Although the Berlin Stock Exchange was established on June 29, 1685, by Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, the first
securities trading did not occur until February 25, 1739. Trading initially took place on the upper floor of the
Neues Lusthaus in central Berlin's
Lustgarten, located near the
Berlin Cathedral and the
Berliner Stadtschloss. In 1798, this building was demolished and replaced with a
new exchange building on the same site. In 1803, the United Stock Exchange Corporation assumed operations but was replaced again in 1820 by a newly established
consortium of
Berlin Merchants, known as the
Berliner Kaufmannschaft, or ''Berlin Merchants' Association''. Between 1859 and 1863, architect
Friedrich Hitzig designed a new building for the exchange at
Burgstraße 25–26, on the opposite side of the
Spree River. Opening on October 1, 1863, the exchange was informally referred to by its address as "
Die Burgstraße". The construction cost was approximately 700,000
Vereinsthaler. Before the outbreak of
World War I, the
Berlin Stock Exchange was the largest stock exchange in Germany and was among the largest stock, bond, and commodity exchanges in the world, comparable in size to the
London Stock Exchange and the
New York Stock Exchange. On Thursday, July 30, trading at the
Burgstraße would close a day early following
Russia’s general mobilization. Two days later, on Saturday August 1,
The German Empire declared war on the
Russian Empire. Normal commercial activity ceased as the state
mobilized its resources and prepared to shift towards a
war economy. As a result, all trading on the exchange was halted and would not resume until November 2, 1917, though under strict government controls. In 1920, when the corporation of
Berlin Merchants merged with the
Berlin Chamber of Commerce, ownership of the stock exchange was transferred to the aforementioned Chamber of Commerce. In 1922, the first calculation of the Statistical Office's Stock Index was based on the average price level of approximately 300 representative shares of the Berlin Stock Exchange. The
Wirtschaftsrundfunk, a
business news radio broadcasting agency, maintained an office in the exchange building. On May 13, 1927, in an event known as "Black Friday", the Berlin index lost 31.9% of its value, following attempts by
Reichsbank President
Hjalmar Schacht to impose limits on
financial speculation. Black Friday began a downturn in German financial markets that would continue into the
Great Depression. In 1926, 917
public companies were trading on the exchange, but by the end of 1932, only 659 remained. After the
Nazis took over Germany, they sought to revitalize the German economy by implementing an
authoritarian command economy and
rearmament, but they were unable to reverse this trend. By 1943, the number of listed companies would drop to 450, less than half the amount listed eighteen years prior. That same year, economic pressures caused by
the Second World War led the
Reich Statistical Office (
German: Statistische Reichsamt) to suspend all trading activity. On May 24, 1944, the stock exchange building burned down following an
air raid. The ruins of the exchange were demolished in the year 1957 and 1958. Remnants of the old building, such as
pillars and
façade pieces, were visible from behind a construction fence until new construction began in 2001.
Post-Second World War On March 11, 1952, official trading reopened again in
West Berlin, with meetings held in the Lodge House on
Emser Straße until the completion of a new stock exchange building. Yet the
physical and human costs wrought by the war's destruction meant that the Berlin stock market’s significance was greatly reduced from its pre-war status. An architectural design competition was announced for both the Chamber of Commerce, Industry the stock exchange. The competition was won by architects Franz Heinrich Sobotka and Gustav Müller. The
inauguration of the new building on the
Fasanenstraße took place on June 18, 1955. In September 2007, Börse Berlin AG acquired a majority stake in EASDAQ NV, which operates under the
Equiduct brand. The Equiduct marketplace was launched on March 20, 2009. On July 21, 2009, Equiduct entered a
strategic partnership with
Citadel Securities, a division of
Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C. The agreement between
Citadel Securities and Börse Berlin AG provided funding for Equiduct to develop its platform. Equiduct is operated by Börse Berlin as part of the Berlin Second Regulated Market (B.S.R.M.), which was established in 2009. . In October 2019, Tradegate Exchange GmbH, the stock exchange operator, announced the completion of a share deal to acquire 100 percent of the shares in Börse Berlin AG, the operating company of the traditional Berlin Stock Exchange and Equiduct. In return, the Verein Berliner Börse e.V., the previous owner of the Börse Berlin AG, received a stake in the
Tradegate Exchange GmbH. Under the agreement, Tradegate Exchange, Börse Berlin, and Equiduct are operated jointly. ==See also==