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The Creditanstalt (sometimes Credit-Anstalt, abbreviated as CA), full original name k. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (), was a major Austrian bank, founded in 1855 in Vienna. From its founding until 1931, the Creditanstalt was led by members of the
Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...
, who were among its significant shareholders. Its historically consequential failure in 1931 led to a merger engineered by the Austrian government in 1934, in which it combined with the Wiener Bankverein and the sound parts of the Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft to form Österreichische Creditanstalt - Wiener Bankverein, later abbreviated to Creditanstalt-Bankverein. The latter came under the control of Deutsche Bank following the Anschluss in 1938, was nationalized in 1945, and was eventually acquired in 1997 by Bank Austria to form Bank Austria-Creditanstalt, since 2005 a subsidiary of UniCredit. UniCredit phased out the Creditanstalt brand in 2008.


Foundation and development until 1931

The Creditanstalt was founded in 1855 by Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and his son Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, with support from Austrian finance minister Karl Ludwig von Bruck and the financial involvement of notable figures of the Austrian and Bohemian high nobility. It was inspired by the Pereire brothers' Paris-based Crédit Mobilier (est. 1852), and represented a defensive move against the Pereires' aggressive expansion into Europe in competition with the long-established Rothschilds. The application presented to the Austrian imperial ministry guaranteed the initial capital subscription, with 40 percent taken by the Rothschild houses in Vienna, Frankfurt and Paris, 50 percent by prominent aristocrats (Max Egon zu Fürstenberg, , , Otto Ferdinand von Chotek, ), and 10 percent by the private Prague banking house of . The Creditanstalt immediately became the leading bank in the
Habsburg Monarchy The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
. It opened its first branch in Prague in 1856. By 1867, it had established further branches in
Pest Pest or The Pest may refer to: Science and medicine * Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns ** Weed, a plant considered undesirable * Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection ** ...
,
Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
, Brașov, Lviv, and Trieste, and on that year it sponsored a Hungarian affiliate, the General Hungarian Credit Bank ( hu, Magyar Altalános Hitelbank, german: Ungarische Allgemeine Creditbank), into which it subsequently merged its prior Pest branch. In 1869 it co-founded the Austro-Ägyptische Bank in Cairo, together with the
Anglo-Austrian Bank The Anglo-Österreichische Bank (), in shorthand Anglobank, was a bank founded in Vienna in 1863 with an extensive branch network in the Habsburg Monarchy and later in its successor states, primarily Austria and Czechoslovakia. Following the co ...
. Albert Salomon Anselm von Rothschild, Anselm Salomon's son, took control of the Creditanstalt in 1872, and was in turn succeeded in 1911 by his son Louis Nathaniel de Rothschild. The Creditanstalt's circumstances were dramatically affected by Austria-Hungary's defeat in the First World War, its subsequent dissolution, and the formation of the
First Austrian Republic The First Austrian Republic (german: Erste Österreichische Republik), officially the Republic of Austria, was created after the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919—the settlement after the end of World War I w ...
. In 1919, it had to sell its operations in what had become Czechoslovakia to the Prague-based
Böhmische Escompte-Bank The Böhmische Escompte-Bank (BEB, cs, Česká eskomptní banka, ) was a significant Prague-based bank with branches in most major towns of Bohemia and, later, Czechoslovakia. In 1919 it was renamed Böhmische Escompte-Bank und Credit-Anstalt ...
. It also sold its branches in the newly formed Poland to and in an all-shares transaction, following which it held a third of each of the two banks' capital. Deprived of its international outlook, the Creditanstalt focused on the Austrian market. In 1926, it purchased the Viennese operations of
Anglo-Austrian Bank The Anglo-Österreichische Bank (), in shorthand Anglobank, was a bank founded in Vienna in 1863 with an extensive branch network in the Habsburg Monarchy and later in its successor states, primarily Austria and Czechoslovakia. Following the co ...
which had become a British bank following recapitalisation by the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
; since that transaction was structured as an exchange of shares, the Bank of England, through its British subsidiary the Anglo-International Bank, became a significant shareholder of Creditanstalt. In 1929, just at the time of Wall Street Crash and under pressure from the Austrian government led by Johann Schober, Creditanstalt purchased its distressed peer the Allgemeine Bodencreditanstalt, which itself was dragged down by its acquisition of Austria's Unionbank two years earlier.


