Banks build

A close look at financial institutions’ ‘building’ roles

29 Jun 2023 at 10:00am

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

A financial archives workshop organised by eabh

sponsored by Deutsche Bank AG

In this workshop, we are looking for collections, databases and archival projects that shed light on the link of financial institutions as builders.

In history, financial institutions have always played major, often pioneering roles when new countries were built, independence was established, or peacetime re-building started. They initiated state and infrastructure building by helping other companies (re-)start their businesses in new legislations or after disruptive periods.

In the framework of this meeting, we would like to look at archival evidence in and about financial institutions’ ‘building’ roles. The connections between banking and building, finance, cities, and countries may be wide range – and unexpected. The examples of historical experiences are global and manifold: the building of US infrastructure after independence (railways), specialising US financial infrastructure in the process, re-building Europe after WWI, after WWII and during the Eastern extension of the EU, nation building in Central and South America, African independence, …, to name just a few…

The evolution of a country or economy is always reflected in the records banks, exchanges and insurers hold: if you look at what’s traded and insured and how successfully, you can see the state an economy is in. More and beyond, finance plays a major role in building cities and infrastructure during ‘normal’ times; the sector’s importance for architecture, urban planning and building of all kinds is undenied.