Ludolf Herbst, Thomas Weihe. Die Commerzbank und die Juden 1933-1945. München: C.H. Beck Verlag, 2004. 444 S. EUR 29.90, paper, ISBN 978-3-406-51873-7.
Harold James. The Nazi Dictatorship and the Deutsche Bank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. x + 286 pp. $40.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-521-83874-0.
Reviewed by Mark Spoerer
Published on H-German (July, 2006)
After Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank, rators on the Dresdner Bank project have pub‐ Commerzbank has occupied the number three po‐ lished their work since 1999, Commerzbank has sition in Germany for the past seventy-fve years. only recently begun to publish its fndings.[2] This statement also holds true for their eforts to Ludolf Herbst, chair of the department for come to terms with the past. By publishing a gen‐ contemporary history at the Humboldt Univer‐ erally well-received volume on its history from sität, heads the Commerzbank project. The vol‐ 1870 to 1995, Deutsche Bank set the stage for fur‐ ume starts with a survey by Detlef Krause, chief ther eforts.[1] After some hesitation, Dresdner archivist of Commerzbank, on the traces of Jewish Bank followed suit, launching an even larger traditions within the Commerzbank since its foun‐ project frst settled at the Hannah-Arendt-Institut dation in 1870. Thomas Weihe describes the su‐ in Dresden but then detached from that ill-fated persession of Jewish employees after the Nazi institution. Both Dresdner Bank and Com‐ takeover and inter-bank competition for cus‐ merzbank have not followed the example of the tomers. Both topics are indeed interrelated: Jew‐ Deutsche Bank, which produced a single-volume ish employees were important in the acquisition history (with occasional follow-ups), choosing in‐ and retention of Jewish customers, whose ulti‐ stead to publish topical studies. While the collabo‐ mate fate was not necessarily foreseeable in the H-Net Reviews mid-1930s. Herbst addresses Commerzbank's par‐ taste for clear judgments will not approve of the ticipation in the Aryanization of Jewish enterpris‐ style, but those familiar with the difculties of in‐ es in Germany. Hannah Ahlheim describes the terpreting documents--especially in a dictator‐ role of Commerzbank in the process of confscat‐ ship--will fnd the collection exemplary. ing Jewish private property. The perspective then Nearly ten years after Die Deutsche Bank widens to occupied Europe. In a joint article, 1870-1995 (1995), Harold James has updated his Jaroslav Kucera and Christoph Kreutzmüller deal highly-regarded contribution for the period with Aryanization in the Protectorate and the 1933-1945. The structure of the book follows his Netherlands, respectively. Ingo Loose wrote the earlier article. After setting the stage in 1933, he two fnal chapters. The frst examines the partici‐ describes the problems that (anti-fnance) Nazi pation of German banks in the Aryanization of ideology posed for the bank. The chapters on anti‐ Polish enterprises. The second article, which con‐ semitism (including Aryanization in Germany) cludes the volume, considers Commerzbank's and a portrait on the banker Emil Georg von business relations with frms and other institu‐ Stauss are also basically unchanged. The chapter tions active in the extermination camp Auschwitz- on foreign expansion, however, has been en‐ Birkenau, above all the notorious frm J. A. Topf & larged considerably. Here James has included sec‐ Söhne, which provided Auschwitz with cremato‐ tions from his book on Deutsche Bank and the ex‐ ria. The book has no summary or conclusion. propriation of Jewish-owned property.[3] These The volume builds on earlier publications sections cover Austria, Czech lands, Slovakia, about Commerzbank's competitors--a scholarly Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and southeast strategy by no means taken for granted among Europe. An additional section on gold and securi‐ business historians--and Herbst and his team also ties is also new. drew extensively on the archives of Deutsche As a collage of James' previous work, this Bank. So the fact that this volume appears after book has an entirely diferent emphasis than oth‐ earlier studies contributes to its strengths. The au‐ er recent publications on German non-fnance thors carefully defne the keywords they use to sector frms during the National