March 19, 1938 to the Reich Ministry of Economics (RWM) , he spoke out in favor of appointing a state commissioner to the Banque de Pays de l'Europe Centrale because of Jewish and foreign influence. And on March 21, 1938, he supported this view in a letter to the ministerial director Hermann Landwehr from the RWM in Vienna.

In November 1938 it took part in a meeting in the Reich Chancellery, where the question of the so-called atonement of the Jewish citizens amounting to one billion RM was negotiated.

Participation of banks

When Walther Funk became the new Minister of Economic Affairs in 1938 , Fischer took the initiative and the Reichsgruppe Banken gave him an estate that was sold for RM 300,000. Fischer also consolidated his financial situation and in 1939 became a partner in the Otto Christian Fischer banking house in Berlin. He became a partner in the Merck Finck & Co banking house in 1941.

End of the Nazi regime and deportation

At the beginning of 1944, Fischer also became convinced that the Nazi regime would not survive the next few years. So he wrote a memorandum entitled Reconstructing a Peace Economy . In it he committed himself to an economy of competition and economics with cost accounting. He also committed himself to supply and demand in the supply of goods. After the surrender, Fischer was arrested by Soviet authorities in May 1945. After the war it was not clear where it was taken and is therefore considered lost. He has been considered deceased since 1953.

Fonts

• The violation of the right of creditors as an unlawful act according to the Civil Code for the German Reich , Jena 1905.
• The economic development of warrant traffic in Europe and America , Berlin 1908.
• Career through strike - A political time experience in 4 acts , Berlin 1930.
• The German East - Rescue or Renunciation? , Berlin 1931.
• National Socialism is in need , in: Deutsche Führerbriefe, October 4, 1932.
• National world economy? , Berlin 1933.
• The faulty credit policy , Berlin 1933.
• Banking in the National Socialist State , Berlin 1934 (series Die neue Wirtschaft , Department I: Goals and Design, Ed. Otto Christian Fischer, Issue 1)
• Training problems in the banking industry , Berlin 1934.
• The building industry in the National Socialist state , Berlin 1934.
• The functions of credit and the Reich Law on Credit from December 5, 1934 , Berlin 1935.
• The Reichsgesetz über das Kreditwesen - commentary with a detailed introduction, explanations and subject index taking into account the implementation ordinance of February 9, 1935 , Berlin 1935.
• The German banking system - structural changes and new construction , in: Deutsches Bankinstitut für Bankwissenschaften und Bankingwesen (ed.), Problems of German economic life, first things first, achieved things, Leipzig 1937, pp. 83–162.
• Germany's recovery - an address , Before the Board of trade for German-American commerce, Inc., New York City, April 23, 1937. New York 1937.
• Currency relations and economic equilibrium - address delivered , Berlin 1937.
• The structural changes in the world economy and their repercussions on trade relations between Denmark and Germany , Berlin 1938.
• The state banking supervision , Basel 1939.
• Reichsgruppe Banken, the self-administration of the credit system , Berlin 1940.
• The German credit system in the new economic order: a series of lectures held in April and May 1941 , Berlin 1941.

Member of the supervisory board

• Noe Stross AG of the combined Liebauthal and Weißwasser textile works (chair)
• Deutsche Centralbodenkredit AG, Berlin (Deputy Chair)
• "Victoria am Rhein", Allgemeine Versicherungs AG, Düsseldorf
• "Victoria" Feuerversicherungs AG, Berlin
• "Victoria zu Berlin", Allgemeine Versicherungs-AG, Berlin
• Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG, Bremen
• Deutsche Wollwaren-Manufaktur AG, Grünberg in Silesia
• Grain, Industry and Commission AG, Berlin
• Industriebau Held & Francke AG, Berlin
• Schlesische Portland-Cement-Industrie AG, Opole
• Prussian Pfandbrief Bank, Berlin
• Schlesische Cellulose- und Papierfabriken AG, Cunersdorf
• Sugar factory Froebeln AG, Froebeln near Löwen
• Fraustadt sugar factory, Fraustadt
• Zündholzaktien-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin
• Deutsche Bau- und Bodenbank AG, Berlin
• Gieschebank AG, Breslau
• Neue Glanzstoff AG, Wroclaw

