The Nazi Dictatorship and the Deutsche Bank

Description

Examines the role of Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest commercial bank, during the Nazi dictatorship, and asks how the bank changed and accommodated to a transition from democracy and a market economy to dictatorship and a planned economy. Set against the background of the world depression and the German banking crisis of 1931, the book looks at the restructuring of German banking and offers material on the bank's expansion in central and eastern Europe. As well as summarizing research on the bank's controversial role in gold transactions and the financing of the construction of Auschwitz, the book also examines the role played by particular personalities in the development of the bank, such as Emil Georg von Strauss and Hermann Abs.

Harold James is Professor of History at Princeton University and chairman of the editorial board of World Politics. He is the author of several books on German economy and society, including The Deutsche Bank and the Nazi Economic War Against the Jews (Cambridge, 2001)

'James' monograph is well researched and documented. By drawing together the most important elements of his two previous publications, James' monograph of Deutsche Bank is more readily accessible to readers. We are left with the image of a bank that reluctantly became involved in the racist and expansionary policies of the Third Reich, whose powers were subordinated to the state.' Business History