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98-645: In the immediate aftermath of German defeat in 1945, the Reichsbank was placed under joint Allied custodianship pending its liquidation. in the Soviet occupation zone , entities dubbed Emissions- und Girobanken were established in May 1947 in each of the zone's five Provinces, namely in Potsdam for Brandenburg , Rostock for Mecklenburg , Dresden for Saxony , Halle for Saxony-Anhalt , and Erfurt for Thuringia . Each of these

196-509: A Deutsche Emissions- und Girobank in Potsdam , which was renamed the Deutsche Notenbank in July. It soon relocated to East Berlin . In line with Soviet doctrine, the Deutsche Notenbank was part of a single-tier banking system in which the central bank had equal status in credit allocation as the other existing banks, including the state banks that had been established in 1946 in each of

294-581: A "reinvigorated" third one. Subsequently the Nazi regime was (unofficially) called the " Third Reich "; this usage was sometimes contemporaneous, but mostly retrospective and applied by non-Germans. Following the Anschluss annexation of Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany informally named itself the Greater German Reich ( German : Großdeutsches Reich ). This name was made the official state name only during

392-584: A central bank instead of a mere board bringing together the Landeszentralbanken for joint policy decisions. An agreement on that concept was reached among the three Western occupying forces on 30 October 1947, resulting in the establishment on 1 March 1948 of the Bank deutscher Länder . On 21 May 1948, the Soviet occupation authorities replied by establishing a Deutsche Emissions- und Girobank in Potsdam , which

490-577: A central committee ( German : Zentralausschuss ) of 15 members, which met at least every month under the chairmanship of the Reichsbank's president and could scrutinize the management but not change it or influence policy decision. Three deputies of the Zentralausschuss were allowed to attend all meetings of the Direktorium and to examine the books of the Reichsbank. The initial shareholders included

588-624: A dramatic episode of hyperinflation that rendered the Mark practically worthless. The Reichsbank only started raising its discount rate in July 1922, reaching 40 percent per day at the hyperinflationary peak in November 1923. By decree of 15 October 1923 on the initiative of finance minister Hans Luther , the government created a separate bank, the Deutsche Rentenbank , endowed with the right to issue notes ( German : Rentenbankscheine ) redeemable in

686-563: A kind of non-interest-bearing mortgage bond, the Rentenbrief , denominated in gold Mark and theoretically backed by a collective mortgage debt imposed upon German agriculture and industry. That confidence-building initiative succeeded against all expectations, even though the Rentenbankscheine only had the status of "legally-admitted medium of exchange" while the Reichsbank's devalued paper notes remained legal tender. No fixed exchange rate

784-580: A law was passed that forbade the formation of further Notenbanken in the North German Confederation . Following the promulgation of the German Empire that law was extended to all German lands, with entry into force on 1 January 1872. These Prussian initiatives precipitated action by the Grand Duchy of Baden and Kingdom of Württemberg to create note-issuing banks of their own, respectively

882-636: A note-issuance privilege (the Berliner Kassenverein  [ de ] , Kölnische Privatbank , Magdeburger Privatbank , Ritterschaftliche Privatbank in Pommern at Stettin , and Städtische Bank in Breslau ), but that was still insufficient to sustain adequate monetary conditions. By 1851, 9 banks in the whole of Germany (not including Austria) were chartered to issue banknotes, known as Notenbanken . In addition, most German states - with

980-580: A whole." After 1973, however, the claimed identity of the Federal Republic with the German Reich was not recognised by most other countries of the world. The Soviet Union, the three Western allies, and most other Western countries regarded the German Reich as still being one nation—not synonymous with either the West or East German state but rather the two states in collective. Other countries tended to regard

1078-686: The Badische Bank in Mannheim (est. 1870) and the Württembergische Notenbank in Stuttgart (est. 1871), bringing the total number of Notenbanken to 33. The panic of 1873 further stimulated discussions on the creation of an integrated monetary system, which pitted advocates of centralization led by Ludwig Bamberger against the incumbent local banks of issue and defenders of state rights, led by Ludolf Camphausen . The political compromise

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1176-662: The Bayerische Notenbank , Bank of Baden , Bank of Saxony and Württembergische Notenbank as residual note-issuing institutions by 1906. Until World War I , the Reichsbank produced a very stable currency, fully convertible into gold and thus known as the German gold mark . In 1909, an amendment to the Banking Act of 1875 made the Rischsbank's notes legal tender and redeemable at the rate of 2790 Marks per kilogram of gold . In

