Dr. Heinrich Stuebel: Staat und Banken im preußischen Anleihewesen von 1871–1913 [Rezension]

Helene Lieser’s 1936 review of Heinrich Stuebel’s Staat und Banken im preußischen Anleihewesen von 1871—1913 values the monograph as a contribution toward a still-unwritten financial history of Germany. Her praise centres on its handling of archival evidence:

Trotz der Bearbeitung vielen Aktenmaterials, von dem auch eine kleine Auswahl abgedruckt ist, versinkt die Darstellung nicht im Stoff.

English translation: Despite working through much archival material, a small selection of which is also reproduced, the account does not become submerged in its material.

Lieser moves from accessibility to specialist utility: economic and political context and foreign comparisons engage nonspecialists, while reproduced syndicate agreements and detailed borrowing history offer experts new material. Her concluding distinction concerns continuity in loan-issuance techniques but change in borrowing’s purposes:

Handelte es sich doch in vielen Fällen nicht um die Deckung von staatlichen Budgetdefiziten, sondern um die Beschaffung von Mitteln für die Verstaatlichung der Privatbahnen.

English translation: For in many cases the purpose was not to cover state budget deficits, but to procure funds for the nationalization of private railways.

This contrast gives the review its historical point: similar financial mechanisms could serve markedly different state projects.