A. Schaaffhausen'scher Bankverein
In 1848 it was reorganized as a joint stock company; purchased in 1914 by the Berlin-based Disconto-Gesellschaft, and its brand finally disappeared in 1929 as the latter was in turn merged with Deutsche Bank.
In 1791, Abraham Schaaffhausen [de] founded a private bank, one of the first and most important financial resources for the growing local economy and its incipient industrialization.
The transformation of the Schaaffhausen bank into an Aktiengesellschaft was thus voted by a creditors' meeting on 3 June 1848, and ratified by King Frederick William IV on 28 August 1848.
In October 1848, Mevissen was appointed to the new entity's management body ("Direktorium"), together with Schaaffhausen's son-in-law Wilhelm Ludwig Deichmann and former employee Victor Wendelstadt.
[2]: 2–3 A few weeks after the Bankverein's establishment Camphausen and Hansemann were replaced by a conservative Prussian government led by Rudolf von Auerswald.
[2]: 4 Conversely, the Bank für Handel und Industrie was established as an Aktiengesellschaft in 1853, but for that it had to locate itself in the comparatively more liberal Grand Duchy of Hesse, in Darmstadt.
., as to induce the capitalists of the country, by recommendations based on exhaustive investigations, to turn idle capital toward such enterprises, which, when properly launched in response to existing requirements, and offering the guarantee of expert management, bid fair to yield reasonable profits.” Industrial in purpose, current account business was secondary, and deposits were received only on condition of three, six and 12 months' notice being given for their withdrawal, and then only at a low rate of interest.
The close identification from the first with the prosperous and flourishing Rhineland-Westphalia industry, and the strict adherence to its original purpose, lent strength to the Bankverein to weather the financial crisis of 1857 without the necessity of canceling any of its outstanding credits — a strong factor in extending its influence during succeeding years.
