Anglo-Austrian Bank

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The headquarters of the Anglo-Oesterreichische Bank (Anglo-Austrian Bank), Strauchgasse 1 / Heidenschuss 3, 1010 Vienna, in about 1910

Anglo-Österreichische Bank, or Anglobank for short, was a credit institution founded in Vienna in 1863 with an extensive network of branches throughout Austria-Hungary and later in the states of Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Italy. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the Anglo-Austrian Bank, based in London, and the Anglo-Czechoslovakian Bank, based in Prague, emerged from the company in 1921/22.

Anglo-Österreichische Bank[]

In 1926, most of the bank's shares in Austria, along with the Vienna branches, were sold to Creditanstalt; the Anglo-Austrian Bank became Anglo-International Bank. The Anglo-International Bank continued until 1962 but was no longer active in business after 1951. A shell company has existed since 1963 to protect trademarks.

The Anglo-Austrian Bank, Anglobank for short, founded in 1863 with British and Austrian capital, was the first of Vienna's so-called foreign banks alongside the Ottoman Bank. The London bank Glyn, Mills, Currie & Co. played a key role in the establishment of the company.[1] The Board of Directors, at that time called the General Council, consisted of an Austrian committee with eight members and an English committee, also with eight members.[2] The headquarters was located until 1921 in the Palais Montenuovo at Strauchgasse 1–3, opposite the Old Vienna Stock Exchange. In 1864, Anglobank initially rented parts of the palace, bought it completely in 1871 and rebuilt it, with the inner courtyard being roofed over with glass and henceforth serving as a cash desk.[3]

The starting capital was 20 million silver guilders in 100,000 shares. According to the articles of association, each board member had to personally deposit at least 100 shares and received a fixed remuneration of 3,000 silver guilders annually. Within a short period of time, the Anglo-Austrian Bank achieved enormous success. The balance sheet total rose from 22.6 million silver guilders in 1864 to the end of 1868 by almost fourfold to the record high of 89.5 million silver guilders. The focus was on participating in the expansion of the railway network of the Habsburg Monarchy, the financing of companies in particular in the mining, iron and steel industry and the establishment of new banks.[4]

These new banks included the Anglo-Hungarian Bank, founded as a subsidiary in Pest in 1867, and five other banks established in the same year, one in Prague and four based in Vienna.[5] Significant subsidiaries in Vienna were, up to the First World War, the ML Biedermann & Co. Bank Aktiengesellschaft, the Austrian Control Bank for Industry and Commerce and the Vienna Credit Bank. In addition, the General Austrian Construction Company was founded in 1869 with significant participation by Anglobank, which dealt with the acquisition of large, centrally located property complexes as well as their development and sale in Vienna.[4]

With an extensive range of financial services, Anglobank developed into the biggest competitor of the Austrian Creditanstalt founded by Anselm Salomon von Rothschild.[8] In addition to is headqurters in London and Vienna, it had an extensive branch network throughout Austria. In Vienna alone, it had 17 branches in 13 municipal districts.[8] In addition, the Anglo-Austrian Bank was heavily involved in the German banking system and participated in the founding and with a high share capital in the:

  • Bayerische Vereinsbank in Munich (1869)[6]
  • Anglo-Deutsche Bank in Hamburg (1871)
  • Austrian-Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt (1871)
  • Bank for the brewing industry in Dresden (1899)
  • German Vereinsbank in Frankfurt (1871)
  • German National Bank in Bremen (1871)
  • Central Bank for Industry and Trade in Berlin (1871)
  • Disconto Society in Leipzig (1873).[7]

Among the leading figures in Anglobank in the 1860s and 1870s were Eugen Graf Kinsky von Wchinitz and Tettau, Julius von Kunzek, Carl von Mayer, Leon Fürst Sapieha as well as Rudolf and Gustav von Schlesinger.[8] After the Vienna stock market crash, which temporarily threw the company back from second to fifth place among the major Viennese banks, bourgeois shareholders increasingly gained influence over the bank's business direction. These included Wilhelm Franz Exner, the Adolf and Julius Landesberger brothers (the latter from Antburg from 1906), and the Petschek and industrialist families Shift.

