Oscar Schlitter (10 January 1868 – 30 November 1939) was a German
banker. Reflecting the long-standing "hands-on" approach of banks in Germany, Schlitter was involved in several major commercial and industrial mergers. He played a leading role in the 1929 merger of the indebted German
VGF
VGF or VGF nerve growth factor inducible is a secreted protein and neuropeptide precursor that may play a role in regulating energy homeostasis, metabolism and synaptic plasticity. The protein was first discovered in 1985 by Levi ''et al''. in an ...
company with the Dutch business, creating one of the leading European producers of
rayon
Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. It is also called viscose. Many types and grades of viscose f ...
.
Biography
Early years
Schlitter's father, Albert, served as a soldier as a young man and later worked in a
post office at , at that time a separate town, but subsequently subsumed into
Remscheid. Oscar was born in Lennap in 1868. The family relocated to
Düsseldorf in 1869. Düsseldorf was becoming a centre for the rapidly expanding railway network, and Albert took work as a train conductor. Schlitter grew up in Dusseldorf, attended school and then undertook commercial training.
[
]
Banking
After a banking apprenticeship with the in Elberfeld, he switched in 1894[ to the in ]Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
, where he drove an expansion of the bank's activities into large-scale industrial investment. He was appointed to the Executive Board of Directors in 1901.[
In 1906, at the instigation of ]Carl Klönne
Carl Klönne (26 May 1850 - 20 May 1915) was a German Banker.
Life
Carl Klönne was born in Solingen, a city famous for centuries as a centre for sword and knife making which during the nineteenth century grew to become an important industrial ce ...
, he took a directorship with Deutsche Bank. Just two years later he moved on again, becoming in 1908 the General Director of the Bergisch-Märkische Bank. The move took place in the context of an existing close relationship between the two banks, though it was not until 1914 that Deutsche Bank formally took over the Bergisch-Märkische Bank. In 1912 he returned to Deutsche Bank, now as a full member of the executive board, and was much involved in the fusion of the two banks which was, at the time, the largest such bank merger to date.[
By 1912 Schlitter had acquired a strong reputation within the banking community for his knowledge of the burgeoning industrial sector. His career mirrored the developments of his time. He was involved in the building and financing of the heavy industry sector in the Rhineland and Westphalia, as well as in the ]mechanical
Mechanical may refer to:
Machine
* Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement
* Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
and electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
sectors becoming focused on the Ruhr
The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...
region in particular, and the surrounding area more generally. Later, in the 1930s, he was deeply immersed in the consolidation of the insurance sector following the collapse of the Weimar democracy.[
He became a member of the supervisory board (''Aufsichtsrat'') of Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU), the holding company created in 1929 as part of the merger of the German ]VGF
VGF or VGF nerve growth factor inducible is a secreted protein and neuropeptide precursor that may play a role in regulating energy homeostasis, metabolism and synaptic plasticity. The protein was first discovered in 1985 by Levi ''et al''. in an ...
company with the Dutch business. He also became a supervisory board member for various other major corporations including IG Farben
Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies—BASF, ...
(1931–1935), the industrial conglomerates and , the mining company, the power company RWE
RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...
and Mannesmann. He was involved in the founding of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG.
Massive mergers within the German industrial sector were consciously mirrored in the banking sector.[ Schlitter was closely engaged in the 1929 mega-merger of Deutsche Bank with its rival, the Disconto-Gesellschaft bank organisation, remaining for three years on the executive board of the combined entity.] In 1932 he switched to the supervisory board, chairing it every other year between 1933 and 1939, alternating with Franz Urbig
Franz Urbig (23 January 1864 – 28 September 1944) was a German banker. He joined the Disconto-Gesellschaft as a trainee on 15 July 1884 and built much of his career and reputation within this bank in Southeast Asia during the final part of the ...
, the former boss of Disconto-Gesellschaft.[
]
Family
Schlitter's paternal ancestors came from Schlitters
Schlitters is a municipality in the Schwaz district in the Austrian state of Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was histo ...
in the west of the Tyrol, but the family successfully relocated further north as protestant refugees.
In 1904 Oscar Schlitter married Anna Bandhauer,[ the daughter of Otto Bandhauer, Director of the Essen-based West German Insurance and Investment Bank (''"Westdeutsche Versicherungs-Aktienbank"''). Their son was Oskar Hermann Artur Schlitter who in 1932 married the film actress and former Miss Germany, ]Daisy D'ora
Baroness Daisy von Freyberg zu Eisenberg, known professionally as Daisy D'ora, (26 February 1913 – 12 June 2010) was a German beauty queen, socialite and actress.
Born in Potsdam, Germany to an impoverished aristocratic family, she began her ...
, joined the Nazi Party in 1934 and spent the twelve Nazi years working in a succession of important diplomatic and government posts; after 1952 Oskar (junior) resumed a diplomatic career.
Family home
Oscar Schlitter lived in the Berlin quarter of Schwanenwerder, which on German language Monopoly boards before 1933 occupied the square that English players of the game associated with Mayfair
Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...
. It was an expensive area and many of his neighbours were, like him, bankers, some of whom the Nazi Party identified as Jewish. By the end of the 1930s houses in the locality were the homes not of Jewish bankers but of party members. Schlitter sold his own home, and the substantial plot that it occupied at 8–10 Island Street (''Inselstraße 8–10'') in the summer of 1935, to Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
for a price of 270,000 Reichsmarks, described later by one authority as "a very modest sum".
Beyond banking
Schlitter was a member of the (Wednesday Society) between 1932 and 1939.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlitter, Oscar
20th-century German businesspeople
German bankers
Deutsche Bank people
1868 births
1939 deaths
19th-century German businesspeople