Downfall and merger

Burdened by the troubled legacy of its recent acquisitions, the Creditanstalt declared on that it was unable to publish its financial statements for 1930, immediately triggering panic. At that time, it represented 27 percent of the Austrian banking sector's total assets, a sum equivalent to 16 percent of the country's GDP, so that there was no option to have it absorbed by another larger banks as had been done with Unionbank in 1927 and Bodencreditanstalt in 1929. This was one of the first major bank collapses that initiated the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Chancellor Otto Ender organized a rescue that entailed cost-sharing by the Austrian government, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, and the
Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...
, rejecting
nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
plans advocated by the Social Democratic Party. The Creditanstalt's bankruptcy and its impact in producing a major global banking crisis provided a major propaganda opportunity for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, allowing them to further blame Jews for German and international economic and social troubles. In 1934, Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß ordered the Creditanstalt's merger with the Wiener Bankverein and the sound parts of the Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft, as a consequence of which the bank became ''de facto'' state-owned. The merged entity took the name .


Anschluss and World War II

Following the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938, the bank was immediately targeted for both financial and racial reasons. By that time, around 36 percent of its capital was held directly by the Austrian government, 12 percent by the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, 16 percent by the bank employees' pension fund, and 7 percent by the bank itself through its subsidiary . On it was coerced to enter a "friendship agreement" with Deutsche Bank, by which the latter secured a presence in its board of directors. Louis de Rothschild was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the losses suffered by the Austrian state when the bank had collapsed. Deprived of his position and property, he was released upon payment of $21,000,000, believed to have been the largest bail bond in history for any individual, and migrated to the U.S. in 1939 after more than one year in custody. Later in 1938, the bank was jointly taken over, without compensation, by German government holding , the Deutsche Bank, and the Reichsbank, which held respectively 51 percent, 25 percent, and 12 percent of its capital. In 1939, its name was abbreviated to Creditanstalt-Bankverein. Its Lviv-based affiliate the was nationalized following the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, and later liquidated. In April 1942, Deutsche Bank raised its ownership to 51 percent by acquiring a block of shares from VIAG. During wartime, the Creditanstalt expanded its operations into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and in Nazi-allied Bulgaria. Even though , its former head and still board member during the war, made contact with the U.S.
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
, the Creditanstalt in that period settled the financial issues of several Nazi concentration camps as well as the Aryanization of Jewish-owned businesses, like the re-establishment of Sascha-Film as
Wien-Film Wien-Film GmbH ("Vienna Film Limited") was a large Austrian film company, which in 1938 succeeded the Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG (Sascha Film Company) and lasted until 1985. Until 1945 the business was owned by the Cautio Trust Company (''Cauti ...
Limited.