1274-620: The Berlin Blockade . Only after the blockade ended was the Berliner Zentralbank established on 20 March 1949, and initially operated under an association agreement with the Bank deutscher Länder. It was eventually converted into a Landezentralbank in 1957. The Reichsbank itself went into a protracted process of liquidation. In 1955, a Federal German Law allowed holders of Reichsbank common stock to exchange it for interim certificates of

1372-559: The Bundestag by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities; effecting on the one hand, the extinction of the GDR, and on the other, the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic. Hence, although the GDR had nominally declared its accession to the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law, this did not imply its acceptance of the Basic Law as it then stood; but rather of

1470-650: The Flensburg Government he had formed. On 5 June 1945, the Allies signed the Berlin Declaration concerning the defeat of Germany and the assumption of supreme authority over Germany, by which they established the Allied Control Council and assumed supreme authority over German territory. The Federal Republic of Germany asserted, following its establishment on 23 May 1949, that within its boundaries it

1568-570: The German Confederation , especially by the Prussian aristocracy and the King of Prussia himself, which opposed German nationalism , as then was associated with the idea of popular sovereignty . A 1923 book entitled Das Dritte Reich by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck counted the medieval Holy Roman Empire as the first, and the 1871–1918 monarchy as the second, which was then to be followed by

1666-572: The German question after the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, realised with the support of his national liberal allies. On the other hand, the German Reich of 1871 comprised extended Prussian territories with large non-German sections of the population, like Posen , West Prussia or Schleswig , and also territories with predominantly German populations which had never been constitutionally "German" (Holy Roman), such as East Prussia . Bismarck

1764-737: The Imperial Chancellor and included four additional members, one appointed by the emperor and the other three by the Bundesrat ; it was to meet every three months. The Direktorium was led by the President ( German : Reichsbankpräsident ) and all its members were appointed for life by the emperor, upon nomination by the Bundesrat. The law specified that the Direktorium must obey the Chancellor's orders at all times. The shareholders were represented in

1862-563: The Imperial German Navy underwent a rapid expansion concurrently to protect these new colonies. At the same time strong Pan-Germanic political forces emerged, pressing for the borders of the Reich to be extended into a multiethnic German-led Central European empire, emulating and rivalling Imperial Russia to the east. Before and during the events of World War I , the German state

1960-509: The Reich ' ) was the central bank of the German Empire from 1876 until the end of Nazi Germany in 1945. The monetary institutions in Germany had been unsuited for its economic development for several decades before unification. In the Kingdom of Prussia , the Bank of Prussia had been established in 1847 and, in the aftermath of the revolution of 1848 , five additional banks had been granted

2058-762: The Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union . In 1973, in a review of the previous year's Basic Treaty between East and West Germany , the German Federal Constitutional Court ( Bundesverfassungsgericht ) ruled that according to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany the German Reich had outlasted the collapse in 1945, and hence had continued to exist as an “overall state”, albeit one not itself capable of action. The court ruled that since 1949

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2156-575: The Socialist Unity Party of Germany in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In Prussia, the Reichsbank kept the branches it inherited from the Bank of Prussia , including buildings it had purchased from others (e.g. the palace erected by David Schindelmeißer  [ de ] in Königsberg , acquired in 1843) and those it had built for itself (e.g. in Bromberg in 1864). Elsewhere, it did not take over

2254-545: The constitution of the Weimar Republic , where Article 1 identifies the Reich as deriving its authority from the German national people, while Article 2 identifies the state territory under the Reich as the lands which, at the time of the constitution's adoption, were within the authority of the German state. The identity of Reich and people ran both ways—not only did the institutions of the German state derive their legitimacy from

2352-446: The "German Empire" ( Deutsches Kaiserreich in German historiography), while the term "German Reich" describes Germany from 1871 to 1945. As the literal translation "German Empire" denotes a monarchy, the term is used only in reference to Germany before the fall of the monarchy at the end of World War I in 1918. After the unification of Germany , under the reign of the Prussian king Wilhelm I and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck ,

2450-529: The "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" from 1512. The Holy Roman Empire however was not exclusively German-speaking but constituted a supranational entity extending beyond the frontiers of the German language area ( Sprachraum ). The first attempt to re-establish a "German Empire" during the 1848 March Revolution by the Frankfurt Constitution ultimately failed: it was aborted by the monarchs of

