European banking crisis of 1931

Bank run at the Sparkasse on Mühlendamm, Berlin, 13 July 1931

The European banking crisis of 1931 was a major episode of financial instability that peaked with the collapse of several major banks in Austria and Germany, including Creditanstalt on 11 May 1931, Landesbank der Rheinprovinz on 11 July 1931, and Danat-Bank on 13 July 1931. It triggered the exit of Germany from the gold standard on 15 July 1931, followed by the UK on 19 September 1931, and extensive losses in the U.S. financial system that contributed to the Great Depression. The crisis has been widely associated with the subsequent rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and its eventual takeover of government in early 1933, as well as the emergence of Austrofascism in Austria and other authoritarian developments in Central Europe.

The causes of the crisis included a complex mix of financial, fiscal, macroeconomic, political and international imbalances that have nurtured a lively debate of historiography.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

  1. ^ James, Harold (1984), "The Causes of the German Banking Crisis of 1931", The Economic History Review, 37 (1), Wiley, on behalf of the Economic History Society: 68–87, doi:10.2307/2596832, JSTOR 2596832
  2. ^ Schnabel, Isabel (2004), "The German Twin Crisis of 1931", Journal of Economic History, 64 (3), Cambridge University Press, on behalf of the Economic History Association: 822–871, doi:10.1017/S0022050704002980, JSTOR 3874821, S2CID 154503072
  3. ^ Temin, Peter (2008), "The German crisis of 1931: evidence and tradition", Cliometrica, 2: 5–17, doi:10.1007/s11698-007-0014-4, S2CID 153640975
  4. ^ Ritschl, Albrecht; Sarferaz, Samad (2014), "Currency Versus Banking in the Financial Crisis of 1931", International Economic Review, 55 (2), Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University: 349–373, doi:10.1111/iere.12052, JSTOR 24517047, S2CID 153140854
  5. ^ Macher, Flora (2015), "Did monetary forces cause the Hungarian crises of 1931?" (PDF), EHES Working Papers in Economic History, 86, European Historical Economics Society (EHES)
  6. ^ Macher, Flora (2018), The Austrian Banking Crisis Of 1931: One Bad Apple Spoils The Whole Bunch (PDF), Economic History Department, London School of Economics and Political Science