It received a banking concession on 2 April 1853.[1] It was thus the second universal bank in Germany founded as a company limited by shares (Aktiengesellschaft), after the A. Schaaffhausen'scher Bankverein. In 1873 the bank moved its headquarters to Berlin, having opened a branch there in 1871. Further branches were opened in Stettin (1900), Hannover (1901), Düsseldorf, Munich and Nuremberg (1910).