The Angel of the Poor - Spitzeder Bank, Schoenfeldstrasse 9

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In October 1871 Adele Spitzeder, a Berlin-born actress whose stage career had collapsed, bought the house at Schoenfeldstrasse 9 for 54,000 gulden of her customers' money and turned it into the headquarters of the Spitzedersche Privatbank. Since 1869 she had promised ten percent interest per month, paying old depositors with the money of new ones; there were no investments and no ledgers, only a receipt book and sacks of cash stacked in the rooms. Word of mouth, soup kitchens and the backing of the Catholic press turned the scheme into a mass movement: by 1871 she took in 50,000 to 60,000 gulden a day, employed 83 people and drew so many farmers from the villages north of Munich, many of whom sold their land to live off the interest, that the city nicknamed it the Dachauer Bank. On the morning of 12 November 1872 rival banks organised some sixty creditors to demand their money at once; panic spread, the street filled with people, roughly 180,000 gulden were paid out and in the night Spitzeder was arrested. Around 32,000 people lost some 38 million gulden, about 400 million euros today, and only fifteen percent of the claims could be covered. Convicted in July 1873 of fraudulent bankruptcy, since no law yet defined what she had done, she served three years and died in poverty in Munich in 1895, nearly fifty years before the word Ponzi existed.

Fatti principali

• 10 percent per month — The interest Adele Spitzeder promised her depositors from 1869, paid entirely out of the money of new customers.
• 54000 gulden — The price she paid in 1871 for the house at Schoenfeldstrasse 9, bought with her customers' deposits and turned into the bank's headquarters.
• 32000 ruined creditors — People who lost around 38 million gulden, roughly 400 million euros today, when the bank collapsed on 12 November 1872.

📍 Schönfeldstraße 11, 80539, München

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