Sparkasse (GDR)

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Check from the Kreissparkasse Heilbad Heiligenstadt from the 1980s

The savings banks in the GDR were savings banks that were organized in the legal form of state- owned enterprises .

organization

The German banking system is characterized by the three pillars of the private commercial banks , the cooperative banks and the public credit institutions , to which the savings banks belong. There were no longer any private banks in the GDR; the banking system consisted exclusively of state-owned banks. These consisted of four types, the state bank of the GDR , the industrial and commercial bank , the German foreign trade bank and the savings banks. In addition, there were special banks such as the Bank for Crafts and Commerce (founded in January 1946) or the Deutsche Bauernbank (February 1950). The task of the GDR savings banks was limited to the acceptance of savings deposits , payment transactions and the credit business ( consumer credit and housing loans ), while the securities business was abolished.

history

With the formation of the Soviet occupation zone in June 1945, the transformation into a purely state banking system began. With Order No. 01 of the Soviet Military Administration of July 23, 1945, all private banks and insurance companies were closed. Since the savings banks were already state-owned (under public law), they remained unaffected by this measure. During the Nazis' seizure of power in 1933, the management personnel at the savings banks were replaced as part of the coordination process . Personnel changes were made after the war. At the same time, the organizational structure was restructured. In 1946 there were 310 legally independent savings banks in the Soviet zone of occupation, which had 982 main and 758 secondary branches and 363 agencies. With the founding of the GDR by 1951, the number fell to 126 savings banks with 1,121 main and 807 secondary branches and 319 agencies. The main branches were bank branches, secondary branches were branches that were not permanently manned and agencies were bank branches that also offered savings bank services.

The still existing savings banks were assigned their customers and received all savings accounts from the central bank in January 1951; in January 1952 the central bank assigned them the sole responsibility for the account management of micro-enterprises with up to 10 employees; In return, they had to transfer all accounts of public bodies and larger companies to the central bank. With the dissolution of the federal states and the establishment of the districts in July 1952, the districts were also reorganized, which resulted in a reorganization of the savings bank system, since savings banks were amalgamated at district level. This created 175 district savings banks, 19 city and district savings banks and 6 city savings banks. As part of this administrative reform, the number of GDR savings banks rose to 200; it remained relatively stable at 196 until reunification .

The “Order on the financing of the purchase of furniture and other durable goods”, which came into force on October 16, 1953, enabled a real installment loan . In March 1956, the state-owned savings banks were given a uniform “Statute of the state-owned savings banks of the GDR”, which the GDR Ministry of Finance provided for as the supervisory body . In § 2 of this Savings Bank Act it was determined: “The state-owned savings banks are subordinate to institutions in the districts and the district councils. Every state-owned savings bank bears an official seal with the emblem of the German Democratic Republic. ”Since October 1956, retailers themselves have been allowed to sell certain goods by paying in installments, and savings banks have no longer had to pay in installments .

In the economy of the GDR (as in other socialist economies) there was a lack of capital . This shortage of capital, inherent in socialism, resulted in a. from government-set interest rates . As a result, the SED leadership tried to increase the savings rate . With the instruction 36/55 of the Ministry of Finance from 1955, the number of savings bank offices should be increased, u. a. by opening a savings bank agency in every company with more than 500 employees and every village with more than 500 inhabitants. In 1963, the number of savings bank agencies reached a peak with 3299 positions. The number of agencies then fell and was 1890 in 1970, 1436 in 1980 and 906 in 1989.

In January 1976, a new savings bank statute came into force, which transferred the supervision of the State Bank of the GDR . It remained in place until the fall of the Berlin Wall and was replaced by the Savings Banks Act passed in July 1990. The saving rate of the population of the GDR was 7 percent in 1988, in the FRG in the same year 13.9 percent.

Savings Banks Associations

In 1945, the Sächsische Sparkassen- und Giroverband with seat in Dresden for Saxony , the Mitteldeutsche Sparkassen- und Giroverband with seat in Magdeburg for the province Saxony and Thuringia and the Brandenburgische Sparkassen- und Giroverband with seat in Berlin for Brandenburg existed in the area of ​​the SBZ . In addition, the Pomeranian Savings Banks and Giro Association based in Stettin was responsible for Western Pomerania and the Lower Saxony Savings Banks and Giro Association based in Hanover for Mecklenburg .