Even before 1914, Anglobank was in a leading position in financing the Austro-Hungarian lignite mining industry and in issuing government bonds. It thus gained economic systemic relevance. Like all large companies, the Anglo-Austrian Bank brought its interests into the political and social opinion- forming process through lobbying. In addition to participating in various newspaper publishers, it was, for example, involved in the daily newspaper Die Presse and was instrumental in founding and financing the magazine Der Österreichische Volkswirt, which in Austria-Hungary and the later successor states developed into a leading medium in economic policy and appropriately reflected the positions of the Anglobank.[9]

In 1913 the company had twice as many branches as the considerably larger Creditanstalt and only slightly fewer than the Vienna Bank Corporation, the leading bank in this regard. On the eve of the First World War, the Anglo-Austrian Bank was associated with industrial companies throughout Cisleithanien and beyond in Hungary, Italy and Germany. While the start-up business almost completely lost its importance between 1914 and 1918, the ongoing banking business was the focus of work during the war. In addition, there was the financing of the state armaments needs, such as the private placement of war bonds and the issuing of advances on the various War bond issues.[10]

The collapse of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary had a serious impact on the business of Anglobank. Over 50% of the most important assets were in the successor states of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. This was also reflected in the regional distribution of the bank's shareholdings: 33% were in Austria, 45% in Czechoslovakia, 11% in Yugoslavia and 11% in Hungary and Romania.[10] The imposing branch network of the Anglo-Austrian Bank was distributed as follows until 1922:

  • 29 branches in Czechoslovakia[11]
  • 22 branches in Vienna
  • 24 branches in the Austrian federal states
  • 3 branches in Hungary
  • 3 branches in Romania
  • 1 branch in Yugoslavia
  • 1 branch in Trieste, which was annexed by Italy after the First World War[10]

There were significant changes after Czechoslovakia declared itself an independent customs area on 20 February 1919 and introduced the Czechoslovakian crown on 25 February 1919. This meant that the major Viennese banks were no longer able to meet the capital requirements of their affiliated stock corporations in Czechoslovakia. This change had a different character than in all other Austro-Hungarian successor states: On 11 December 1919, the nationalist government in Prague passed a nostrification law, with which owners and shareholders of companies in the territory of Czechoslovakia were forced to take Czechoslovak citizenship and move the headquarters of their companies to Czechoslovakia.[12][13]

As a result, by the end of 1921, all foreign banks had to either connect their branches to existing Czechoslovak credit institutions or convert them into new Czechoslovak banks. [18] [19] In the meantime, however, thanks in particular to the mediation of the Petschek family, it was possible to win the Bank of England as a major shareholder in Anglobank. Its governor, Montagu Norman, did not even think about relinquishing control of the bank. Rather, he intended to use the Anglobank to influence the Central European central banks and the restructuring of the state finances of the countries concerned.[10]

Against this background, the headquarters of the bank was relocated to London in 1921, the Vienna branch continued as Anglo-Austrian Bank, and the Czechoslovak branches were converted into an independent bank, the Anglo-Čechoslovakische Bank, in April 1922. All its shares were owned by Anglo-Austrian Bank until 1927.[14]

Anglo-Austrian Bank[]

The separation of states and the artificial fragmentation of the European centre brought about by the victorious powers of the First World War led to a torn division of labour among the peoples who were dependent on one another and to intensified efforts towards self-sufficiency. While the Bank of England managed to steer the central banks of the new states in the Danube region largely in their interests, the Anglo-Austrian Bank was only able to fulfil its intended function as a capital broker between Britain and the countries concerned to a very limited extent.[10]

In 1924, Anglo-Austrian Bank had 18 branches in Vienna, 13 in the Austrian federal states, two in Hungary, two in Romania, one in Yugoslavia and three in Italy. By 1925, the Southeast European business collapsed completely, which resulted in the closure of the branches in Romania, Yugoslavia and Italy. First, Zoltan Hajdu, the successful head of the Budapest branch, was appointed General Director for Austria, and initiated a restrictive course in the bank's lending policy and the dismantling of the administrative apparatus in Austria, which had swelled to 2000 employees. The few remaining group companies and cash cows of the Anglo-Austrian Bank in Austria included:

  • Austro-Daimler
  • Austro-Fiat
  • Puch works
  • Brevillier & Urban
  • Schoeller-Bleckmann steel works
  • Enzesfeld metal works
  • Universale Bau AG
  • Powder factory Skodawerke-Wetzler AG
  • ELIN AG
  • DELKA Schuhindustrie- und Handels AG
  • Herlango AG
  • Josef Manner & Comp. AG
  • Bed feathers and sheets factory Adolf Gans AG[10]

In contrast to the capital links of Anglobank in Czechoslovakia, the industrial and financial investments in Austria did not generate sufficiently high profits due to inflation. That is, the main asset of the Anglo-Austrian Bank was the Anglo-Czechoslovak Bank. At the beginning of 1925 it had to be determined that the balance sheet of the Vienna branches for 1924 would be in deficit. With this, the considerations to give up the base in Vienna took on concrete forms. In addition, the Bank of England considered reducing its exposure across Central Europe or placing it on a new, less risky basis.[10]