Socialist period. describe the displacement of Jews from the Ger‐ Studies on manufacturing frms in the Third Reich man economy. While this activity is generally have had a clear "home bias"--a term quite com‐ quite helpful, I am not convinced that "annihila‐ mon in fnance--primarily because their authors tion of Jewish businesses" (Vernichtung jüdischer have not been able to fnd much documentary ev‐ Gewerbeunternehmen, the subtitle of Herbst's idence on the frms' participation in the exploita‐ contribution) makes much sense. Aryanization tion of the occupied territories. In contrast, it aimed at transferring Jewish assets into the hands seems that the large German banks kept docu‐ of non-Jews--not destroying them. What was anni‐ ments from the war that were destroyed (or suc‐ hilated was Jewish business activity, as the titles cessfully hidden) elsewhere. James devotes nearly of most other contributions correctly specify (cu‐ half of this volume to Deutsche Bank's activities in riously, Herbst's subtitle in the table of contents Germany's "Greater Economic Area." does the same) (p. 9). But this point is minor. In This emphasis on the occupied countries, general, Herbst and his contributors reveal great which can also be found in the publications of the refection. They raise questions explicitly and ex‐ Commerzbank and the Dresdner Bank projects, is pose very carefully the ways sources can be inter‐ all the more justifable as the banks were funda‐ preted to fnd answers to our questions. The con‐ mentally misperceived in the research of the tributions are not narratives in the sense that 1960s and 1970s. Banks were not active in helping they tell an easy-to-read story. Readers with a
2 H-Net Reviews to install Hitler, nor were they in an enviable po‐ [3]. Harold James, The Deutsche Bank and the sition in the 1930s. Confronted with Nazi anti-f‐ Nazi Economic War against the Jews: The Expro‐ nance rhetoric on the one hand and the mounting priation of Jewish-Owned Property (Cambridge: proftability of manufacturing frms on the other, Cambridge University Press, 2001). banks were on the defensive. Most manufacturing [4]. In the conclusion of the German edition, frms were increasingly in a position to fnance which, strangely enough, is one paragraph longer their growth by retaining profts so that the infu‐ than the American version, James added one ence of the banks, traditionally very strong in more new sentence. Germany, receded. It was the German military ex‐ pansion into central, eastern and southeastern Europe that provided German banks with new business opportunities. And it was primarily here that German banks became involved in the crimes of the Nazi regime. Had they at times been reluctant to participate in the expropriation of long-standing Jewish customers and even helped some of them, German banks showed many fewer qualms when it came to exploiting opportunities in the newly occupied territories, whether the vic‐ tims were Jews or non-Jews. In sum, James's book is a very valuable con‐ tribution to the (currently) ever-increasing litera‐ ture on German banks in the Third Reich. If there is one shortcoming, it is the book's conclusion. Al‐ though James incorporated his own new research and that of other authors in the book, the summa‐ ry is, except for one quote, identical to the earlier version of ten years ago.[4] Notes [1]. Lothar Gall et al., Die Deutsche Bank 1870-1995 (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1995). English ver‐ sion: Lothar Gall et al., The Deutsche Bank, 1870-1995 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995). [2]. The frst monograph was Johannes Bähr, Der Goldhandel der Dresdner Bank im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Ein Bericht des Hannah-Arendt-Insti‐ tuts (Leipzig: Kiepenheuer, 1999). The Dresdner Bank project has been completed recently with the publication of Klaus-Dietmar Henke, ed., Die Dresdner Bank im Dritten Reich, 4 vols. (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2006).
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Citation: Mark Spoerer. Review of Herbst, Ludolf; Weihe, Thomas. Die Commerzbank und die Juden 1933-1945. ; James, Harold. The Nazi Dictatorship and the Deutsche Bank. H-German, H-Net Reviews. July, 2006.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12067
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