2548-447: The 1880s and 1890s in Berlin , Frankfurt , Stuttgart , Cologne , Leipzig ( Petersstrasse ), Dresden , Hamburg , Breslau , Bremen , and Elberfeld . 15 of the 32 Notenbanken (other than the Bank of Prussia) relinquished issuing their own banknotes shortly after the Reichsbank's creation; four more did so in the 1880s, six in the 1890s, and three in the early 1900s, leaving only

2646-416: The 1880s to the early 1900s, Havestadt & Contag  [ de ] in the 1890s and early 1900s, Curjel and Moser in the 1900s, Julius Habicht  [ de ] and Hermann Stiller in the 1900s and 1910s, Philipp Nitze  [ de ] in the 1910s and 1920s, and Heinrich Wolff  [ de ] in the 1920s and 1930s. Due to Germany's territorial losses following World War I ,

2744-607: The American forces overran the area, the reserves and money disappeared. Funk would be tried and convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials , not least for receiving money and goods stolen from Jewish and other victims of the Nazi concentration camps . Gold teeth extracted from the mouths of victims were found in 1945 in the vaults of the bank in Berlin. The explanation of the disappearance of

2842-572: The Bank Deutscher Länder. The Bank of Prussia had commissioned a new head office in the late 1860s, which replaced its previous building dating from the late 17th century. The structure designed by architect Friedrich Hitzig was completed in 1876 as the Reichsbank started activity. In 1892-1894, the Reichsbank erected a palatial southward extension on an adjacent lot facing Hausvogteiplatz, designed by its architects Max Hasak  [ de ] and Julius Emmerich  [ de ] . In

2940-475: The Basic Law to be recognized as a State (albeit not organized and therefore not capable of action), and that accordingly the mutual restriction of sovereign power to the territory of the State and respect for the independence and autonomy of each of the two States in domestic and foreign affairs has its reference to the special situation in which both States find themselves vis-à-vis each other as sub-States of Germany as

3038-413: The Basic Law was repealed, closing off the possibility for any further states to apply for membership of the Federal Republic; while Article 146 was amended to state explicitly that the territory of the newly unified republic comprised the entirety of the German people; "This Basic Law, which since the achievement of the unity and freedom of Germany applies to the entire German people, shall cease to apply on

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3136-948: The British authorities were initially reluctant, but gradually aligned with U.S. views following the establishment of the Bizone on 1 January 1947. Thus, Land central banks ( German : Landeszentralbanken ) were created on 1 January 1947 in American-occupied Munich (for Bavaria ), Stuttgart (for Württemberg-Baden ), and Wiesbaden (for Hesse ), followed in March by French-occupied Tübingen (for Württemberg-Hohenzollern ), Freiburg im Breisgau (for South Baden , and Mainz (for Rhineland-Palatinate ), then American-occupied Bremen on 1 April 1947, and eventually British-occupied Düsseldorf (for North Rhine-Westphalia ), Hanover (for Lower Saxony ), Kiel (for Schleswig-Holstein ) and Hamburg by

3234-489: The Economy, namely Hjalmar Schacht from August 1934 to November 1937 and Walther Funk from January 1939 to May 1945. On 31 December 1935, the Reichsbank's note issuing privilege became exclusive, bringing an end to the residual central banking roles of the Bank of Baden, Bayerische Notenbank, Bank of Saxony, and Württembergische Notenbank. The Reichsbank benefited from the theft of the property of numerous governments invaded by

3332-484: The Empire never comprised all "German" lands; as it excluded Luxembourg , and those Cisleithanian crown lands of Austria-Hungary which had been part of the former German Confederation until 1865. Moreover, it included the whole of the Kingdom of Prussia , the eastern parts of which had never been included in historic German lands. The unification under Prussian leadership manifested Bismarck's "Lesser German" solution of

3430-583: The Federal Republic (FRG) had been partially identical with the German Reich and not merely its successor . The court further elaborated that the 'partial identity' of the FRG was limited to apply only within its current de facto territory; and hence the Federal Republic could not claim an exclusive mandate for the territory of the Reich then under the de facto government of the German Democratic Republic; "identity does not require exclusivity". This

3528-545: The Federal Republic; and hence, like them, could never be accorded by the organs of the Federal Republic full recognition as a state in international law; even though the Federal Constitutional Court recognised that, within international law, the GDR was indeed an independent sovereign state. The constitutional status of the GDR under the Basic Law still differed from that of the Länder of the Federal Republic, in that

