Deutsch-Asiatische Bank

Deutsch-Asiatische Bank (DAB) (simplified Chinese: 德华银行; traditional Chinese: 德華銀行; pinyin: Déhuá Yínháng) was a foreign bank in China. Its principal activity was trade financing, but together with English and French banks, it also played a role in the underwriting of bonds for the Chinese government and in the financing of railway construction in China.

Mittelstrasse 2-4 in Berlin, the bank's headquarters in the 1920s

History

Deutsche-Asiatische Bank was founded in Shanghai on 12 February 1889 with the participation of Deutsche Bank, one of the largest banks in Germany. At the time, it was the first large non-British bank to enter the Chinese market.[1] It set up branches in Calcutta (1895),[2] Tianjin (1890),[3] Hankou (1897),[4] Qingdao (1897),[5] Hong Kong (1900),[6] Yokohama (1905),[7] Kobe (1906),[8] Singapore (1906),[9] Beijing (1910),[10] Guangzhou (1910)[11] and Jinan (1914).[12] Until World War I, it developed a cooperative relationship with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation against encroachments by competing foreign banks from France, Japan and Russia.[1]

In 1906, the bank received the concession to issue its own banknotes in China. Its branch in Qingdao was plundered by the victorious Japanese army following the siege of Tsingtao in 1914, and was subsequently used to host the Japanese Consulate until World War II.[13] The rest of its Chinese network was closed in 1917 by the Chinese government,[1] partly reconstituted in the interwar period, and terminated again during World War II.[14] In 1953, it launched a new beginning in Hamburg. Together with partner banks within the EBIC group, Deutsche Bank subsequently founded "Europäisch-Asiatische Bank" in 1972 (later renamed "European Asian Bank"), which the former Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was merged into. In 1986, the bank was called "Deutsche Bank (Asia)" after the partner banks withdrew from their participations. Between 1987 and 1988, it was then merged into Deutsche Bank.[15]

Branch buildings in China

The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank's branch in Shanghai opened at No. 14 Bund on 2 January 1890.[1] After World War I, the property was taken over by China's Bank of Communications, which in the 1940s replaced it with the still-standing Bank of Communications Building.

  • Branch building in the Beijing Legation Quarter, 1900
    Branch building in the Beijing Legation Quarter, 1900
  • Branch building in Qingdao, 1901
    Branch building in Qingdao, 1901
  • Same building in the early 2000s
    Same building in the early 2000s
  • Late-19th-century branch building in Shanghai, 1908
    Late-19th-century branch building in Shanghai, 1908
  • Former interwar branch building in Shanghai, 2013
    Former interwar branch building in Shanghai, 2013
  • Branch building in Hankou, 1908
    Branch building in Hankou, 1908
  • Former branch building in Jinan, 2009
    Former branch building in Jinan, 2009

Banknotes

Like other foreign banks in China at the time, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank issued paper currency in the concessions where it had established branch offices.

  • 1 dollar local currency, Shanghai (1907)
    1 dollar local currency, Shanghai (1907)
  • 1 dollar local currency, Qingdao (1907)
    1 dollar local currency, Qingdao (1907)
  • 1 dollar local currency, Beijing (1907)
    1 dollar local currency, Beijing (1907)
  • 1 dollar local currency, Beijing (1907)
    1 dollar local currency, Beijing (1907)
  • 1 dollar local currency, Tianjin (1907)
    1 dollar local currency, Tianjin (1907)
  • 1 dollar local currency, Tianjin (1907)
    1 dollar local currency, Tianjin (1907)
  • 200 dollars local currency, Shanghai (1914)
    200 dollars local currency, Shanghai (1914)
  • 200 dollars local currency, Shanghai (1914)
    200 dollars local currency, Shanghai (1914)

See also

References
  1. John E. Sandrock. "Foreign Banks in China, Part II - Imperial Chinese Issues (1900-1911)" (PDF). The Currency Collector.
  2. Branch in Calcutta (now Kolkata) Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de (8 October 1996). Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  3. Branch in Tientsin (now Tianjin) Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de (27 October 1945). Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  4. Branch in Hankow (part of Wuhan) Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  5. Branch in Tsingtao (now Qindao, German: Tsingtau) Archived 3 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  6. Hong Kong branch Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de (1 November 1979). Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  7. Yokohama branch Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  8. Kobe branch Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de (15 May 1906). Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  9. Singapore branch Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  10. Branch in Peking (now Beijing) Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  11. Branch in Canton (now Guangzhou) Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  12. Tsinanfu branch Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  13. "Tsingtao - Tsingtau - Qingdao". An American in China: 1936-1939, A Memoir.
  14. "Ghassan Moazzin, "From Globalization to Liquidation: The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank and the First World War in China," Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 16 (2015), 52-76". Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  15. Deutsch Bank Archived 29 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Bankgeschichte.de (2 November 2004). Retrieved 11 January 2012.
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