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63-637: Founded by Kurt Singer , the organization was originally named Kulturbund Deutscher Juden (Cultural Federation of German Jews) in 1933, but in April 1935 the Nazi authorities – forcing the organization to delete the term German from the name – imposed a change of the name into Jüdischer Kulturbund (Jewish Cultural Federation). Also known as the Kubu , the Kulturbund was an institution created by unemployed Jewish performers with

126-633: 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

189-572: A detailed proposal for the Kulturbund to police and various high-ranking officials within the Ministry of Propaganda. The original proposal stated that the organization would employ only Jewish artists and staff, consist of one theatre troupe and one opera ensemble of approximately 15 members each, a choir of 12 singers, and a chamber orchestra of 25 musicians. The proposal also detailed Singer's repertoire plan, costs, organizational structure, advertising plan, and technical and personnel issues. Hans Hinkel ,

252-415: A network of branches, which numbered 206 at its inception in 1876 and expanded to 330 by 1900. A formal distinction 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

315-569: A supervisory board ( German : Curatorium ). The Curatorium was chaired by 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

378-1161: The Länder , with minimal central coordination. After some hesitancy, the French authorities rallied that vision; 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

441-531: 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 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

504-626: The Sozialistische Warte  [ de ] : Reichsbank The Reichsbank ( German: [ˈʁaɪçsˌbank] ; lit.   ' Bank of 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

567-620: 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

630-732: The Grand Duchy of Baden and Kingdom of Württemberg to create note-issuing banks of their own, respectively 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

693-781: The Jüdischer Kulturbund . He was murdered in the Holocaust . Born in Kościerzyna , Singer, son of a rabbi, spent his youth in Koblenz. After graduating from high school he studied medicine, psychology and musicology . In 1908, he received his doctorate in medicine and initially worked as a neurologist at the Berlin Charité . He earned an Iron Cross for his gallantry in World War I. Since 1910, he wrote music reviews. In 1913, he founded

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756-618: 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 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

819-509: 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, 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

882-581: The Kulturbund grew up as Germans and viewed the organization as a place of work and economic advantage rather than a place to further their Jewishness. In its early development, the Kulturbund battled with choosing repertoire, facing censorship from the Nazi government as well as differing ideological opinions within the local Jewish community. From 1933 to 1937, the Kulturbund put on theatrical performances, concerts, exhibitions, operas and lectures all over Germany, performed by Jewish entertainers, artists, writers, and scientists who were no longer permitted by

945-580: The Nazi Party regime to appear before non-Jewish audiences. Thus, Jewish performers could again earn their livelihood, however scarce. The performances took place at authorized segregated venues with "Jewish only" attendance, meaning Jewish Germans and gentile Germans of Jewish descent. Following the Kristallnacht pogroms on November 9/10, 1938, the Kulturbund was allowed to continue its activities; however,

1008-475: The Reichsbank . However, the publishers would be paid in inconvertible Reichsmarks only. The Kulturbund's publishing department bought the remaining book stocks from their old proprietors at a discount of 80% to 95% of the original price and would only pay, once proceeds from sales abroad or to German or Austrian Jews and gentiles of Jewish descent would materialise. Also Austria, annexed by Germany in March 1938,

1071-575: 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

1134-850: The United States ) initially continued to issue Reichsmarks and Allied military marks . In Austria , 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

1197-416: 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 ,

1260-631: The Abwehr cash reserves were hidden nearby in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Shortly after 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

1323-572: 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

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1386-586: The Bank of Prussia assumed all the assets and liabilities of the Hamburger Bank , which 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

1449-514: 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 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

1512-617: 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 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

1575-632: The Berliner Ärztechor, which he directed until the time of National Socialism. In 1923, he became professor at the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik, where he could teach as well as do research. Three years later, his work Die Berufskrankheiten der Musiker was published. From 1923 to 1932, Singer was head of the medical advisory service at the Academy of Music and gave lectures on occupational diseases of musicians. From 1927 to 1931, he

1638-620: The Bundesrat. The law specified that the Direktorium must obey the Chancellor's orders at all times. The shareholders were represented in 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

1701-498: The Christian Templar (played by Ernest Lenart ) to embrace and exit festively together. Instead, Loewenberg leaves Nathan alone and isolated on the stage, with a pulpit and menorah visible. [REDACTED] Media related to Kulturbund Deutscher Juden at Wikimedia Commons Kurt Singer (musicologist) Kurt Singer (11 October 1885 – 7 February 1944) was a German neurologist , musicologist , conductor and chairman of

1764-413: The Direktorium and to examine the books of the Reichsbank. The initial shareholders included 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

1827-575: 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 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

1890-570: The Netherlands at the end of August 1939. He was first succeeded by Johanna Marcus, who soon also emigrated and then by Willy Pless. The Kulturbund's performing activities nonetheless were embraced by the Jewish population who previously were barred from all cultural and entertainment events. On September 11, 1941, the Gestapo ordered the closure of the Kulturbund, but excepted its publishing department, which

