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The Reich Debt Administration () was the entity responsible for managing German state debt from 1900-1946.
In 1900 the organisation was renamed the Reich Debt Administration when the first Reich Debt Ordinance was issued. This summarized various older laws on the acceptance and administration of the Reich debts. At the same time, the main administration of the national debt was renamed the Reich Debt Administration. The nominal leadership lay with the Reich Chancellor.
During the Empire, the Commission that oversaw the Reich Debt Administration consisted of six members each from the Federal Council and the Reichstag. Added to this was the President of the Reich Audit Office. In addition to supervising the Reich Debt Administration, the Commission also supervised the Reich War Treasury and the Reich Disability Fund. For the latter task, the Commission was strengthened by another five members. The Commission was also responsible for issuing, confiscating and destroying Reich banknotes from the
A second Reich debt code was passed in 1924 after the currency reform. This clarified the type of borrowing and at the same time confirmed the independence of the authority. In the same year, the administration moved into its new building in Berlin.
Prussian origins
The organisation was founded in 1820 as thePrussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n government debt administration with Christian von Rother as its first president. After the granting of the Constitution of Prussia (1850)
The 1850 Constitution of Prussia was an amended version of the 1848 Constitution. Unlike the earlier version that King Frederick William IV had unilaterally imposed on the Kingdom of Prussia on 5 December 1848, the 1850 revision was a cooperative ...
, public debt management was reorganized. Although the main administration remained a separate authority from the general financial administration, it was subordinate to the Prussian Ministry of Finance. With the founding of the North German Confederation
The North German Confederation () was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated state (a ''de facto'' feder ...
in 1867 and the German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
in 1871, the authority extended its remit over the newly unified territories. also took over debt management for the respective federal territory. It also undertook the conversion of bonds issued in legacy currencies into the new mark currency.
German Empire
In 1900 the organisation was renamed the Reich Debt Administration when the first Reich Debt Ordinance was issued. This summarized various older laws on the acceptance and administration of the Reich debts. At the same time, the main administration of the national debt was renamed the Reich Debt Administration. The nominal leadership lay with the Reich Chancellor.
During the Empire, the Commission that oversaw the Reich Debt Administration consisted of six members each from the Federal Council and the Reichstag. Added to this was the President of the Reich Audit Office. In addition to supervising the Reich Debt Administration, the Commission also supervised the Reich War Treasury and the Reich Disability Fund. For the latter task, the Commission was strengthened by another five members. The Commission was also responsible for issuing, confiscating and destroying Reich banknotes from the Reichsbank
The ''Reichsbank'' (; ) was the central bank of the German Empire from 1876 until the end of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Background
The monetary institutions in Germany had been unsuited for its economic development for several decades before unifica ...
.
Weimar Republic
A second Reich debt code was passed in 1924 after the currency reform. This clarified the type of borrowing and at the same time confirmed the independence of the authority. In the same year, the administration moved into its new building in Berlin.
Nazi and post-war periods
After the beginning of National Socialist rule, the right to approve loans was transferred from the Reichstag to the Reich government as part of theEnabling Act of 1933
The Enabling Act of 1933 ( German: ', officially titled ' ), was a law that gave the German Cabinet—most importantly, the chancellor, Adolf Hitler—the power to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or President Pa ...
.
Most of the debt register files were destroyed by air raids in 1945. In 1946, debt management was assigned to the Allied Military Command. In March 1948, the Reich Debt Administration was renamed the “Management Group for Archives of the Former Reich Debt Administration”. In July of the same year, a debt administration of the United Economic Area was established. The Federal Debt Administration emerged from this in 1949. This was renamed the Federal Securities Administration in 2002. In August 2006, this was merged into the German Finance Agency.
Commission heads
Source: *1820-1848: Christian von Rother *1848-1861: Heinrich August Christian Nathan *1861-1874: Busso von Wedell *1874-1879: Botho Heinrich zu Eulenburg *1879-1892: Friedrich Hermann Sydow *1892-1905: Otto von Hoffmann *1905-1907: Rudolf von Bitter the Younger *1907-1918: Alexander von Bischoffshausen *1918-1928: Carl Halle *1929-1944: Ernst Articus *1945-22. May 1945: Oskar Georg Fischbach *1945-1951: Siegfried Schultzenstein *1948-1955: Wilhelm DiebenReferences
{{Authority control 1900 establishments in Germany Germany_national_debt