|
|
 |
|
|
|
| Home > Spokesmen > Arthur von Gwinner |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Arthur von Gwinner |
Gwinner, Arthur von
Born: April 6, 1856 Frankfurt am Main
Died: December 29, 1931 Berlin
Member of the Board of Managing Directors:
1894-1919, Spokesman 1910-1919
Arthur von Gwinner came from a well-known family of Frankfurt lawyers. His father was executor of the estate of Arthur Schopenhauer, and his grandfather held the office of Senior Lord Mayor of Frankfurt.
Following a banking apprenticeship with Mitteldeutsche Creditbank in Frankfurt am Main, he worked for a decade abroad (England, France, and Spain), where he acquired extensive knowledge of the international banking business. In 1888, he acquired the Berlin-based Bankhaus Riess & Itzinger, which he continued to operate under his own name but liquidated in 1894, when he was appointed member of the Board of Managing Directors of Deutsche Bank.
In this capacity, Gwinner was primarily responsible for international operations and worked closely together with Georg von Siemens. An indication of how small the bank still was a quarter of a century after its foundation was that the two men still had desks facing each other, seeing as not every member of the Board of Managing Directors had his own room at that time. Siemens left the Board of Managing Directors at the end of the year 1900, and Gwinner took over his tasks, primarily relating to the major international transactions such as the Baghdad Railway and the railway financing in North America.
The sale and restructuring of the Romanian crude oil company "Steaua Romana" marked the start of the establishment of the "oil group" at Deutsche Bank in the year 1903, an area for which Gwinner was also responsible. His name is also closely connected with the development of foreign business in the electrical industry, primarily with the foreign commitments of AEG and Siemens as well as their holding companies.
Both the Baghdad Railway and the oil businesses of Deutsche Bank were economic and political undertakings that called for a great deal of diplomatic talent. In this context, Gwinner acquired a reputation as "the bank's diplomat", a responsibility for which he was especially suited by virtue of his cosmopolitan character and his excellent language skills. Although Rudolph von Koch initially held the Spokesman's position starting in 1901 - due to the seniority principle - Gwinner was considered to be Siemens' successor both internally as well as in the public eye when it came to the management of the bank and in his capacity as the executor of major foreign projects. The first fifty years of Deutsche Bank were decisively influenced by Siemens and Gwinner; both of whom were guarantors for the continuity of the company's development.
January 1910, the Kaiser appointed Gwinner - for his services in the Ottoman Empire - member of the Prussian House of Lords, that is the "upper house" of parliament. This is where Gwinner held a famous speech in 1910 in which he criticized the budgeting as well as the deficit economy of the Prussian Finance Ministry, damaging to the government's credit. His famous remark during the debate: "Everything takes talent, but borrowing requires genius!" later became a frequently heard saying in Berlin.
It was part of Deutsche Bank's "style", also maintained by von Gwinner, that the Spokesman of the Board of Managing Directors did not have any outstanding title. Gwinner therefore wrote to the "Berliner Tageblatt" on May 3, 1913 - "Confidentially and not for publication": "In reference to your report yesterday on the Bergmann annual general meeting, I politely request that you do not call me general director. Deutsche Bank has never had one and, as long as I am a member of the Board of Managing Directors, never will. Our Articles of Association are democratic."
In 1919, Gwinner left the Board of Managing Directors and became member of the bank's Supervisory Board, functioning as its Deputy Chairman from 1923 until his death in 1931. In 1917 he donated 300,000 marks to benefit bank employees, which was used to establish a recreation home in the "Kraehenberg" section of Caputh, near Potsdam.
In addition to banking, Gwinner's wide range of interests included, above all, mineralogy and botany.
|
|
|
