History of the Inventory Former: The Bank der Deutschen Luftfahrt, also known as the Aero- or Luftfahrtbank, was formed by the transformation of Luftfahrtkontor GmbH into a public limited company with shareholder resolution of 6 July 1940, the object of which, according to the articles of association of that date, was "the execution of banking transactions of all kinds and of related transactions serving directly or indirectly aviation purposes, as well as the administration and supervision of aviation companies and the execution of all such transactions, including in a fiduciary capacity" [1]. Luftfahrtkontor GmbH had been founded in 1933/34 in the context of the takeover of the Junkers group by the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) and in 1938 was responsible for the administration of 1. the Reich-owned facilities leased to companies in the aviation industry, 2. the Reich's holdings in companies in the aviation industry and 3. the investment loans [2]. In the course of the so-called "capital cut" to reform corporate financing, the investment loans granted until then were converted into state aid for special depreciation and firms were encouraged to use more of their own funds and borrowed capital to finance investments. To this end, both the RLM and the Reich Ministry of Finance (RFM) considered it sensible to set up their own commercial bank for aviation, whose loans were intended to stimulate the involvement of other banks and other donors and to which all Reich shareholdings in the aviation industry and aviation were to be transferred. On 9 June 1939 Luftfahrtkontor GmbH received its banking licence from the Reich Commissioner for Banking and quickly acquired the character of a "universal bank for German aviation" [3] after the start of the war. In addition to the conventional investment loans, the Luftfahrtbank increasingly granted the aerospace armaments companies - similar to the Deutsche Industriebank for the suppliers of the army and navy - the credit assistance provided by the Reich Economic Ministry (RWM) for the mobilization of arms production (in short: "mobkredite") with Reich guarantees from autumn 1939 onwards. This resulted in a substantial increase in the Bank's lending volume, which, together with the significant increase in managed participations and deposits from aviation companies, as well as increased activity on the stock exchange and the money market, led to the Bank being renamed "Bank der Deutschen Luftfahrt" and converted into a stock corporation (AG). This was in response to the wish of the General Airworthiness Officer Ernst Udet that "the company's status as a bank should be expressed in the company name" [4]. Like its predecessor Luftfahrtkontor, the Bank der Deutschen Luftfahrt initially resided in Berlin-Schöneberg, Am Park 12. In the night from March 1 to March 2, 1943, Ge‧bäude burned out completely after an Allied air raid, whereupon the bank had to move its Geschäfts‧räume to the center of Berlin (Werderstr. 7). As a result of the fire, loss of files also seems to have been the cause of complaint [5]. Dissatisfied with the accommodation that was not considered to be standes‧gemäß, the bank pushed in the spring of 1944 the efforts that had previously been made by the Jewish company Panofski
Find aids: Findbuch 1978, Revision 1988 (online searchable) Registraturbilder: The DCGG was founded on 12.03.1855 in Dessau on the initiative of the entrepreneur Viktor von Unruh and the Dessau banker Louis Nulandt. At first a gasworks was built in Dessau, which supplied the city with town gas for street lighting from 1856 onwards. This was followed by gas works in cities at home and abroad, such as Mönchengladbach, Magdeburg, Frankfurt/Oder, Mülheim/Ruhr, Potsdam, Warsaw and Lemberg. In 1857, Unruh brought the engineer Wilhelm Oechelhaeuser sen. into the company. In 1859 Nulandt retired after accusations of irregularities and Oechelhaeuser became the sole director general. Both the production of appliances for the sale of gas and the production of gas-consuming appliances themselves grew rapidly. The Centralwerkstatt Dessau was founded in 1871 to convert existing gas meters and to produce new ones. In 1921, the Centralwerkstatt merged with Carl Bamberg Werkstätten für Präzisionsmechanik in Berlin-Friedenau to form Askania-Werke AG. In 1872, Berlin-Anhaltische Maschinenfabrik AG (BAMAG), which manufactured the vertical furnaces used in the gas works, and Dessauer Waggonbau AG, which manufactured gas-powered trams, operated in Dessau. From 1886 Dessau received the second power station in Germany after Berlin. The required generators were developed by Wilhelm von Oechelhaeuser jun. Together with Hugo Junkers, brought into the factory in 1888, they succeeded in using powerful two-stroke counter-piston engines from 1892 onwards. Wilhelm von Oechelhaeuser jun. followed his father in 1889 as general director. Under the management of Bruno Heck, the company achieved a dominant position in Central Germany in 1917 with the founding of Elektrizitätswerke Sachsen-Anhalt AG in Halle. When the property located in the Soviet occupation zone was expropriated after the end of the war, the company moved its headquarters to Hagen/Westphalia in 1947. The alleged transfer of assets was the reason for the GDR's first Stalinist show trial, which was negotiated in 1950 under Hilde Benjamin in Dessau and ended with high prison sentences. The inventory is supplemented by the deliveries of the E-Werke in Bernburg, Dessau and Coswig. Inventory information: The collection was handed over in 1967 by the archive of the VEB Energieversorgung Halle to the then Historische Staatsarchiv Oranienbaum, now Abteilung Dessau. Small supplements were added in 1978. Included photos: 110