3626-567: The GDR had not declared its accession to the Basic Law; but the Constitutional Court maintained that the Basic Treaty was consistent with the GDR declaring its accession at some time in the future in accordance with its own constitution; and hence the Court determined that in recognising the GDR as a de jure German State, the Basic Treaty could be interpreted as facilitating the reunification of

3724-462: The German Reich (as indeed it eventually did). So long as any de jure German state remained separated from the rest, the German Reich could continue to exist only in suspension; but should the GDR be reunited with the Federal Republic, the Reich would once more be fully capable of action as a sovereign state. "In Article 6 the Contracting Parties agree that they shall base themselves on

3822-557: The German Reich as having been divided into two distinct states in international law, and accordingly accorded both states full diplomatic recognition. As of 1974, East Germany's official stance was that the GDR was a new state that is German in nature, a successor of the German Reich, and that there were then two German states that were different nations. When the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany between Germany and

3920-608: The German national people according to the principle of jus sanguinis , and drawing on the rhetoric of "the sovereignty of the nation" in the Frankfurt Constitution —albeit that many ethnic " Germans " (as with the German-speaking peoples of Austria) remained outside the national people constituting the German Empire of 1871 and also that the Empire of 1871 included extensive territories (such as Posen ) with predominantly non-German populations. This transition became formalised in

4018-447: The German people, so, too, the German people derived their inherent identity and patriotic duties from their being collectively constituted as an organ and institution of the German Reich. Subsequently the term "German Reich" continued to be applied both as identifying with the national people, and also with the state territory; but increasingly, the application of the term to the German national people came to be seen as primary. Following

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4116-551: The Germans, especially their gold reserves and much personal property of the Third Reich's many victims, especially the Jews . Personal possessions such as gold wedding rings were confiscated from prisoners, and gold teeth torn from dead bodies, and after cleaning, were deposited in the bank under the false-name Max Heiliger accounts, and melted down as bullion . In April and May 1945,

4214-403: The Nazis as a historical aberration. The name "Weimar Republic" was first used in 1929 after Hitler referred to the period as the " Republik von Weimar " (Republic of Weimar, after the city ( Weimar ) which held its constitutional assembly) at a rally in Munich with the term later becoming mainstream during the 1930s both within and outside Germany. The Nazis also contemptuously referred to it as "

4312-441: The Oesterreichische Nationalbank was re-established by the Central Bank Transition Act of 3 July 1945 of the Second Austrian Republic . In line with the Morgenthau Plan , the American authorities in November 1945 proposed a radically decentralized plan that would have organized a separate financial system in each of the Länder , with minimal central coordination. After some hesitancy, the French authorities rallied that vision;

4410-443: The Reichsbank reserves in 1945 was uncovered by Bill Stanley Moss and Andrew Kennedy , in post-war Germany. In line with decisions made at the Potsdam Conference , the Reichsbank was placed under joint Allied custodianship pending its liquidation. The four occupying powers ( France , the Soviet Union , the United Kingdom and the United States ) initially continued to issue Reichsmarks and Allied military marks . In Austria ,

4508-424: The Second World War, the term "German Reich" fell out of use in constitutional formulations, being replaced by the term "nation as a whole", as applied to denote the state as a totality of the German national people; and the term "Germany as a whole", as applied to denote the state as a totality of German national territory. The 1918–1933 republic , which was also called the German Reich, was ignored and denounced by

4606-561: The Spring of 1948. In the Soviet occupation zone , ostensibly similar entities dubbed Emissions- und Girobanken were established in May 1947 in each of the zone's five Provinces, namely in Potsdam for Brandenburg , Rostock for Mecklenburg , Dresden for Saxony , Halle for Saxony-Anhalt , and Erfurt for Thuringia . Each of these was fully owned and controlled by the respective provincial authorities. In 1947, newly appointed U.S. Military Governor Lucius D. Clay decided, against directives from Washington, that Germany needed

4704-403: The System ". On 8 May 1945, with the capitulation of the German armed forces, the supreme command of the Wehrmacht was handed over to the Allies . The Allies refused to recognise Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident or to recognise the legitimacy of his Flensburg Government (so-called because it was based at Flensburg and controlled only a small area around the town) and, on 5 June 1945,

