61340 Vorabseiten_e - Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz

The banks provided Germany with other financial services as well. They were
involved in foreign currency dealings, the purchase and sale of banknotes,
helped with gold transactions, financed business dealings, and facilitated threeway
business with other countries.
A particularly problematic aspect of banking relations with Nazi Germany was
the trade in securities. In the 1920s, the trade in securities played an important
role for financial institutions which concentrated on international dealings. As
a result of the crisis in the banking sector, this type of trade decreased so drastically
between 1930 and 1935, even on the Swiss stock exchanges, that many
small banks and brokers had to close. Other small banks and banking institutions
(such as the Gesellschaft für Finanzgeschäfte AG in Zurich, Arbitrium AG
in Zug and Winterstein & Co. in Zurich) sought a way out of their dilemma by
specialising in the acquisition of German bonds (interest or dividend coupons).
These were bought on the secondary market and transferred to Germany where
they were redeemed. These special firms operated principally as collection
points for small and therefore non-sellable packages of coupons. According to
Friedrich von Tscharner, director of Discont-Credit AG in Zurich:
«The nature of this business implies that it is better carried out by a smaller
firm because in this way the necessary concentration and control of the
various sectors is guaranteed. At the same time you have to maintain
contact with people with whom a major bank might not want to have
regular dealings, although this doesn’t necessarily mean dubious parties.» 20
Another field in which the banks specialised was the redemption of German
securities in Switzerland and, after the outbreak of the war, in the USA and other
countries. These securities were redeemed directly for various German firms at
first. From the middle of the 1930s on, they were sent in bundles to the
Deutsche Golddiskontbank. In 1940 and 1941, the firm Otto Wolff redeemed
large packages of German securities in Switzerland on behalf of Hermann
Göring, who was responsible for the 4-year plan. The attraction of this type of
business lay in the fact that German firms could buy back unredeemed bonds
at very low prices (often 20% to 50% below their nominal value), while the
vendors were happy to be able to limit their losses as rates were constantly
dropping. Since Swiss securities were given preference according to the
Germano-Swiss standstill agreement of 1933, they had to be accompanied by a
certificate to confirm that they were Swiss and not foreign property. During the
war the number of such affidavits, confirmations and guarantees of all sorts
mushroomed. The Germans demanded declarations that the securities did not
belong to citizens of «enemy states», while the Allies demanded «assurance»
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