TheDeutsch-Asiatische Bank (DAB;simplified Chinese:德华银行;traditional Chinese:德華銀行;pinyin:Déhuá Yínháng) was aforeign bank inAsia, founded in 1889 inShanghai. Even though its owners were private-sector banks and its principal activity wastrade financing, its role has been described as "quasi-governmental" in the service of theGerman Empire's influence strategies in East Asia.[2]: 5 Together with English and French banks, it also played a role in the underwriting ofbonds for the Chinese government, issuing theKiautschou Dollar and financing ofrailway construction in China.
The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was founded in theShanghai International Settlement on 12 February 1889, at the initial initiative of theDisconto-Gesellschaft, and with the additional participation of all the other major German commercial banks of the time. Its initial capital, denominated in localtaels, was divided between the Disconto-Gesellschaft (16.1 percent),Deutsche Bank (11.1 percent),S. Bleichröder (11.1 percent),Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft (9.4 percent),Jacob S.H. Stern [de] (9.4 percent),Norddeutsche Bank (7.6 percent),Darmstädter Bank (6.2 percent),Mendelssohn & Co. (6.2 percent),M. A. Rothschild & Söhne (6.2 percent),[3]: 72–73 as well asDresdner Bank,A. Schaaffhausen'scher Bankverein, andNationalbank für Deutschland among others.[4]: 455 At the time, it was the first large non-British bank to enter the Chinese market.[5] Its general management (German:Vorstand) resided in Shanghai, while the supervisory board (German:Aufsichtsrat) met inBerlin.[6]
The bank soon set up branches inTianjin (1890),Calcutta (1896),Hankou (1897),Qingdao (1897),Hong Kong (1899),Yokohama (1905),Beijing (1905),Kobe (1906),Singapore (1906),Jinan (1910), andGuangzhou (1910).[3]: 73 UntilWorld War I, it developed a cooperative relationship with theHong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) against encroachments by competing foreign banks fromFrance,Japan andRussia.[5]
In 1906, the bank received the concession to issue its ownbanknotes in China, denominated inMexican dollars and intaels.[4]: 455
In 1914 at the start ofWorld War I, the DAB's operations in Calcutta, Hong Kong and Singapore were promptly closed and liquidated by the British authorities. In Japan, the operations in Kobe and Yokohama came to a standstill in September 1916.[7] The branch inQingdao was plundered by the victorious Japanese army following thesiege of the city in 1914, and was subsequently used to host the Japanese Consulate there until World War II.[8] The rest of the DAB's Chinese network was closed by theChinese government followingChina's entry into the war on 14 August 1917.[5] in early 1919, the branch in Shanghai was liquidated, with its prestige main building taken over by theBank of Communications; the DAB only kept branches in Beijing and Hankou from its previous Chinese network.[9]
The DAB's operations in Japan restarted in 1919, but the Yokohama branch was destroyed in the1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Following the normalization of relationships between China and Germany in the early 1920s, the DAB was able to restart activity in Beijing, Guangzhou, Hankou, Shanghai, and Tianjin, as well as the continued operations in Japan.[7]
The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank's activity in Berlin was terminated in 1945 by order of theSoviet occupation forces in Germany.[10] On 27 September 1945, the government of theRepublic of China similarly took over the head office in Shanghai and confiscated the bank's Chinese assets without compensation. The branch inHamburg, however, could continue some activity after only a few days' interruption in May 1945, even though it had no access to the main offices' documentation. The bank's total headcount in Germany and China correspondingly evolved, from 85 in 1939 to 8 in January 1949 and 21 at end-1952.[11] the bank's head office was formally relocated from Shanghai to Hamburg in June 1953.[12] in 1963, the DAB absorbed the residual operations ofDeutsche Bank für Ostasien,[13]: 9 a specialized institution created during World War II to facilitate German-Japanese trade and whose branch in Tokyo had been liquidated by the allied occupation authorities in October 1945.[14]
In 1972, together with partner banks within the EBIC group (European Banks' International Company), Deutsche Bank subsequently foundedEuropäisch-Asiatische Bank (also known asEuropean Asian Bank orEurasbank), which the former Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was merged into. Beside Deutsche, the shareholder banks includedAMRO Bank (Netherlands),Banca Commerciale Italiana (Italy),Creditanstalt-Bankverein (Austria),Midland Bank (UK),Société Générale de Banque (Belgium), andSociété Générale (France).[15] In 1986, the bank was renamedDeutsche Bank (Asia) after the partner banks sold their participations to Deutsche Bank. Between 1987 and 1988, it was then merged into Deutsche Bank.[16]
The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank's branch inShanghai opened at No. 14Bund on 2 January 1890.[5] AfterWorld War I, the property was taken over by China'sBank of Communications, which in the 1940s replaced it with the still-standingBank of Communications Building.
![Building at Rathausstrasse 7 in Hamburg (right, with flags above), the bank's head office from the early 1960s[17]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRathausstra%25C3%259Fe.jpg)
Like other foreign banks in China at the time, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank issuedpaper currency in theconcessions where it had established branch offices.
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