Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft

The Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft or Niederösterreichischen Escomptegesellschaft (lit. 'Lower Austrian Discount Company') was a significant Austrian bank, created in Vienna in 1853. In 1934, the sounder parts of its business were merged with Creditanstalt and Wiener Bankverein to form Creditanstalt-Bankverein, a predecessor entity of Bank Austria (since 2005 part of UniCredit).

History

The Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft was formed in 1853 on the model of the

The Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft was unable to survive the European banking crisis of 1931. In 1932, similarly as the Wiener Bankverein, it transferred a portfolio of problem assets to a government-owned vehicle, the Gesellschaft für Revision und Treuhandige Verwaltung and issued new shares to restore its capital base, but that transaction proved insufficient. In 1933, as part of the systemwide restructuring initiated by chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank took over most of the bank's share capital through another recapitalization, which ultimately involved the transfer to the recapitalized Creditanstalt of its entire banking business on 31 December 1933. The remaining entity was renamed Industriekredit AG and remained under the control of the National Bank.^[4]: 13 It was eventually liquidated.^[5]

Headquarters

The Niederösterreichischen Escompte-Gesellschaft originally purchased properties prominently located on Vienna's Freyung square, namely the houses Zum goldenen Straußen (Freyung 8) and Zum rothen Mandl (Freyung 9). It had a new building erected there in 1871 after tearing down the two houses.

In the early 1910s, it purchased a property on the nearby Am Hof square, number 2, that was the former location of Austria's Imperial War Council or

The new Niederösterreichischen Escompte-Gesellschaft head office building was designed by architects Ernst Gotthilf [de] and Alexander Neumann [de] and inaugurated in 1915. That team had just created the new headquarters of Wiener Bankverein at Schottentor, and were also working on the Creditanstalt's head office extension by the Freyung. By coincidence, therefore, the same architects had near-simultaneously designed the seats of the three large banks that merged in 1934, after which the merged Creditanstalt-Bankverein settled in the former Bankverein head office.^[6]

Following the 1934 merger, the former Niederösterreichischen Escompte-Gesellschaft building on am Hof 2 was purchased in 1938 at the occasion of the merger between

• 
  The building between the Church am Hof (left) and Bognergasse (right)
• 
  The building after fire in 2011
• 
  Sculpted portrait of Johannes Gutenberg
• 
  Sculpted portrait of Christopher Columbus
• 
  Sculpted portrait of Josef Ressel
• 
  Sculpted portrait of Alessandro Volta
• 
  Rear façade, corner of Bognergasse and Seltzergasse
• 
  Plaque recalling the history of the site as

  Jesuit professed house, and war council

  building
• 
  Plaque honoring

  Red Cross, with reference to the 1859 Battle of Solferino
• 
  Main hall after renovation in 2014, repurposed as Bank Brasserie & Bar
• 
  Grand staircase in 2014
• 
  Former boardroom, repurposed as hotel dining room in 2014

See also

• Anglo-Austrian Bank
• Länderbank

Notes