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The '''''Reichsbank''''' ({{IPA-de|ˈʁaɪçsˌbank|lang|Reichsbank.ogg}}; {{lit|Bank of the [[Reich]]}}) was the [[central bank]] of the [[German
==Background==
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 [[German revolutions of 1848–1849|revolution of 1848]], five additional banks had been granted a note-issuance privilege (the {{ill|Berliner Kassenverein|de}}, {{lang|de|Kölnische Privatbank}}, {{lang|de|Magdeburger Privatbank}}, {{lang|de|Ritterschaftliche Privatbank in Pommern}} at [[Stettin]], and {{lang|de|Städtische Bank in Breslau}}), but that was still insufficient to sustain adequate monetary conditions.<ref>{{citation |title=The Political Calculus of Capital: Banking and the Business Class in Prussia, 1848-1856 |author=James M. Brophy |journal=Central European History |issue=
Several pan-German conventions were held with the aim to simplify and rationalize the German monetary system, e.g. in [[Vienna]] on {{date|1857/01/24}}, but to no avail.<ref name=Conant>{{cite book |title=A History of Modern Banks of Issue |author=Charles Arthur Conant |url=https://books.google.com/books
On {{date|1870/03/27}}, a law was passed that forbade the formation of further {{lang|de|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 {{date|1872/01/01}}. These Prussian initiatives precipitated action by 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 {{lang|de|Notenbanken}} to 33.{{R|NMCR|p=14}} The [[panic of 1873]] further stimulated discussions on the creation of an integrated monetary system,<ref>{{citation |url=https://www.bostonfed.org/-/media/Documents/conference/43/33p.pdf |author=Harold James |title=A historical perspective on international monetary arrangements: opening address |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of Boston |year=1999}}</ref>{{rp|34}} which pitted advocates of centralization led by [[Ludwig Bamberger]] against the incumbent local banks of issue and defenders of state rights, led by [[Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen|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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Charles Kindleberger |title=A Financial History of Western Europe
==German Empire==
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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.<ref name=NMCR>{{Cite web |title=The Reichsbank 1876-1900 |url=https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/historical/nmc/nmc_408_1910.pdf |author=National Monetary Commission |publisher=U.S. Senate |location=Washington DC |year=1910}}</ref> The bank was managed by a management board ({{lang-de|Direktorium}}) reporting to a supervisory board ({{lang-de|Curatorium}}). The Curatorium was chaired by the [[Chancellor of Germany|Imperial Chancellor]] and included four additional members, one appointed by the [[German Emperor|emperor]] and the other three by the [[Bundesrat (German Empire)|Bundesrat]]; it was to meet every three months.{{R|Conant|p=202}} The Direktorium was led by the President ({{lang-de|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.{{R|NMCR|p=42}} The shareholders were represented in a central committee ({{lang-de|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 {{lang|de|Zentralausschuss}} were allowed to attend all meetings of the Direktorium and to examine the books of the Reichsbank.{{R|NMCR|p=25-28}} The initial shareholders included the former shareholders of the Bank of Prussia (except a few who opted for selling their shares) and new subscribers.{{R|NMCR|p=35}} The bank was exempted from all income and trade taxes,{{R|NMCR|p=30}} but also had to act as the Reich's [[fiscal agent]] without compensation.{{R|NMCR|p=293}}
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.{{R|NMCR|p=56}} A formal distinction was made between main branches ({{lang-de|Reichsbankhauptstellen}}), whose head was appointed directly by the emperor,{{R|NMCR|p=62}} and other branches ({{lang-de|Reichsbankstellen}}), but that difference of status was insubstantial in practice.{{R|NMCR|p=47}} The bank's employees had the status of civil servants of the Reich,{{R|NMCR|p=61}} even though they were paid by the Reichsbank.{{R|NMCR|p=65}} The Reichsbank also sponsored the establishment of [[Clearing house (finance)|clearing houses]] which were established in the 1880s and 1890s in [[Berlin]], [[Frankfurt]], [[Stuttgart]], [[Cologne]], [[Leipzig]] ([[Petersstrasse]]), [[Dresden]], [[Hamburg]], [[Breslau]], [[Bremen]], and [[Elberfeld]].{{R|NMCR|p=117}}
15 of the 32 {{lang|de|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 the [[Bayerische Notenbank]], [[Bank of Baden]], [[Bank of Saxony]] and [[Württembergische Notenbank]] as residual note-issuing institutions by 1906.<ref>{{citation |author=Heinz Fengler |title=Geschichte der deutschen Notenbanken vor Einführung der Mark-Währung |publisher=Gietl Verlag |location=Regenstauf |year=1992}}</ref>
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[[File:Reichsfinalb.jpg|thumb|A 10000 Mark banknote issued by the German Reichsbank in 1922]]
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 a dramatic [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|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.{{R|HandbookDE|p=17-18}} By decree of {{date|1923/10/15}} on the initiative of finance minister [[Hans Luther]], the government created a separate bank, the [[Deutsche Rentenbank]], endowed with the right to issue notes ({{lang-de|Rentenbankscheine}}) redeemable in a kind of non-interest-bearing mortgage bond, the {{lang|de|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 {{lang|de|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.{{R|HandbookDE|p=21}}
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 {{date|1924/08/30}} 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 the Reichsbank and made it, for the first time, an explicitly independent central bank. Its ''Kuratorium'' was replaced by a General Council ({{lang-de|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 (1919–1945)|President of Germany]]. The General Council also elected one of its foreign members to serve as Currency Commissioner ({{lang-de|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 the prewar parity of 2790 RM for one kilogram of fine gold; the pre-reform notes ceased to be legal tender on {{date|1925/06/05}}.{{R|HandbookDE|p=22}}
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[[File:Schachtanlage Merkers.jpg|thumb|[[Nazi gold]] in [[Merkers]] Salt Mine]]
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.