4802-406: The accession of the Federal Republic to the European Union within the Basic Law; hence with the subsequent accession of Poland to the EU, the constitutional bar on pursuing any claim to territories beyond the Oder–Neisse line was reinforced. Insofar as the German Reich may be claimed to continue in existence as 'Germany as a whole', the former eastern territories of Germany in Poland or Russia, and

4900-613: The boundaries of East Germany, West Germany and Berlin; "The united Germany has no territorial claims whatsoever against other states and shall not assert any in the future." Furthermore the Basic Law of the Federal Republic was required to be amended to state explicitly that full German unification had now been achieved, such that the new German state comprised the entirety of Germany, and that all constitutional mechanisms should be removed by which any territories outside those boundaries could otherwise subsequently be admitted; these amendments being bound by treaty not to be revoked. Article 23 of

4998-427: The connotation of "Realm" or "State", its original (1871) definition. "German Reich" was used in legal documents and English-language international treaties—for example, the Kellogg–Briand Pact and the Geneva Conventions . Apart from official documents, post-World War I Germany was referred to as the "German Reich"—never as the "German Empire"—for example, by British politicians —and in the aftermath of World War II

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5096-424: The day on which a constitution freely adopted by the German people takes effect". This was confirmed in the 1990 rewording of the preamble; "Germans..have achieved the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination . This Basic Law thus applies to the entire German people." In place of the former Article 23 under which the former GDR had declared its accession to the Federal Republic, a new Article 23 embedded

5194-410: The disappearance of the Reichsbank in 1945, a number of its former branches were taken over by its successor entities, namely the Deutsche Bundesbank in West Germany , the Staatsbank der DDR in East Germany , and the National Bank of Poland in Poland ; some in East Germany were demolished later on, such as the Chemnitz branch in 1964. Many other branches have been repurposed for other uses over

5292-457: The discount rate could be gradually lowered, reaching 56 percent in January 1927. In 1930, legislative amendments in line with the Young Plan brought an end to the involvement of foreigners in the Reichsbank's governance. The General Council was reduced to 10 members, all German, and the role of Currency Commissioner went to the President of the Rechnungshof des Deutschen Reiches  [ de ] . The Nazi regime promptly put an end to

5390-399: The early 1930s, the Reichsbank erected a large new facility on the other side of Kurstrasse, designed by its architect Heinrich Wolff  [ de ] . While the main building was heavily damaged during World War II and eventually demolished in 1960, the 1930s extension survives as the Haus am Werderschen Markt , hosting the German Federal Foreign Office after having been the home of

5488-483: The expanded Federal Republic describes itself as "United Germany ", emphasizing that it does not now recognize any territories once included in the former German Reich outside its boundaries as having a valid claim to be a part of Germany as a whole. In referring to the entire period between 1871 and 1945, the partially translated English phrase " German Reich " ( /- ˈ r aɪ k / ) is applied by historians in formal contexts; although in common English usage this state

5586-434: The former Reichsbank branches in what became the Second Polish Republic were taken over by Bank Polski , and the one in the Free City of Danzig became the Bank of Danzig . During World War II , a number of branches were destroyed and not subsequently rebuilt. The one in Munich , whose construction had started in 1938 on the site of the former Herzog-Max-Palais demolished that year, was only completed in 1951. Following

5684-436: The former shareholders of the Bank of Prussia (except a few who opted for selling their shares) and new subscribers. The bank was exempted from all income and trade taxes, but also had to act as the Reich's fiscal agent without compensation. The Reichsbank operated throughout the Reich's territory through a network of branches, which numbered 206 at its inception in 1876 and expanded to 330 by 1900. A formal distinction

5782-429: The four powers signed the Berlin Declaration and assumed de jure supreme authority with respect to Germany. The declaration confirmed the complete legal extinction of the Third Reich with the death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945, but asserted the continued subsequent existence of a German people and a German national territory; although subject to the four signatory powers also asserting their authority to determine

5880-405: The fundamental amendments to the Basic Law required by the Treaty of Final Settlement) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990; that is through a binding agreement between the former GDR and the Federal Republic now recognising each another as separate sovereign states in international law. This treaty was then voted into effect by both the Volkskammer and

5978-414: The future boundaries of Germany. At the Potsdam Conference , Allied-occupied Germany was defined as comprising "Germany as a whole"; and was divided into British , French , American and Soviet occupation zones; while the Allied Powers exercised the state authority assumed by the Berlin Declaration in transferring the former eastern territories of the German Reich east of the Oder–Neisse line to

