Robert Pferdmenges (27 March 1880 in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

– 28 September 1962 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

) was a German banker and CDU politician. He was a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

from 1950 to 1962 and a close friend to

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...

Life and profession

After attending school and doing military service with the Leibdragoners in Darmstadt, Pferdmenges completed a banking apprenticeship at the . From 1901 he worked at the London branch of

Disconto-Gesellschaft The Disconto-Gesellschaft (, full name Direktion der Disconto-Gesellschaft) was a significant German bank, founded in Berlin in 1851. It was one of the largest German banking organizations until its 1929 merger into Deutsche Bank. History The ...

, becoming branch manager there after a few years. In 1913, he moved to the Antwerp branch of the same banking institution. Shortly thereafter, he was enlisted in the reserve regiment of the Darmstadt Leibdragoners, again detached to Antwerp for civil administration, and returned to Cologne in 1919 as a Rittmeister. From 1919 to 1929, he was a member of the board of directors of A. Schaaffhausen'scher Bankverein in Cologne; as chairman of the board, he was instrumental in the 1929 merger of Disconto-Gesellschaft with

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

and became a member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank. In 1931, at the instigation of Reich Chancellor

Heinrich Brüning Heinrich Aloysius Maria Elisabeth Brüning (; 26 November 1885 – 30 March 1970) was a German Centre Party politician and academic, who served as the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. A political scientis ...

, Pferdmenges became deputy chairman of the supervisory board of

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG () was a German bank, founded in 1872 in Dresden, then headquartered in Berlin from 1884 to 1945 and in Frankfurt from 1963 onwards after a postwar hiatus. Long Germany's second-largest bank behind Deutsche Bank, it was eventually ...

and, a year later, also a member of an expert commission on the establishment of state banking supervision. In 1932, he became a member of the General Council and the Central Committee of 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 ...

, but left the body again a year later. He had already been chairman of the Association of Banks and Bankers in Rhineland and Westphalia since 1921; he gave up the post when the National Socialists came to power in 1933. He was also a member of the German Gentlemen's Club, an influential association of high-ranking conservative personalities in the Weimar Republic.

Bibliography

* Peter Fuchs: ''Nur wenige Kölner haben Pferdmenges je gesehen''. In: ''Kölner Themen''. Greven, Köln 1996, . * Nikolaus Jakobsen: ''Robert Pferdmenges''. Olzog, München 1957. * Christoph Silber-Bonz: ''Pferdmenges und Adenauer''. Bouvier, Bonn 1997, . * * Wilhelm Treue: ''Das Schicksal des Bankhauses Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie und seine Inhaber im Dritten Reich''. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1983. * Wilhelm Treue: ''Robert Pferdmenges (1880–1962).'' In: Kölner Unternehmer im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. (Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsbiographien, Band 13.) Aschendorff, Münster 1986, S. 203–222. * Volker Woschnik, Jan Wucherpfenning: ''Robert Pferdmenges, Bankier in turbulenten Zeiten''. In: ''Zeugen städtischer Vergangenheit''. Band 24. Mönchengladbach 2006, .

References

External links

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Robert-Pferdmenges-Str.
in Cologne 1880 births 1962 deaths Politicians from Mönchengladbach German bankers Members of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 Members of the Bundestag 1949–1953 Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Alterspräsidents of the Bundestag Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany {{Germany-business-bio-stub