Interlocking Directorates of Bank’s Supervisory Board and Managing Board Members in Other Enterprises During the Inflation Period After World War I

In Germany, industry–bank relationships built through various mechanisms, such as bank credit and securities businesses, shareholdings, and deposited stock systems, and the assignment of directors from banks to corporation boards were established during the shift to monopolistic capitalism in the early twentieth century. During inflation after World War I, studies have clarified that banks’ influence on industrial enterprises in capital financing decreased. Moreover, industrial companies developed their businesses independently from banks because of the tremendous changes resulting from inflation. Can such a change be observed in personnel connections built through interlocking directorates of top management members of large banks on the supervisory boards of other enterprises? This chapter clarifies the actual conditions of the direct and indirect interlocking directorates of the three largest banks, namely Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, and Commerzbank.