The Nazi Dictatorship and the Deutsche Bank

Examines the role of Deutsche Bank during the Nazi dictatorship.

Harold James (Author)

9780521043656, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 September 2007

300 pages, 27 b/w illus. 1 table
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.7 cm, 0.456 kg

'James' monograph is well researched and documented. By drawing together the most important elements of his two previous publications, James' monograph of Deutsche Bank is more readily accessible to readers. We are left with the image of a bank that reluctantly became involved in the racist and expansionary policies of the Third Reich, whose powers were subordinated to the state.' Business History

Examines the role of Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest commercial bank, during the Nazi dictatorship, and asks how the bank changed and accommodated to a transition from democracy and a market economy to dictatorship and a planned economy. Set against the background of the world depression and the German banking crisis of 1931, the book looks at the restructuring of German banking and offers material on the bank's expansion in central and eastern Europe. As well as summarizing research on the bank's controversial role in gold transactions and the financing of the construction of Auschwitz, the book also examines the role played by particular personalities in the development of the bank, such as Emil Georg von Strauss and Hermann Abs.

List of figures and table
Preface
1. The setting
2. The initial challenge: National Socialist ideology
3. Anti-Semitism and the German banks
4. Emil Georg von Stauss: the banker as politician
5. Foreign expansion
6. The expansion of state and party during the war
7. The end of dictatorship
8. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]