Postwar development

Following Nazi defeat in World War II, the Creditanstalt again had to refocus its activity on Austria, and was nationalized by
Allied-occupied Austria The Allied occupation of Austria started on 8 May 1945 with the fall of Nazi Germany and ended with the Austrian State Treaty on 27 July 1955. After the in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In 1943, however, ...
by law of . By 1947 it had 23 branch offices in Vienna and 9 branches in the rest of Austria, as well as three provincial affiliates, namely the in Klagenfurt, the
Bank für Tirol und Vorarlberg Bank für Tirol und Vorarlberg is a regional Austrian bank with headquarters in Innsbruck. The bank is listed on the Austrian stock market. Together with Oberbank AG and BKS Bank AG BKS may refer to: *BKS theory, on interaction of matter and e ...
in
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
, and the Bank für Oberösterreich und Salzburg in Linz. It became mainly a commercial bank and was involved in Austria's economy, holding stakes in important Austrian companies such as Wienerberger,
Steyr-Daimler-Puch Steyr-Daimler-Puch () was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names. History T ...
, Lenzing AG, and
Semperit Semperit AG Holding is a manufacturer of industrial polymer and plastic products based in Vienna, Austria. From the middle 20th century, it produced bicycle tires for the Austrian road bicycle sold by Sears & Roebuck, including the classic white ...
. From 1956 onwards, the Creditanstalt was partly privatized by issuing 40% in shares, though only 10% in common stock. From the 1970s, it restarted an international expansion into central and eastern Europe. In 1981, the former Social Democratic Minister of Finance Hannes Androsch assumed the office of a general manager, after he had left the cabinet led by Bruno Kreisky. The bank's investments into industrial interests were reduced, while the government's ownership share fell to 51%. In the 1980s, the Creditanstalt opened branches in London,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
and Hong Kong. From 1989 onwards, its international orientation towards East-Central Europe was boosted by the fall of the
Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...
. In 1997, Geoffrey Hoguet ceased to work for the investment bank, the last member of the
Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...
employed in banking in Austria by then.


Merger with Bank Austria and aftermath

In 1997, the Austrian government sold its majority ownership stake in Creditanstalt to Bank Austria (BA), triggering a crisis in the ruling coalition between the Social Democratic Party and the
Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currentl ...
- since the Creditanstalt was considered to be part of the
Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currentl ...
's sphere of influence under the country's distinctive Proporz arrangement, whereas both of Bank Austria's predecessor entities, the Länderbank and the Viennese
Zentralsparkasse UniCredit Bank Austria AG, branded and widely referred to as Bank Austria, is an Austrian bank, 96.35% owned by Milan-based UniCredit. It was formed in 1991 by merger of Vienna's Länderbank and Zentralsparkasse, acquired Creditanstalt-Bankv ...
, were associated with the political left. In 2001, Bank Austria in turn was acquired by Germany's HypoVereinsbank (HVB), which merger it with Creditanstalt in 2002 to create ''Bank Austria Creditanstalt'' (BA-CA). In 2005, HVB was taken over by Italy's UniCredit. After 153 years, the Creditanstalt brand name was finally phased out in 2008, even though it survived in a property subsidiary named ''CA Immo''.


Leadership

* , General Director 1932-1936 * , General Director 1936-1938, Administrator 1945-1948, General Director 1948-1959 * , General Director 1959-1970 * , General Director 1970-1981 * Hannes Androsch, General Director 1981-1988 * Guido Schmidt-Chiari, General Director 1988-1997