Offices and Member

• F circle
• General Council of Economy
• German Institute for Banking Science and Banking, Berlin (President)
• Society for the Study of Fascism
• Economic Society (Chair from 1933 to 1945)
• Aid Community for Catholic Welfare and Cultural Care mbH, Berlin
• Board of Trustees of the St. Hedwig Hospital, Berlin
• College of representatives of the mining company Georg von Giesches Erben, Breslau
• Chairman of the study society for financing road construction
• German Society from 1914
• Club of Berlin
• Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Deutsche Reichsbank, Berlin
• German-American Business Association (Presidium)
• Central European Business Day , (chair of the banking advisory board and board of trustees)
• 1933: Head of the main banking and credit group
• Advisory Board of the Reich Chamber of Commerce
• Advisory board of the Berlin-Brandenburg Chamber of Commerce
• Chairman of the court of honor in the Berlin-Brandenburg Chamber of Commerce
• Vice President of the International Chamber of Commerce
• Member of the Presidium and Treasurer of the German Group of the International Chamber of Commerce
• Committee for the Exchange of Young Businesspeople, Berlin
• Supporting member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
• Golf and Land Club Berlin-Wannsee (Chairman 1941–45)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In various publications February is given as the month of birth
2. ^ Stefan Chr. Saar: Between Prussian Private Law and BGB - Otto Fischer (1853-1929) . in: Helmut Kollhosser, Reinhard Bork, Thomas Hoeren, Petra Pohlmann (eds.): Law and Risk - Festschrift for Helmut Kollhosser on his 70th birthday . Volume II, Civil Law, 2004, pp. 579-590.
3. ^ Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft, Volume 1, Berlin 1930, p. 447.
4. ↑ Herrmann AL Degener : Who is who? . Berlin 1935.
5. ↑ Christopher Kopper: Bankers under the swastika. Munich 2005, p. 210.
6. ↑ Eberhard Czichon : Who helped Hitler to power? - On the share of German industry in the destruction of the Weimar Republic . 3rd edition, Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1972, p. 22.
7. ↑ Detlef J. Blesgen: Erich Preiser - Work and economic-political effects of a German economist (1900-1967). Berlin 2000, p. 361
8. ↑ Ingo Köhler: The " Aryanization " of the private banks in the Third Reich - repression, elimination and the question of reparations . Munich 2003, p. 74.
9. ↑ Ingo Köhler, ibid, p. 75.
10. ^ Lothar Gall: The Deutsche Bank, 1870-1995 . Munich 1995, p. 392.
11. ^ Thorsten Beckers: banking lobbyism. 26th symposium on June 4, 2003 at the Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen . Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart 2004, p. 45.
12. ↑ Christopher Kopper, ibid, p. 220.
13. ^ Harald Wixforth: The expansion of Dresdner Bank in Europe . in: Klaus-Dietmar Henke (ed.): The Dresdner Bank in the Third Reich . Volume 3, Munich 2006, p. 17, FN 21
14. ^ Fritz Kieffer: Persecution of the Jews in Germany - an internal matter? : international responses to the refugee problem 1933-1939 . Stuttgart 2002, p. 355.
15. ↑ Christopher Kopper, ibid, p. 213.
16. ↑ Erich Stockhorst: 5000 heads - who was what in the 3rd Reich . Kiel 1985, p. 136.
17. ^ Markus A. Denzel, Hans Pohl: History of the Munich financial center . Munich 2007, p. 183.
18. ↑ Lothar Gall, ibid, p. 392.
19. ↑ DBE, Volume 3, 2nd edition, Munich 2006, p. 357.
20. ^ Herbert Mittelstaedt, Helge Rademacher: Festschrift "100 Years of Golf and Country Club Berlin-Wannsee" , Berlin 1995

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Christian Fischer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Otto Christian Fischer in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .