“Stupid German money”, the demise of German banking and its geopolitics

The international dimension of German banking and finance have rarely featured in debates about German geopolitics and geoeconomics. ‘Stupid German money’ has instead underlined the low profitability of capital exports that have for many years accompanied Germany’s growing export surpluses. Recent research has also suggested that the leading export sectors have been awash in capital and have relied less on bank credit. Large amounts of retained earnings have allowed dominant firms to finance their own operations. Reducing dependency and symbiosis with Germany’s large commercial banks has however not meant to no longer need political support and international alliances. In our paper, we investigate the nexus between German banking and the export sector, to what extent the relative demise of the Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank matter for the German export model and how political alliances with Russia, China and the growing role of Africa play a crucial role in maintaining this model. After being seen as in bed with banks in times of Hilferding’s ‘finance capital’ in the early 20th century and during the heyday of “Germany Inc” until the 1990s, has German industry found a new model of projecting its businesses across the globe without the need of banking and finance? Has banking become obsolete for Germany’s geoeconomic strategies or have sources of financing just shifted from home-grown to foreign institutions?