Savers storm a Berlin bank

German savers stormed the Sparkasse Bank in Berlin after the Danat-Bank (Darmstädter und Nationalbank) had collapsed. They wanted to withdraw their savings to exchange them for foreign currency. The Danat-Bank was the second-largest bank in Germany.

This rush was a reaction to the global financial crisis, which had begun in October 1929 with the great crash, the collapse of stock prices at the Wall Street Stock Exchange in New York.

Up until then, German companies had been borrowing money from banks in the United States, and these loans had helped the German economy back on its feet. The German state had also borrowed money to make the reparations payments laid down in the Treaty of Versailles. However, because of the crisis, the American banks had stopped lending money.

Germany depended on these loans, and so, the German economy was suffering. The Danat-Bank went bankrupt. German investors and savers no longer trusted other banks either. They withdrew their savings and exchanged them for foreign currencies. To stop them, on 13 July 1931, the government closed the banks for a period of three weeks and prohibited the exchange of the Reichmark. After this period, the economic crisis only deteriorated.