Bank deutscher Länder
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The Bank deutscher Länder (Bank of the German States), abbreviation BdL, was the forerunner of the Deutsche Bundesbank. It was founded on 1 March 1948.
The main task of the BdL was to manage currency policy in the American and British occupation zones in Germany. On 1 November 1948, the French sector joined the BdL. Until 1951, the BdL was the subject to the control of the three Western Allied powers - the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Later, it became an independent agency of the West German government, similar to the concept of independence displayed by the Federal Reserve System in the United States.
In the process of introducing the Deutsche Mark in 1948, the creation of the BdL became necessary because the states' central banks were entities of the individual German states and thus it was necessary to create a bank at the national level to avoid conflicts.
The capital stock of the BdL, 100,000 Deutsche Mark, was given by the central banks of the German Länder. When the BdL was established, 300 people worked there, but by 1949, their number had already increased to 1,450. The headquarters of the BdL was located in Frankfurt am Main.
Institutions of the BdL were the board of directors and the Zentralbankrat (Central banking council), consisting of the nine presidents of the German states' central banks. These officials elected the president of the board of directors, who then chose the other members of the board. The board's task was to enforce the resolutions of the Zentralbankrat.
Effective 1 August 1957, the BdL and the central banks of the German states were replaced by the Deutsche Bundesbank and the state central banks (Landeszentralbanken - LZB) created in accordance with the Federal law establishing the Bundesbank.