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6076-417: The he official name "German Reich ". According to the decree of the Chief of the Reich Chancellery Hans Lammers of 26 June 1943, the name "Greater German Reich " became mandatory in official documents. The German Reich collapsed de facto with the death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945, when the Allies decided not to recognise Karl Dönitz as the Reich President and to grant no legitimacy to

6174-412: The historic German states ( e.g. Bavaria and Saxony ) were united with Prussia under imperial rule, by the Hohenzollern dynasty . On 18 January 1871, Wilhelm I was proclaimed "German Emperor" at the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles , the German Reich was officially declared Deutsches Reich , or "German Empire", explicitly harking back to the extinct Holy Roman Empire . The title "German Emperor"

6272-401: The independence of the Reichsbank and made it an instrument of their policy of directing Germany's resources towards rearmament and military expansion. By amendment of 27 October 1933 to the Banking Law, the General Council was abolished and the Direktorium, including the President, were henceforth to be directly appointed and dismissed by the Führer. On 30 January 1937, Hitler publicly proclaimed

6370-492: The last two years (1943–1945) of Nazi rule under Adolf Hitler , although the change was never proclaimed. After World War II , the denotation "German Reich " quickly fell into disuse in Allied-occupied Germany , however, and the state's continued existence remained a matter of debate; the post-war Bonn Republic maintained the continued existence of the German Reich as an 'overall state", but dormant while East and West Germany continued to be divided. Nevertheless, when Germany

6468-567: The occupation zone's five provinces. The early GDR banking system also included a savings bank, a cooperative bank, the Soviet military-linked Garantie- und Kreditbank , and the Berliner Stadtkontor . Greta Kuckhoff , a figure of the German resistance to Nazism , was the President of the Deutsche Notenbank from 1950 to 1958. This German bank or insurance-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Reichsbank The Reichsbank ( German: [ˈʁaɪçsˌbank] ; lit.   ' Bank of

6566-410: The only exceptions of Lippe and the Hanseatic cities of Bremen , Hamburg and Lübeck - issued government paper money without the intermediation of an issuing bank. Several pan-German conventions were held with the aim to simplify and rationalize the German monetary system, e.g. in Vienna on 24 January 1857, but to no avail. Instead, the number of Notenbanken kept growing, reaching 31 (in

6664-407: The period immediately before the war erupted, the Reichsbank greatly increased its gold reserves, as also did the Bank of France , Bank of Russia and Austro-Hungarian Bank , from an equivalent US$ 184 million on 31 December 1912 to $ 336 million on 30 June 1914. At the outbreak of World War I , however, the link between the mark and gold was abandoned, resulting in the Papiermark . The expenses of

6762-476: The prewar parity of 2790 RM for one kilogram of fine gold; the pre-reform notes ceased to be legal tender on 5 June 1925. In the subsequent period of deflation , the Reichsbank became practically the only source of short-term banking credit in the German economy, which it chose to ration (maintaining a discount rate of no more than 10 percent) rather than lending to high market-determined rates. The Reichsbank's credit rationing only ended in early 1926, after which

6860-429: The principle that the sovereign power of each of the two States be confined to its State territory and that they will respect the independence and autonomy of each of the two States in domestic and foreign affairs. This agreement too is compatible with the Basic Law only if interpreted to the effect that for the Federal Republic of Germany the basis of this Treaty is the continued existence of Germany, which has according to

6958-473: The properties of banks whose monetary role it replaced, and erected new branch buildings instead. By the end of the 19th century, it had newly built branches in most of Germany's significant cities. In some cases, these branches were replaced by more modern ones in the interwar period. The Reichsbank employed a number of specialized architects for branch design, including the prolific Max Hasak  [ de ] and Julius Emmerich  [ de ] from

7056-625: The remaining reserves of the Reichsbank – gold (730 bars), cash (6 large sacks), and precious stones and metals such as platinum (25 sealed boxes) – were dispatched by Walther Funk to be buried on the Klausenhof Mountain at Einsiedl in Bavaria, where the final German resistance was to be concentrated. Similarly, the Abwehr cash reserves were hidden nearby in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Shortly after

7154-821: The stabilization loans orchestrated by the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations that had entailed the creation of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank in January 1923 and of the Hungarian National Bank in June 1924. It comprehensively reformed the Reichsbank and made it, for the first time, an explicitly independent central bank. Its Kuratorium was replaced by a General Council ( German : Generalrat ) consisting of 7 German and 7 foreign members, which

