Walter Kaminsky (banker)

Walter Kaminsky (born January 25, 1899 in Königsberg i. Pr. , † January 12, 1975 in Prien am Chiemsee ) was the founder of the customer credit bank.

Life

At 21, joined Kaminsky at the University of Jena his law studies and his doctorate Dr. iur. from. In 1922 he joined his father's retail business as an authorized signatory , where he worked until 1927. In 1926 his son Stefan Kaminsky was born. During this time he became co-founder and deputy chairman of the retail trade association and board member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry . He took up an idea from an institute for the banking promotion of consumers and implemented it with the establishment of Kundenkredit GmbH in 1926. In contrast to all previous banking business, this bank did not support retailers , but end consumers .

The bank was originally sponsored by 20 retailers. Kaminsky was chairman of the supervisory board. In the initial phase, consumer loans were only granted for consumer goods of stable value such as winter clothing and household items. The loan amount was limited and the conduct of business only through the companies that were involved in the bank minimized the risk. The long-established Königsberg banks, to which Kaminsky had previously asked to finance the model, commented on his idea with "completely crazy". Despite difficult times, the new bank's losses were less than one percent, to which the limitation of the credit to 2,000 Reichsmarks contributed.

In the same year, customer credit institutions based on the Königsberg system were set up in Hamburg and Spandau . Several other institutes set up without the strict credit protection rules went into liquidation after a short time , so that only the institutes in Hamburg, Spandau and Königsberg survived the global economic crisis . Kaminsky founded a customer credit bank in Düsseldorf and Dortmund in 1935 . In 1936 he resigned the chairmanship of the supervisory board in Königsberg, since he was called a “traitor” because of his efforts to obtain adequate compensation for the excluded Jewish shareholders. The Königsberger Kundenkredit GmbH went under with the city in 1945. Kaminsky had been involved in the Rhineland since 1938. In 1951 the two institutes in Düsseldorf and Dortmund merged to form Kundenkreditbank KG a. A. It was acquired by the First National Bank of New York (now Citibank ) in 1973 .

Kaminsky was chairman of the displaced economy until 1953. In 1959 he was one of the founders of Europafinanz , which he headed as chairman.

Foundation, endowment

In 1975 the Walter Kaminsky Foundation was established. Walter Kaminsky's sister Charlotte Kaminsky was initially in charge . The goals of the foundation are help and support in the areas of child, youth and elderly care, education and upbringing, training funding and the promotion of musicians. In the field of music, singers are primarily promoted; one example is the mezzo-soprano Marjana Lipovšek . In 2003 the foundation's assets amounted to approx. 6.5 million euros.

literature

• Household finances . Festschrift for Walter Kaminsky. Published by Franz Schneider. Frankfurt, Knapp, 1969.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dissertation: The State Supervision of the Communities in Prussia .
2. ^ Robert Albinus: Königsberg Lexicon . Würzburg 2002, p. 147.
3. ↑ Entry of the foundation at DIZK , see funding purpose
4. ↑ Entry of the foundation at the MIZ