After the Crisis: Nationalisation and re-privatization of the German great banks 1931–1937

Abstract

Abstract After the 1931 banking crisis the survival of the four German great banks was safeguarded only by a huge injection of taxpayers’ money. In return, the great banks were partly nationalized and the two worst affected, the Dresdner Bank and the Danat Bank, were merged. Re-privatization was, however, started only a few years later and finalized under Nazi rule in 1937. This article assesses the costs of the bailing out and explains why the Nazi government was prepared to sacrifice more than 500m RM for the sake of re-establishing a banking system which had been a major target of Nazi propaganda before they came to power.