7252-544: The territories that would become the German Reich ) in 1870. They were typically private-sector entities, albeit often under hands-on government oversight, except the Bank of Bremen and Frankfurter Bank which were comparatively independent. Twelve of these were in Prussia, four in the Kingdom of Saxony , one in the Kingdom of Bavaria , and the other 14 in various duchies, principalities and free cities . On 27 March 1870,

7350-416: The unitary nationalism of the 'German Reich' was initially specified (at Article 1 of the 1871 constitution) in territorial terms, as the lands within the former boundaries of this particular subset of German monarchies. This geographical understanding of the Reich became steadily superseded in the period up to the first World War by an understanding of the German Reich as a unitary nation state identified with

7448-478: The unlimited sovereignty of the Reich over the Reichsbank, and a lew of 18 February 1937 formally abolished the Reichsbank's autonomous status. Another law of 15 June 1939 stipulated that the President and Direktorium should directly receive their instructions from the Führer, and renamed the bank as Deutsche Reichsbank . During most of the Nazi period the same individual was President of the Reichsbank and Minister of

7546-479: The war caused inflationary pressure and the mark started to decrease in value. . Following Germany's defeat and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles , the German government was unable to meet its expenditures and commitments by taxation and borrowing from external sources, and instead turned to the Reichsbank for monetary financing . Combined with its reaction to the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, this triggered

7644-509: The wartime Allies was signed on 12 September 1990, there was no mention of the term Deutsches Reich , however the Allies paraphrased the international legal personality of Germany as "Germany as a whole" in the English version of the text. Instead the states of the Federal Republic of Germany ( West Germany , FRG) and the German Democratic Republic ( East Germany , GDR) agreed to be bound by certain conditions which they had to ratify, one of which

7742-525: The western territories, such as the East Cantons or Alsace-Lorraine , are now definitively and permanently excluded from ever again being united within this Reich under the Basic Law. Hence, although the GDR had by the Volkskammer 's declaration of accession to the Federal Republic, initiated the process of reunification; the act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms and conditions; including

7840-515: The word Reich here better translates as "realm" or territorial "reach", in that the term does not in itself have monarchical connotations. The name "German Reich " was officially proclaimed on 18 January 1871 at the Palace of Versailles by Otto von Bismarck and Wilhelm I of Prussia . After the annexation of Austria to Germany on 12–13 March 1938, the name "Greater German Reich " ( German : Großdeutsches Reich ) began to be used alongside with

7938-460: The word "Reich" was used untranslated by Allied prosecutors throughout the Nuremberg Trials , with "German Empire" only used to describe Germany before it became a federal republic in 1918. At the 1871 Unification of Germany (aside from Austria), the Reich was established constitutionally as a federation of monarchies, each having entered the federation with a defined territory; and consequently

8036-677: The years, such as the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg or the Dommuseum Ottonianum  [ de ] in Magdeburg . The addresses indicated below are the latest ones, which sometimes differ from original addresses due to street renaming and/or renumbering. German Reich German Reich ( lit.   ' German Empire, German Realm ' from German : Deutsches Reich , pronounced [ˌdɔʏtʃəs ˈʁaɪç] )

8134-534: Was a compromise; Wilhelm I had wanted the title of "Emperor of Germany", but Bismarck refused this, so as to avoid implying a claim to extended monarchical authority over non-Prussian German kingdoms. On 14 April 1871, the Reichstag parliament passed the Constitution of the German Empire ( Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches ), which was published two days later. However, originating from the North German Confederation ,

8232-470: Was a major monetary anchor in Northern Germany. The Reichsbank was technically a private-sector company with individual shareholders, albeit not in joint-stock form, and operated from the start under the close control of the Reich government. The bank was managed by a management board ( German : Direktorium ) reporting to a supervisory board ( German : Curatorium ). The Curatorium was chaired by

8330-470: Was and is known simply as Germany , the English term "German Empire" is reserved to denote the German state between 1871 and 1918. The history of the nation state known as the German Reich is commonly divided into three periods: However the term Deutsches Reich dates back earlier than all of this. It was occasionally applied in contemporary maps to the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806), also called

