Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden (Dresden East-Saxon Savings Bank) is a Sparkasse, a public savings bank based in Dresden, Saxony. It is the largest savings bank in eastern-Germany, and it is the seventh-largest savings bank in the Federal Republic of Germany in terms of total assets, with €12.2 billion.
History
On February 3, 1821,[1] the first savings bank was opened in the city of Dresden.
The second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were determined by modernization and growth spurts. Saxony became the driving motor for the industrialization of Germany and the bank benefited from rising wages and increasing demand for credit. With the incorporations around the turn of the century numerous new district branches were opened, more professional management structure and staff training and cashless payment was enabled.
After a brief dip in the years of inflation, the real wage in 1923 stabilized again, as well as the account balance of the bank. The global economic crisis of 1929 and the Second World War along with the 1945 bombing of Dresden all led to deep crises in the bank. After the partition of Germany and the establishment of the East Germany the bank became part of the socialist planned economy for the next 40 years. In 1986, the bank's first ATM was set up at the Güntzplatz branch.[2]