1953-482: The Pogrom, with its former editor, Erich Liepmann, being the manager of the publishing department. The Kulturbund managed to save a great deal of the book stocks of the to-be-ceased publishing houses from being pulped. Levie reached the concession, that Jewish publishers obliged to liquidate their companies, might export their book stocks on their own until April 1939 if the respective purchasers would pay in foreign exchange to

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2016-508: 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 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

2079-484: The Reich, even though they were paid by the Reichsbank. The Reichsbank also sponsored the establishment of clearing houses which were established in 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

2142-535: 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 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

2205-541: The Reichsbank for monetary financing . Combined with its reaction to the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, this triggered 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

2268-537: The Reichsbank's creation; four more did so in the 1880s, six in the 1890s, and three in the early 1900s, leaving only 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

2331-501: 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 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

2394-824: 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 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

2457-561: 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

2520-481: 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 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

2583-424: The bank under the false-name Max Heiliger accounts, and melted down as bullion . In April and May 1945, 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,

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2646-439: The center of a debate within Berlin's Jewish community when Singer began to advertise the organization to the public. Zionist journalists wrote about the importance of the theatre to include Jewish nationalist themes in its repertoire and serve as a political outlet for the Jewish population. However, Singer strongly believed that the Kulturbund should remain above politics and focus on art creation and performance. The artists of

2709-543: The consent of the Nazis for the Jewish population. The Kulturbund was one of the most famous examples of Jewish creativity in response to cultural exclusion. It provided a semblance of leisure for its 70,000 members in forty-nine different locals. After the exclusion of Jewish Germans and gentile Germans of Jewish descent from participating in almost all organizations and public events, the Kulturbund Deutscher Juden tried to provide some compensation, as tried Israelitisches Familienblatt . In June 1933, Kurt Singer sent

2772-410: 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

2835-472: The discrimination and persecution of Jews had driven many into impoverishment. The number of venues and of ensemble members was reduced. On December 16 Hans Hinkel , State commissioner for Prussian theatre affairs including the Kulturbund, in Goebbels ' Reich's Propaganda Ministry , declared in front of Dr. Werner Levie (1903–1945), a Dutchman and therefore one of the few available members – not in hiding or arrested – of Kulturbund's executive board, that until

2898-399: 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

2961-446: The end of December all the still existing 76 Jewish German publishing companies were to be shut down or sold to so-called Aryan owners. The few publications, which would still be permitted to appear, were to be directed by a publishing department to be formed within Kulturbund. In January 1939 the Kulturbund's publishing department opened in the offices formerly used by the Zionist Jüdische Rundschau , which had been shut down right after

3024-434: 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

3087-448: The incumbent local banks of issue and defenders of state rights, led by Ludolf Camphausen . The political compromise 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

3150-480: 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 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

3213-413: The newly appointed State Commissioner in the Prussian Ministry of Culture at the time, initially rejected the idea for the organization. Singer engaged in persistent negotiations with Hinkel, culminating in a face-to-face meeting in which Hinkel agreed to approve the organization under the conditions that the Kulturbund programming engaged only Jews and occurred in closed quarters. The Kulturbund became

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3276-422: The opera department. The first opera was The Marriage of Figaro , 14 November 1933. The inaugural performance was of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 's Nathan the Wise on 1 October 1933 at the Berliner Theater on Charlottenstraße. Director Karl Loewenberg ends the play differently than Lessing's explicit stage directions, which direct the Jewish Nathan (played by actor Kurt Katsch ), the Muslim Sultan Saladin, and

3339-431: The outbreak of World War I , however, the link between the mark and gold was abandoned, resulting in the Papiermark . The expenses of 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

3402-473: 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

3465-423: 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 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

3528-513: 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 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

3591-413: The vaults of the bank in Berlin. The explanation of the disappearance of 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

3654-449: Was arrested in 1943, first in the Westerbork transit camp , then deported in the Theresienstadt Ghetto . He died there on 7 February 1944 as a result of the prison conditions at the age of 58. The Kurt-Singer-Institut für Musikphysiologie und Musikergesundheit at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" and the Academy of Arts, Berlin are named after him. Articles: in Gemeindeblatt der Juedischen Gemeinde zu Berlin : in

3717-442: Was covered by the Kulturbund's publishing department. The Propaganda Ministry only allowed the Kulturbund to continue to exist, if it would change its statutes to the effect that the minister (Goebbels) may – at any time – interfere in affairs of the executive board, even dissolve the Kulturbund and dispose of its assets. The changed statutes came into effect on 4 March 1939. The Kulturbund's executive secretary Levie remigrated to

3780-421: 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

3843-454: 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 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

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3906-436: Was temporarily deputy and then director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin At the Academy of Music, he was dismissed in Autumn 1932 because of alleged financial difficulties. When, after the Machtergreifung in 1933, numerous musicians of Jewish origin lost their jobs in accordance with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service , he founded the "jüdischen Kulturbund". Singer emigrated to Amsterdam in 1938. He

3969-488: Was to be taken over by the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland . The Kulturbund's publishing department sold books from its stock to Jewish Germans and Austrians and thus created a surplus, which partly covered losses in the performing department. A considerable sum was transferred to the Central Office for Jewish Emigration , to pay emigration fees levied on lucky receivers of foreign visas, who, however, were too poor to pay them. The conductor Joseph Rosenstock led

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