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September 10, 2025

The Nazi Financial Order: Banking Law and the Credit Supervisory Office in Germany and Austria

Key Points

The article identifies how banking law evolved under the Nazi regime to support their financial interests.
Nazi officials weaponized legal institutions to facilitate their rearmament campaign and economic goals.
The Credit Supervisory Office enforced a standardized regulatory model that reflected the regime's shifting priorities.
The dissolution of the Credit Supervisory Office in 1944 highlighted the changing aims of Nazi economic governance.

Abstract

Abstract The Third Reich established a new financial order in Central Europe. This article examines one aspect of these changes, namely the evolution of banking law. After the seizure of power in 1933, Nazi officials weaponized financial and legal institutions to support the rearmament campaign. They initially worked through the Credit Supervisory Office, a regulatory agency created in 1934, to enforce a standardized model of regulation. Driven by more than a desire for self-sufficiency (autarky) and expropriative control, the authorities devised a system of economic governance that perpetuated the conflict and continually supported German financial interests. The politicization and dismantling of the regulatory office, officially dissolved in 1944, reflected the evolving priorities of the Nazi regime. By reinterpreting existing laws and working with a willing state bureaucracy, officials were able to use regulation as a tool for redesigning the banking systems of Germany and the annexed territories.

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