Böhmische Union Bank
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The ''Böhmische Union-Bank'' (BUB, ) was a bank based in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, founded in 1872. One of the main commercial banks in
interwar Czechoslovakia In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
, it was associated with the country's
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and
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. It was
aryanized Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It entailed the tra ...
in March 1939, nationalized without compensation in October 1945, and subsequently liquidated. The BUB had its head office from the start on the prestigious
Na příkopě NA, N.A., Na, nA or n/a may refer to: Chemistry and physics * Sodium, symbol Na, a chemical element * Avogadro constant (''N''A) * Nucleophilic addition, a type of reaction in organic chemistry * Numerical aperture, a number that characterizes a ...
thoroughfare in central Prague, Nos.958-959, in a neoclassical building erected in the 1830s. In 1929, it demolished a building in the same block (No.574) to erect a more modern facility, but that project never came to fruition.


In the Austrian-Hungarian Empire

The Böhmische Union-Bank was established by conversion of the former Prague branch of
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
-based Union-Bank, itself formed recently by merger, into a stand-alone institution on . The initial capital was 10 million
Austro-Hungarian gulden The Austro-Hungarian gulden ( German), also known as the florin ( German & Croatian), forint ( Hungarian; ), or zloty (; ; ), was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892 (known as the Austrian Empire from 1804 to ...
s. The BUB was soon involved into the short-lived , but that venture was wound up in 1874 following the
panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "L ...
. Also in 1874, BUB acquired two other Prague-based banks founded in 1872, the and . In 1888, it took over the operations of liquidated in present-day
Liberec Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...
. By 1914, the BUB had 23 branches and branch offices in
Cisleithania Cisleithania, officially The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council (), was the northern and western part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in the Compromise of 1867—as distinguished from ''Transleithania'' (i.e., ...
: 15 in the Czech lands with a concentration in the
Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...
(present-day
Bielsko Bielsko (, ) was until 1950 an independent town situated in Cieszyn Silesia, Poland. In 1951 it was joined with Biała Krakowska to form the new town of Bielsko-Biała. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that town. Bielsko was founded by ...
,
Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
,
Broumov Broumov (; ) is a town in Náchod District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,100 inhabitants. There are three important historic buildings, protected as national cultural monuments: the Benedictine monastery, the ...
, Dvůr Králové nad Labem, Frýdek
Jablonec nad Nisou Jablonec nad Nisou (; ) is a city in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It is the second-largest city in the region. It is a local centre for education, and is known for its glass and jewelry production, espe ...
,
Krnov Krnov (; , or ''Krnów'') is a town in Bruntál District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Krnov consists of three municipal parts (in brackets population according to ...
,
Liberec Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...
,
Nový Jičín Nový Jičín (; ) is a town in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The historic centre of Nový Jičín is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument reservati ...
,
Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...
,
Opava Opava (; , ) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Opava (river), Opava River. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia and was a historical capital of Czech Sile ...
,
Rumburk Rumburk (; ) is a town in Děčín District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. It lies on the border with Germany. Administrative division Rumburk consists of three municipal parts (in brackets ...
,
Šumperk Šumperk (; ) is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 25,000 inhabitants. It is an industrial town, but it also contains valuable historical and architectural monuments. The historic town centre is well preserved and i ...
,
Vrchlabí Vrchlabí (; , ) is a town in Trutnov District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. It lies at the foot of the Giant Mountains on the river Elbe. The town centre with the castle complex, monastery c ...
, and
Žatec Žatec (; ) is a town in Louny District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře River. Žatec is famous for an over-700-year-long tradition of growing Saaz hops, Saaz noble hops u ...
), and 8 further south in
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,
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,
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, Klagenfurt,
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,
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,
Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
, and
Villach Villach (; ; ; ) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 61,887. Together wit ...
.


In Czechoslovakia

Following
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and the collapse of Austria-Hungary, BUB had to give up its branches outside the newly formed territory of Czechoslovakia. Still, it was one of the largest financial institutions in the country, and the largest associated with the German community. In 1920,
Banca Commerciale Italiana Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI, colloquially known as Comit), founded in 1894, was a major Italian bank based in Milan. In 1999, it merged with the group recently formed by the combination of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde and Ban ...
acquired a stake in BUB. That same year, BUB opened a new branch in
Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...
in the , and in 1928 it acquired the small Varnsdorf Bank in
Varnsdorf Varnsdorf (; ) is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 15,000 inhabitants. It lies on the border with Germany. Administrative division Varnsdorf consists of three municipal parts (in brackets population accordi ...
. Like other Czechoslovak banks, it was severely affected by the
European banking crisis of 1931 The European banking crisis of 1931 was a major episode of financial instability that peaked with the collapse of several major banks in Austria and Germany, including Creditanstalt on , Landesbank der Rheinprovinz on , and Danat-Bank on . It ...
. It subsequently absorbed the which had been formed in 1921 from the former operations of
Wiener Bankverein The Wiener Bankverein or Bank-Verein (WBV, ) was a major bank in the Habsburg Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic, founded in 1869. In 1888 it was the fourth-largest bank of Austria-Hungary by market capitalization, behind the Austro-Hunga ...
on Czechoslovak territory. In 1937, BUB had 34 branches, mainly in the German-speaking border areas and large industrial cities with a high concentration of German-speaking population; of these, only one was in Slovakia (in
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
). 23 of these were lost following the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
in 1938, and taken over by
Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...
.


World War II and aftermath

In March 1939, after the establishment of the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...
, Deutsche Bank executive led the
aryanization Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis powers, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It enta ...
process under oversight by the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
. The Jewish members of the supervisory board were dismissed, and the other members of the board all resigned. Deutsche Bank took majority control of BUB, simultaneously as Böhmische Escompte-Bank went to
Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG () was a German bank, founded in 1872 in Dresden, then headquartered in Berlin from 1884 to 1945 and in Frankfurt from 1963 onwards after a postwar hiatus. Long Germany's second-largest bank behind Deutsche Bank, it was eventually ...
, while Deutsche's ''de facto'' subsidiary Creditanstalt-Bankverein took over the BUB's Bratislava branch. BUB also established an aryanization office to foster expropriation and dismissal of Jews in its client companies. Deutsche Bank planned a full absorption of BUB in 1942, but this plan was not executed. By 1943, Deutsche Bank owned 91 percent of BUB's equity capital, of which 33 percent indirectly through Creditanstalt-Bankverein. After the end of the war, the Czechoslovak authorities decided in August 1945 to liquidate BUB given its German associations. The management was taken over by a national administrator, and the confiscation was formalized by Presidential Decree No.108/1945 of . BUB remained legally in existence (under the name Česká Banka Union) as a national enterprise in liquidation until at least 1969.


See also

* Živnostenská Banka * Anglo-Czechoslovak and Prague Credit Bank


References

Defunct banks of Czechoslovakia Banks established in 1872 {{bank-stub