18th and 19th centuries: Citizens, Princes, New Stock Exchanges

Towards the end of the 17th century, regular trading in promissory notes and bonds began. This created a market that was also open to non-merchants to invest their assets.

In 1707 an official commercial representation of the town, the "Deputies of the Merchants", was formed from the heads of the stock exchanges. In 1808 the Chamber of Commerce emerged. The stock exchange, which had been founded 223 years earlier as a private event of some merchants, was now included in the Chamber of Commerce and thus became a public institution.

1721 Oldest stock exchange list

The oldest preserved Frankfurt stock exchange list dates from this year. It lists 16 coin courses.

1779 million bond

As early as the end of the 18th century, trading in government securities began on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In 1779, Bankhaus Bethmann placed the first million-euro bond for the German Emperor in Vienna. In order to be able to broker this enormous sum at all, the bank issued "partial bonds" in Frankfurt for the first time. Anyone who had sufficient money could buy these securities from the bank. Thus the investor participated de facto in the million bond and obtained a right to a part of the regular interest income. By this instrument of the capital switching introduced by the banking house Bethmann it was possible for the Frankfurt banks in the future to raise high bond sums.

1820 The first share

The first share is listed in Frankfurt. Shares of the Austrian National Bank are traded.

1808 Foundation of the Chamber of Commerce

The Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce is founded and becomes the sponsor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

1843 The first stock exchange building

In the course of the rise of the Frankfurt bank Rothschild to become the leading capital broker of the European princely houses, the city developed into an international capital market and a world stock exchange alongside London and Paris. The cramped accommodations at Braunfels corresponded less and less to this importance. For this reason, in the middle of the 19th century a representative stock exchange building of its own, today known as the "Alte Börse", was built on the Paulskirche according to plans by the Frankfurt architect Friedrich Peipers and opened in 1843. On 11 December, the stock exchange assembly moved into the newly constructed first regular stock exchange building. 

With the industrial revolution in Germany, the advantages of financing expensive projects by issuing shares were discovered. In 1820, the share certificates of the Austrian National Bank were traded for the first time in Frankfurt. However, Frankfurt's stock exchange trading continued to focus on trading in bonds. In contrast to the other major stock exchanges in Europe, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was initially reserved against the increasingly popular share certificates of numerous stock corporations. By 1850, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange had primarily developed into a capital for safe government bonds and funds, which earned it the reputation of a "solid Frankfurt". Frankfurt became the "gateway to capital exports", as foreign bonds were also placed from here on the other European stock exchanges.

1879 The New Stock Exchange

The "Neue Börse" was inaugurated in 1879. The well-known Frankfurt architects Heinrich Burnitz and Oskar Sommer had succeeded in planning the building with an extremely happy combination of functionality and representation. In addition to the main railway station and the Alte Oper, the "Neue Börse" is still one of the most important Frankfurt buildings of the Wilhelminian era.

Even when in the course of the founding years and the economic upswing countless companies became public limited companies (between 1870 and 1874 there were 857 foundations in Prussia alone), Frankfurt was hesitant towards these securities. Frankfurt's attention was still focused on American bonds and international government securities. Thanks to its close contacts abroad, Frankfurt was able to maintain its international standing and its role as a central stock exchange even during the years in which Berlin, the capital of the newly founded German Empire in 1871, became the most important stock exchange in the Empire. At the end of the 19th century, Frankfurt realized that an adjustment to the general economic situation in the Reich was unavoidable. In order not to jeopardize its reputation as an economic center, Frankfurt changed its economic policy and, contrary to earlier efforts, made efforts to attract more industry and intensified trading in shares. This development towards a stock exchange also countered the dominance of the Berlin stock exchange and offered southern German companies in particular an alternative to the capital exchange when it came to raising capital. It was not until the Stock Exchange Act of 1896 that a uniform organisation of the 29 stock exchanges in Germany was created. This also meant that the previous local regulations in Frankfurt a range-wide regulation, which has remained largely authoritative to this day.

May 2019, © Deutsche Börse AG