Adele Spitzeder – a woman, who almost drove Bavarian into bankruptcy

The History

Adele Spitzeder was the daughter of a respected artistic family and strove in vain to become a great actress. Constantly struggling with money, she tried her hand at banking. She became a key player in the so-called Gründerkrise of 1873, the first major financial crisis in Germany.

The whole story began in 1968, when Adele Spitzeder, herself completely penniless, promised a carpenter’s wife ten percent interest per month if she entrusted her with her money. She paid the first monthly installments to the woman, who immediately spread the word. More and more people came to Spitzederin—as she was called—and brought their money. Initially, the amounts were small, but over time, the amount grew.

Eventually, she founded a bank and was celebrated aas a brilliant banker. Much to the chagrin of the large, long-established banks, the “Spitzedersche Privatbank,” later known as the Dachauer Bank, quickly went from being an insider tip to a major corporation, with entire Bavarian communities as customers. Many customers from all over Bavaria left their bank and joined her.

The end

On November 12, 1872, catastrophe struck. A judicial commission, with a large police presence, closed the “Dachau Bank” for “fraudulent bankruptcy,”. Adele Spitzeder and several of her employees were imprisoned and convicted of fraud. An investigation into the bank’s financial situation revealed excessive indebtedness of eight million guilders (about 400 million euros today). Well over 30,000 creditors lost their entire savings, some even choosing suicide as a result. Many Bavarian communities, which had actually hoped to make a lot of money, went bankrupt and this briefly plunged the Bavarian state into a financial crisis.