In 1946, instead of these associations, a separate savings bank association was founded for each country. This created the Saxon Savings Bank Association , the Brandenburg Savings Bank Association and the Savings Bank Association Thuringia , the Savings Bank Association Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Savings Bank Association for the Province of Saxony (later the Savings Bank Association Saxony-Anhalt ).

With the dissolution of the states in 1952, these associations were dissolved and the tasks of the savings banks department in the Ministry of Finance of the GDR were transferred. In 1990 a savings bank association of the GDR was formed , which took over the tasks. With reunification , the tasks were transferred to the Savings Banks and Giro Association Hesse-Thuringia , the Savings Bank Association Berlin and the East German Savings Bank Association .

Position of the savings banks in the banking system of the GDR

While the savings banks initially had the functions of a full bank at the time of the Soviet occupation zone , this was restructured over time. In 1951 the function of the giro center was created at the State Bank of the GDR . The savings banks were left with the task of managing (savings) current accounts and raising savings contributions.

From 1980 onwards, the distribution of tasks in the GDR banks was reorganized. The cooperative banks gave up 327 branches in the 1980s and transferred the accounts to the savings banks. In return, 194 savings bank agencies and 26 one-man positions were transferred to BHG .

In 1983 the savings banks took over the accounts of the bank for agriculture and food .

The savings banks only played a subordinate role in the GDR's banking system. a. in the few tasks, the comparatively low pay of the employees and the declining proportion of SED members in management positions.

The proportion of women in the workforce, which was 50% in 1950, rose to 63% in 1955 and was around 93% in 1988. Most of them were single mothers , so that their employment in savings banks represented hidden unemployment . In the 1980s, the high proportion of women was ultimately also reflected in management positions, which was unusual compared to other, more prestigious institutions.

deals

The savings banks had the function of promoting private saving and ensuring a return of capital into the economic cycle. For example, a furniture saving aid was offered in 1950 . The customers saved a certain amount of credit for a credit interest of 3% and were given the opportunity to take out a loan at an interest rate of 5% for the missing amounts for the desired furniture. In November 1951 the reconstruction of the destroyed city centers was proclaimed with the National Rebuilding Program . The savings banks themselves were responsible for handling the building-up savings. In this context, the savings banks encouraged the citizens of the GDR to save around 3% of their income in order to financially support these construction measures. Operating committees in all companies were given the task of implementing the program and promoting it with the help of the savings bank branches and agencies, in which more than a million savers took part.

Later the "marriage saving", the "vacation saving", the "school discharge saving" or the "FDJ saving" were offered. Under the slogan "Every savings contract is a national act", the companies were obliged to solicit savings contracts.

Web links

literature

  • Josef Wysocki, Hans-Georg Günther: History of the savings banks in the GDR 1945-1990, 1996, ISBN 3-09-303922-3
  • Günther Aschauer: From the savings bank to the savings bank finance group, 1991. ISBN 3-09-303983-5 , pages 267-269

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Pohl / Maria-Elisabeth Ruban, The banking system in the Soviet Union , in: Four-part annuals for economic research, 1966, p. 217
  2. ^ Cirsten Witt, Assessment of public-law savings banks in the context of a privatization decision , 2006, p. 8
  3. ^ Jan Foitzik, Soviet Interest Policy in Germany 1944-1954: Documents , 2012, pp. 204 ff.
  4. ↑ Jochen Klein, The Savings Banks in Germany and France , 2003, p. 45 f.
  5. ↑ z. B. Uwe Jens / Wilhelm Krelle, The conversion: from the command economy to the eco-social market economy , 1991, p. 59
  6. ^ Siegfried Wenzel, Was the GDR economically at an end in 1989? , 1998, p. 57
  7. ^ Frank Zschaler, Public Finances and Financial Policy in Berlin, 1945-1961 , 1995, pp. 140 f.