8428-567: Was called an "empire" in English and Wilhelm II was titled "His Imperial and Royal Majesty the German Emperor." After the War and the abolition of the monarchy during the German Revolution of 1918–1919 , however, when Wilhelm was forced to abdicate, the official English name for Germany was the "German Reich": Reich was left untranslated and no longer referred to an "empire" but, instead, took on

8526-486: Was explained as being because the German Democratic Republic was beyond FRG authority and because the Allied powers still had jurisdiction where "Germany as a whole" was concerned. Nevertheless, the Court insisted that within the territory of the Federal Republic, the GDR could only be considered as one de jure German state amongst others, on the analogy of the pre-existing de jure German states that in 1949 had come together as

8624-442: Was fully owned and controlled by the respective provincial authorities. In 1947, newly appointed U.S. Military Governor Lucius D. Clay fostered the creation of a German central bank. An agreement on that concept was reached among the three Western occupying forces on 30 October 1947, resulting in the establishment on 1 March 1948 of the Bank deutscher Länder . On 21 May 1948, the Soviet occupation authorities replied by establishing

8722-452: Was made between main branches ( German : Reichsbankhauptstellen ), whose head was appointed directly by the emperor, and other branches ( German : Reichsbankstellen ), but that difference of status was insubstantial in practice. The bank's employees had the status of civil servants of the Reich, even though they were paid by the Reichsbank. The Reichsbank also sponsored the establishment of clearing houses which were established in

8820-589: Was otherwise unable, however, to avoid the term German Reich acquiring connotations from the English term "empire" or the Dutch term "rijk" in the context of German colonial expansion during the New Imperialism period. Following in the example of other European colonial empires , Imperial Germany (against Bismarck's intentions) started to rapidly acquire overseas colonies, including possessions in Africa, Oceania and China;

8918-473: Was renamed Deutsche Notenbank in July, later relocated to East Berlin , and in 1968 was rebranded the Staatsbank der DDR . Given Berlin's special situation, no Landezentralbank was initially established there. Plans for a separate currency for all of Berlin were considered up until June 1948, when the situation came to a head and the introduction of Western German marks into West Berlin precipitated

9016-498: Was reunited in 1990 the term "German Reich " was not revived as a title for the Berlin Republic . The German word Reich translates to the English word "empire"; it also translates to such words as "realm" or "domain." However, this translation was not used throughout the full existence of the German Reich. Historically, only Germany from 1871 to 1918—when Germany was under the rule of an emperor ( Kaiser )—is known in English as

9114-514: Was set by law, but the " Rentenmark " became interchangeable with paper Mark at the rate of one to one trillion. The Rentenmark was thus in effect a transitory domestic currency, which was never convertible internationally. The success of the Rentenmark, followed by the Dawes Plan on war reparations, paved the way for a restoration of monetary order. The Banking Law of 30 August 1924 was inspired by

9212-429: Was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The Reich became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German Volk ("national people"), with that authority and sovereignty being exercised at any one time over a unitary German "state territory" with variable boundaries and extent. Although commonly translated as "German Empire",

9310-473: Was the recognising the reunification of East Germany, West Germany and Berlin as constituting the full achievement of a united Germany. On meeting these conditions under Article 7.2 "The United Germany [has] accordingly full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs." Under Article 1 of the Treaty on Final Settlement, the new united Germany committed itself to renouncing any further territorial claims beyond

9408-544: Was the sole legal continuation of the German Reich, and consequently not a successor state. Nevertheless, the Federal Republic did not maintain the specific title German Reich , and so consistently replaced the prefix Reichs- in all official titles and designations with Bundes- ("Federal"). Hence, for instance, the office of the Reichskanzler became the Bundeskanzler . Following German reunification on 3 October 1990,

9506-475: Was to allow the latter to keep issuance activity but under such restrictions that they rapidly fell into monetary irrelevance. The Reichsbank was established by legislation of the Reichstag of 14 March 1875, and assumed its new role on 1 January 1876 when it succeeded the Bank of Prussia. Meanwhile, between 1873 and 1875 the Bank of Prussia assumed all the assets and liabilities of the Hamburger Bank , which

9604-543: Was to elect the bank's president subject to approval of the President of Germany . The General Council also elected one of its foreign members to serve as Currency Commissioner ( German : Komissar für die Notenausgabe ) supervising note issuance. The ability of the reformed Reichsbank to extend credit to the Reich government was strictly limited. The new currency, the Reichsmark (RM), was set at one trillion paper Mark, restoring

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