‘The Bankers’ View’: Austria’s Economic and Political Development and the Role of the Banks

A main topic in business history is the different view of politicians and businessmen, including bankers. Generally, bankers complain about the irrationality of politics and the limited understanding of economic necessities. But in the last 150 years state influence in Austrian banking was strong and sometimes even dominant. What were the attitudes and the reactions of bankers during this long and eventful period of Austrian history? What was their response to the challenges of prosperity and crisis, to political turmoil and war, to reconstruction, liberalization and globalization? Given the difficulty for a historian to see the world with the eyes of a banker, we have to make some assumptions.