An Instrument of Big Business Germanization in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia?

The role of the Prague Commodity and Stock Exchange was quite specific during the existence of what is known as the Second Czechoslovak Republic and, in particular, during the occupation of the remaining part of the country by Nazi Germany, reflecting the extraordinary time context. The liberal principles of its operation were restricted and subject to the controlled war-oriented efforts. The racial discrimination laws and the Third Reich loyalty requirements had impacts on personal and organizational matters. Within the so-called "internal aryanization" of the Prague Commodity and Stock Exchange, pursuant to the general policy of "expulsion" of Jews from the economic life in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Jews were excluded from its bodies and were even not allowed to enter the Stock Exchange. The Stock Exchange Chamber as the leading body of the Prague Stock Exchange was "complemented" with Germans, who then constituted one half of its members. In addition, a special German arbitration court of the Prague Stock Exchange was set up that was obliged to notify the Reichsprotektor as chief representative of the German occupation authorities in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia of its activities. The exchange business was limited in 1940-1945 and the public bond transactions virtually "fell down". Thus, the Prague Stock Exchange played rather a secondary role in the process of transformation of joint stock companies in favor of Germans (i.e., in their germanization). In some cases, however, the penetration of German business elements into the Stock Exchange institutes and the interventions in stock transactions made it possible to acquire an interest that played an important, and even decisive role in the germanization of a particular company.