The history of the
Frankfurter Volksbank goes back to the year 1862. On 19 May 1862, the
Frankfurter Gewerbekasse was founded by 81 well-known Frankfurt citizens. As early as the end of November 1862, a committee was set up to form a savings and advance bank. The first CEO was the Frankfurt banker Adolph Reinach (Chairman of the Board from 1862 to 1870). On 1 October 1862, the business was taken up in the house of the cashier, the
card deck manufacturer Caspar Ludwig Wüst, in Gallusstr. 15. On 11 November 1862, the senate of the free and imperial city of Frankfurt granted the bank the right as a legal entity. The bank experienced a quick boom. To this the end of the
guild restrictions in Frankfurt in January 1864 contributed which spurred the development of craftsmanship. In the first 5 years from 1862 to 1867 the number of members increased from 81 to 694, the
balance sheet total increased from 42,000 to almost 1 million
Guilders and 112,000 Guilders of savings had been raised. In addition, the company was profitable and paid a
dividend, which increased from 6% (1863) to 7% (1867). The company continued to grow in the following years, until it suffered a setback for the first time during the
Panic of 1873. So the membership numbers increased from 1525 in 1872 to 2153 in 1875 to fall again in 1881 to 1863. In 1868, the bank moved from the Hotel du Nord to a new premises at
Neue Kornmarkt 18. In 1873 another move to the
Große Eschenheimer Gasse took place to the building of
Leopold Sonnemanns (a co-founder of the bank)
Frankfurter Zeitung. In 1878, the house on the corner of
Börsenstraße /
Freßgass was acquired as the headquarters. Another factor that increased the attractiveness for members was the amendment of the
Prussian Cooperative Law of 1868. While all members so far in solidarity were liable with their own assets, the
solidarity liability was repealed on 20 February 1890. In the year 1914 one counted 3190 members and possessed over 3 million
Mark worth of business shares. The annual dividends fluctuated between 5 and 8 percent. The
inflation in the early 1920s also hit the
Gewerbekasse hard. Although the business achieved to increase the number of members in 1925 to 4203, the value of the shares fell to 187,510
Rentenmark. That the bank survived this difficult time at all was also the result of the work of the chairman of the board, Wilhelm Keller, who ran the bank from 1913 to 1936. With interruption during the
world economic crisis, the 20s and 30s were also times of strong growth. In 1930 the balance sheet totaled 10.1 million Mark, in 1942 it was 16.24 million Mark. In 1942, four cooperative banks in Frankfurt were forcibly merged into
Frankfurter Volksbank. In addition to the
Frankfurter Gewerbekasse, these were the
Frankfurter Genossenschaftsbank (founded in 1897), the name giving
Frankfurter Volksbank (founded in 1908) and the
Bank für Handel und Gewerbe (founded in 1925). • The
Frankfurter Genossenschaftsbank (cooperative bank) was established in 1897 as
Handwerker Spar- und Vorschußkasse eGmbH (craftsman savings and
loan fund) by 16 founders. Since 13 December 1909 it traded as
Frankfurter Genossenschaftsbank. In 1920/21 it had begun to open branches in
Bad Homburg and
Oberursel. Since 1922 the main branch was in
Biebergasse 10. • The Volksbank Frankfurt am Main was founded in 1908 as
Spar- und Darlehenskasse der Hausbesitzer zu Frankfurt am Main eGmbH (savings and loan fund of the homeowners). 1940 it was renamed
Volksbank. • The Bank
Handel und Gewerbe (bank for commerce and trade) was founded in 1925 as
Volks-Spar- und Creditcasse eGmbH and since 1928 has been called
Bank für Handel und Gewerbe. Together, the merged institution now had 4819 members and a balance sheet total of 47 million
Marks. As a result of the
currency reform, large parts of the capital were lost again. The
Deutsche Mark opening balance of 21 June 1948 showed that a balance sheet total of 76 million
Reichsmark became 5 million
Deutsche Mark. Of these, 3.6 million compensation claims were against the public sector from the assets side. The bank had 4400 members. With the
Wirtschaftswunder, the bank again grew strongly in the following years. In 1961 it had 8082 members and 6.2 million
Deutsche Mark equity. In 1970, other traditional
Volksbanks in the Frankfurt area were merged into
Frankfurter Volksbank. Those were the
Volksbanken from
Kronberg (founded 1862, 2,200 members, 45 Mio.
Deutsche Mark total assets),
Rödelheim (founded 1863) as well as
Bockenheim (34 Mio.
Deutsche Mark total assets, founded 1863). The latter had already merged with
Volksbank Eschborn (founded 1926) and
Volksbank Niederrad (founded 1872) in 1955. In subsequent years, a series of further mergers with other
Volksbanks took place. • 1981
Bornheimer Volksbank (founded 1881), which in 1954 had merged with
Volksbank Bonames (founded 1870) • 1990
Volksbank Vortaunus (founded 1899) • 1994
Königsteiner Volksbank (founded 1865) • 1998
Raiffeisenbank Maintal (a merger of Raiffeisenbanken Maintal-Bischofsheim and Maintal-Dörnigheim) • 1999
BVB Volksbank (founded 1924 as Bad Vilbeler Volksbank, was merged with Raiffeisenbank Berkersheim in 1981 , was merged with Bergen-Enkheimer Volksbank in 1991);
Volksbank Heldenbergen (founded 1868) and
Raiffeisenbank Bad Homburg (founded 1863) • 2000
Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Hanau (founded1864) and
Volksbank Usinger Land (founded 1863) • 2002
Volksbank Mörfelden-Walldorf (founded 1891) and
Volksbank Kelsterbach (founded 1889) • 2003
Offenbacher Volksbank (founded 1865) and
Volks- und Raiffeisenbank Weilmünster (founded 1865) • 2004
Raiffeisenbank Bruchköbel (founded 1893) • 2006
Volksbank Egelsbach (founded 1883) • 2009
Volksbank Main-Taunus (founded 1900) • 2012
Vereinigte Volksbank Griesheim-Weiterstadt (founded 1888) • 2016
Volksbank Höchst a. M. (founded 1862) • 2018
Volksbank Griesheim (founded 1871) and
Vereinigte Volksbank Maingau (founded 1863) ==See also==