Die Stinnes Gesellschaft

A group of bankers met in the Reichsbank building in Berlin. After some discussion, they decided to lend some $10,000,000 to the Stinnes Gesellschaft (Company).

The cat leapt from the bag. Wild rumors circulated in Berlin: "The House of Stinnes is bankrupt"; "The Stinnes power is unshaken." These were the extreme views. Certain it was that the vast," intricate interests bequeathed by the late Herr Hugo Stinnes were financially embarrassed. Fear was expressed that, since neither Hugo Stinnes Jr. nor any member of the family had been present at the bankers' meeting, the loan was merely a palliative to tide over a situation for a short time in order to save the market from inevitable panic at a time of great depression. But such fears were quickly dismissed. It was stated that the huge Stinnes interests (mines, railways, shipping lines, newspapers, hotels, etc.) had been recognized as top-heavy by the late Hugo Stinnes himself and that "Junior" Stinnes--who recently broke with his elder brother (TIME, June 8) because dual control of the huge concern was a flat failure--will centralize the interests as far as possible and sell a number of holdings which were considered as temporary investments. It was also pointed out that the mere fact that Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht and a number of other prominent bankers had met to lend Stinnes money was a good enough sign that the firm was solvent. There was no thought of liquidation, according to Stinnes reports.