On {{date|1935/12/31}}, 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.<ref name=HandbookDE>{{citation |url=https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p4013coll8/id/2634/download |title=Army Service Forces Manual M356-5 / Military Government Handbook - Germany - Section 5: Money and Banking |publisher=U.S. Army Service Forces |location=Washington DC |author=Federal Reserve Board |date=March 1945}}</ref>{{rp|12}}
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==Aftermath and liquidation==
In line with decisions made at the [[Potsdam Conference]], the Reichsbank was placed under joint Allied custodianship pending its liquidation.<ref name=Adler>{{citation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1882258 |title=The Post-War Reorganization of the German Banking System |author=Hans A. Adler |journal=Quarterly Journal of Economics |issue=
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 {{lang|de|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 {{date|1947/01/01}}. Thus, Land central banks ({{lang-de|Landeszentralbanken}}) were created on {{date|1947/01/01}} 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 {{date|1947/04/01}}, and eventually British-occupied [[Düsseldorf]] (for [[North Rhine-Westphalia]]), [[Hanover]] (for [[Lower Saxony]]), [[Kiel]] (for [[Schleswig-Holstein]]) and [[Hamburg]] by the Spring of 1948.{{R|Adler|p=327-330}}
In 1947, newly appointed U.S. Military Governor [[Lucius D. Clay]] decided, against directives from Washington, that Germany needed a central bank instead of a mere board bringing together the {{lang|de|Landeszentralbanken}} for joint policy decisions. An agreement on that concept was reached among the three Western occupying forces on {{date|1947/10/30}}, resulting in the establishment on {{date|1948/03/01}} of the [[Bank deutscher Länder]].{{R|Adler|p=330-331}} On {{date|1948/05/21}}, the Soviet occupation authorities replied by establishing a {{lang|de|Deutsche Emissions- und Girobank}} in [[Potsdam]], which was renamed {{lang|de|Deutsche Notenbank}} in July, later relocated to [[East Berlin]], and in 1968 was rebranded the [[Staatsbank der DDR]].{{R|Adler|p=336}}
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<gallery>
File:Theaterstraße 17, Aachen (
File:Neustädter Markt 10 Brandenburg Havel.jpg|[[Brandenburg an der Havel|Brandenburg]] branch, Neustädter Markt 10 (arch. Hasak), completed 1902
File:Former Reichsbank building Wroclaw.png|Breslau (now [[Wrocław]]) branch, 10 Wolności Square, completed 1890<ref>{{cite web |website=wyborcza.pl |title=AC Hotel by Marriott powstanie w gmachu dawnego Banku Rzeszy |date={{date|2015/12/11}} |url=https://wroclaw.wyborcza.pl/wroclaw/7,95327,19327611,ac-hotel-by-marriott-powstanie-w-gmachu-dawnego-banku-rzeszy.html |author=Jacek Kulesza}}</ref>
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File:Ludwigstr. 13 Muenchen-2.jpg|[[Munich]] branch, Ludwigstrasse 13 (arch. Wolff, then [[Carl Sattler]]), completed 1951 for the {{lang|de|Bayerische Landeszentralbank}}
File:Muenster Freiherr von Vincke Haus 11.jpg|[[Münster]] branch, Domplatz 36 (arch. Hasak, Havestadt & Contag), completed 1894
File:Al. Marcinkowskiego bank.jpg|[[Poznań]] {{ill|Reichsbank branch in Pozna{{!}}branch|pl|Budynek bankowy przy Alejach Marcinkowskiego 12 w Poznaniu}}, al. Marcinkowskiego 12 (arch. Habicht), completed 1912 or 1913
File:Siegen Reichsbank.jpg|[[Siegen]] {{ill|Reichsbank branch in Siegen{{!}}branch|de|Reichsbank (Siegen)}}, Spandauer Straße 40 (arch. Habicht), completed 1911
File:Hauptverwaltung Deutsche Bundesbank Stuttgart 01.jpg|[[Stuttgart]] branch, Marstallstrasse 3 (arch. {{ill|Hans Herkommer|de}} & Theodor Bulling), completed 1923<ref>{{cite web |website=Deutsche Bundesbank |title=Architektur und Kunst: Deutsche Bundesbank Hauptverwaltung in Baden-Württemberg |url=https://www.bundesbank.de/resource/blob/607126/24a7894086011580db96f645a2c33056/mL/architektur-und-kunst-hv-stuttgart-data.pdf |author=Iris Cramer and Sabine Muschler}}</ref>
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