retropopcult:Outside the German Savings Bank at 14th Street and 4th Avenue, Manhattan. Photogr
retropopcult:Outside the German Savings Bank at 14th Street and 4th Avenue, Manhattan. Photographed May 21, 1916. From the Facebook group America in the 1910′s . In the 1840s German immigrants began pouring into Manhattan, settling mostly on the Lower East Side. Within the next decade 800,000 Germans entered New York Harbor and by 1855 only Vienna and Berlin had a larger German population than did New York City. Along with the impoverished working class Germans were highly successful businessmen including Jacob Windmuller.Another influential and wealthy German, Oswald Ottendorfer, would later describe Windmuller as an able businessman and note his “wise beneficence” and “refining and powerful influence he had exerted in the advancement of music and art.” But in 1858 Jacob Windmuller was more focused on opening a savings bank for the German population. With a group of associates of the German Society he established the German Savings Bank and submitted the proposed charter to the State legislature that year. The first attempt failed; but the group was successful in incorporating on April 9, 1859.The new bank opened for business on July 1 in the Cooper Institute building. Initial deposits were overwhelming—reportedly about $100,000 or around $2.7 million today. On January 10, 1862 the Directors of the German Savings Bank heard a promising report from the bank’s President, William Jellinghaus.…[source] -- source link
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