Buildings


Vienna

In 1855, the Creditanstalt was temporarily established at Renngasse 1 on Vienna's Freyung square. In 1858, it purchased and demolished a number of houses on square in central Vienna and replaced them with a new building designed by architect Franz Fröhlich, with allegorical sculptures by
Hans Gasser Hans Gasser (18171868) was an Austrian painter and sculptor. His name is sometimes spelled Hanns, and he was baptized as Johann. He shortened his name to avoid confusion with a now-forgotten Tyrolean artist who was also named Johann Gasser.Heinr ...
representing ''Navigation'', ''Railways'', ''Commerce'', ''Industry'', ''Agriculture'', and ''Mining''. The building, numbered am Hof 6, was completed in 1860 and was kept in use by Creditanstalt until the 1934 merger. It was subsequently purchased by the , a subsidiary of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, and in 1940 by the . Am Hof 6 was damaged by allied bombing on and subsequently demolished. A new building was erected in its place in the early 1950s for electricity utility Verbundgesellschaft, designed by architect . Between 1915 and 1921 the Creditanstalt had its head office expanded northwestward across street, on a land plot bordering the Freyung that it had purchased in 1914 from Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft, which itself was moving from there to its new headquarters on 2. The opulent neoclassical extension, linked to the former seat by a bridge over Tiefer Graben, became the bank's main headquarters. It was designed by architects and ; the same team had previously created the new head offices of Creditanstalt's competitors the Wiener Bankverein (on ) and the Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft itself ( 2), both nearby locations. Following the 1934 merger, the building was purchased in 1937 by , an insurance company. By 1980 it was the property of the Länderbank which used it for its , successively renamed (1991-2002), (2002-2008), and since 2008 again . In 2010, it was acquired by financier René Benko, who repurposed its northwestern wing which became the seat of the Austrian Constitutional Court in 2012, whereas the art forum has remained on the southeastern side. In 1934, the Creditanstalt-Bankverein established its head office in the former seat of Wiener Bankverein at Schottentor. It remained there through the multiple mergers and restructurings until the late 2000s. File:Renngasse 1 Vienna b.JPG, The Creditanstalt's first head office on Renngasse 1 Creditanstalt (Am Hof 6, Vienna), ca. 1900 (1).jpg, Head office building erected 1860, am Hof 6, photographed ca. 1900 File:Wien-Innere Stadt - Verfassungsgerichtshof und Kunstforum.jpg, The 1910s extension in 2014, with the Austrian Constitutional Court on the left and Bank Austria Art Forum on the right File:Creditanstalt (Freyung 8), Vienna, 2019.jpg, Monogram of the Creditanstalt ("CAfHuG" for ) on the 1910s extension File:Creditanstalt Vienna Oct. 2006 004.jpg, Former Wiener Bankverein seat at Schottentor, head office of Creditanstalt-Bankverein from 1934


Other locations

In 1894-1896, the Creditanstalt erected a new building for its branch in Prague, designed by architect with sculptures by
Antonín Popp Antonín Popp (30 July 1850, Prague - 10 June 1915, Prague) was a Czech sculptor, medallist and teacher. Life and work He was the second of five sons born to the sculptor and porcelain modeller, , originally from Coburg, and his Czech wife Al ...
. In 1907-1909 the Creditanstalt erected a monumental branch building in Trieste, on what later became . File:Maria-Theresien-Straße 36 (IMG 1861).jpg, Branch building in
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
, Maria-Theresien-Straße 36, in 2019 File:Ehem. Steiermärkische-Escompte-Bank (20600) stitch IMG 2801 - IMG 2804.jpg, Branch building in
Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...
, Herrengasse 15, in 2014 File:Stolperstein Salzburg, Wohnhaus Rainerstraße 2.jpg, Branch building in Salzburg, Rainerstrasse 2, in 2016 File:Villach Innenstadt Hauptplatz 18 Paracelsushof O-Ansicht 23042021 0841.jpg, Branch building in Villach, Hauptplatz 18, in 2021 File:Na příkopě 850 (Prague).jpg, Former branch office in Prague, Na příkopě 8


See also

* Wiener Bankverein * Länderbank *
Anglo-Austrian Bank The Anglo-Österreichische Bank (), in shorthand Anglobank, was a bank founded in Vienna in 1863 with an extensive branch network in the Habsburg Monarchy and later in its successor states, primarily Austria and Czechoslovakia. Following the co ...
* Erste Group * List of banks in Austria


Notes


Further reading

* März, Eduard, Austrian Banking and Financial Policy: Credit-Anstalt at a Turning Point, 1913–1923 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1984) * Schorske, Carl E., '' Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture'' (London: Vintage, 1980) * Schubert, Aurel, ''The Credit-Anstalt Crisis of 1931'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)


External links

* * {{Authority control 1855 establishments in the Austrian Empire 2002 disestablishments in Austria Banks established in 1855 Companies based in Vienna Defunct banks of Austria Former UniCredit subsidiaries