This chapter deals with the Deutsche Bank's involvement in the takeover and reorganization of Jewish property in Germany prior to the enlargement of the Reich as a result of diplomatic and military pressure after 1938. Initially, the major push on the part of the state and the party – and also of the bank – was to secure a change of management, rather than new ownership. According to the priorities of the regime at this early stage, Jews were to be removed from positions of influence in the German economy, in line with the idea of building a new type of state with a new German management. Especially where business had clearly wider social and political influence, as for instance in newspaper publishing, or when there existed large public contracts, official authorities moved quickly to combat Jewish influence.

Some, but not all, of these cases also involved the transfer of property, but discussions of ownership had largely been secondary in the years immediately after 1933. After 1937, however, such issues were the driving forces. A much more radical phase began, in which the regime (and especially Hermann Göring, then at the height of his powers) saw the takeover of Jewish property as the most obvious answer to the fiscal crisis produced by rearmament. Germany's Jews were to be made to pay for Germany's war. Local party activists also saw their own opportunities for enrichment, as did business rivals and would-be entrepreneurs.