The first step in this direction was to be the sale of all branches and shares of Anglo-Austrian Bank in Italy to Banca Italo-Britannica in January 1926. A few months later, the Anglo-Austrian Bank started exploratory talks in Austria. Negotiations began with the Wiener Bankverein before the focus of the sales talks shifted to Creditanstalt. Finally, part of the Anglo-Austrian Bank was sold to Creditanstalt on June 12, 1926, but many of the bank's shares in Austria also went to a Dutch holding company.[10]

The withdrawal from Austria has often been described as the collapse of the Anglo-Austrian Bank and the first step in banking concentration in Vienna. Formally, however, the Anglo-Austrian Bank ceased to exist in 1921 and was a purely British bank under the name Anglo-Austrian Bank. Immediately after the Vienna branches were sold, in September 1926 Anglo-Austrian Bank merged with the British Trade Corporation (which had been founded in 1917) to form Anglo-International Bank. The starting capital was £2.36 million. The main shareholders were the Bank of England and Glyn, Mills & Co. The main assets of the Anglo-International Bank remained the Anglo-Czechoslovak Bank.

The Budapest branch continued to exist for some time and was taken over by the British and Hungarian Bank in early 1930. It was already insignificant for Anglobank from the mid-1920s, after repeated severe job cuts and the industrial holdings were gradually given up completely.[10]

References[]

  1. ^ Natmessnig, Charlotte:"Britische Finanzinteressen in Österreich. Die Anglo-Oesterreichische Bank" in Studien zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte und Wirtschaftspolitik. Band 5. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998.
  2. ^ Auerbach, W. Das Actienwesen. Sauerländer, 1873, p. 147.
  3. ^ Die OeKB in der Strauchgasse 3OeKB. Accessed 1 January 2022.
  4. ^ a b Eder, Barbara. The history of the Tinti family as lords of the Schallaburg from the middle of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. Dissertation, University of Vienna, 2018, pp. 83–86.
  5. ^ Gottschall, Rudolph (ed.) Our time. German review of the present. Monthly for the conversation lexicon, volumes 11–12. Brockhaus, 1875, p. 249.
  6. ^ Balbaschewski, Marc. Das Bankhaus H. Aufhäuser 1870–1938. Netzwerkbildung und ihre Auswirkung auf die Verdrängungsbestrebungen und "Arisierung“ in Nationalsozialismus. Dissertation, University of Darmstadt, 2015, p. 59.
  7. ^ Burhop, Carsten. Die Kreditbanken in der Gründerzeit. Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004, p. 99.
  8. ^ Schäffle, Albert. From my life. An autobiography in two volumes. Volume 1. Severus Verlag, 2012, p. 164.
  9. ^ Chaloupek, Gunther. "From Stabilization to Depression. Comments in the Austrian Economist on Economic Policy in Austria between 1923 and 1929" in Backhaus. J G (ed.) Beginnings of Scholarly Economic Journalism. Springer-Verlag, 2011, pp. 73–91
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Weber, Fritz (2016).Vor dem großen Krach: Österreichs Banken in der Zwischenkriegszeit am Beispiel der Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag.
  11. ^ Charles University, Prague (Hrsg.): "Prager wirtschafts- und sozialhistorische Mitteilungen. Band 4". Institute for Economic and Social History and the Social History and Philosophical Sciences faculty of Charles University, 1997, pp. 7–8.
  12. ^ Nečas, Ctibor. "Počátky územní expanze Živnobanky" in Studia minora facultatis philosophicae, 32. Sborník prací filozofické fakulty Brněnské univerzity, 1985, pp. 81–92.
  13. ^ Dole žalová, Antoine. "Between autarky, emancipation and discrimination: Nostrification in Czechoslovakia after 1918" in Bohemia, no. 53, 2013, p. 47.
  14. ^ Orde, Anne. British Policy and European Reconstruction After the First World War. Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 139–140.

Further reading[]

  • Marz, Eduard. Österreichische Bankpolitik in Dder Zeit der großen Wende 1913–1923. Am Beispiel der Creditanstalt für Handel und Gewerbe. Oldenbourg: Verlag, München, 1981.
  • Natmessnig, Charlotte. Britische Finanzinteressen in Österreich. Die Anglo-Österreichische Bank, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1998, ISBN 978-3-205-98912-7
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