The 1978 "Silver Tower" houses part of the head office of the Dresdner bank.

The 2003 finished "Gallileo Tower" is part of the head office of Dresdner Bank.

History

19th century

Dresdner Bank was established on 12 November 1872 through the conversion of financial institution Michael Kaskel. Dresdner Bank founding consortium consisted of Allgemeine Deutsche Creditanstalt, Leipzig, Berliner Handels-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Deutsche Vereinsbank, Frankfurt am Main, Deutsche Effecten- und Wechselbank, Frankfurt am Main, and Anglo-Deutsche Bank, Hamburg with an initial capital of 8 million Thalers (24 million Marks) and 30 employees in Wilsdruffer Strasse in Dresden. In 1870s, Dresdner Bank acquired smaller regional institutes and several banks. The new branch in Berlin quickly exceeded the office in Dresden; therefore, the registered office moved to Berlin in 1884 leaving the place of jurisdiction in Dresden until 1950. After few new acquisitions, (even the acquisition of founder of Anglo-Deutsche Bank) opened the first international branch in London in 1895. By 1900, Dresdner bank had the largest German branch network. During the First World War, the London branch was forced to close; however, the branch network expanded in overall.

Early 20th century

After the banking crisis in 1931 the German Reich owned 66% and Deutsche Golddiskontbank owned 22% of Dresdner Bank shares. Its deputy director was Dr Schacht, Minister of Economy under Nazism. The Bank was reprivatised in 1937. As a result of World War II 80% of the Bank's buildings were destroyed; therefore, the Bank lost 162 offices in 56 locations. As a result of the monetary reform and the introduction of the Deutsche Mark in 1948 the banking business began to normalize.

Post World War II era

Dresdner Bank expanded its network with acquisition and opening new offices not only in Europe but also in the United States, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. Dresdner Bank was the first to open its own office in former eastern Germany in Dresden in 2 January 1990. After the acquisition of Kleinwort Benson in 1995 to form its investment-banking arm Dresdner Kleinwort, Dresdner Bank takes over the American investment bank Wasserstein Perella Group Inc., New York in 2000. This arm was renamed Dresdner Kleinwort in September 2006, dropping the Wasserstein name.

Allianz era

Since 2002, Dresdner Bank has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance corporation Allianz. Dresdner Kleinwort, the Investment Bank arm of Dresdner recently, in July 2006 dropped Wasserstein from their name and went through a re-organization of corporate bank, capital markets and investment bank. The arm made up of Capital Markets and Investment Banking.

In 2008 it was reported that Allianz was looking to dispose of Dresdner Bank and that the British banking group Lloyds TSB were planning a bid. However in July that year Lloyds TSB announced they had changed their minds and would not be taking any further action.

Takeover by Commerzbank

On August 31 2008, Commerzbank announced that it would acquire Dresdner Bank for EUR 9.8 billion. The deal entitled Allianz to receive about EUR 8.8 billion for the sale of 100% of Dresdner Bank AG and about EUR 975 million into a trust solution for specific ABS assets of Dresdner Bank.

The transaction, which would occur in two steps, is expected to be completed by the end of 2009. Under the deal, Commerzbank would pay about EUR 1.6 billion in cash and remainder in shares.^[1]

External links

• Dresdner Bank corporate website
• History - Timeline
• Allianz Group corporate website
• Dresdner Kleinwort

Data

• Yahoo! - Dresdner Bank AG Company Profile

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