Deutsche Bank

[miketr]

This thread will contain the stories of the German international investment bank, Deutsche Bank.

[miketr]

German Embassy
Bucharest, Romania

"Herr Siemens I want to assure you that you will have the full cooperation of my staff, the letter of introduction from the minister was most specific on that point."  The career diplomat showed a smile but from the beads of sweat on his forehead he wasn't very happy.  The summer heat in the Romanian capital was getting to the man, that plus his age along with the carrying too much weight.

Otto Siemens was a young man only at 28 but he was his uncle's troubleshooter and hoped to go far.   If not at DeutschBank then at one of the other family investments.  While his destination was Constantinople and then Baghdad he was always on the lookout for other openings.  It was clear that some of the powers that be were pushing to advance German interests using other than military means.  Perhaps someone talked some sense into the Prussians for once.  If nothing else with the final collapse of the Hapsburg Empire Germany could at last penetrate into the Balkans without having to worry over delicate sensibilities of those in Wien.  Reports stated that Oil Production in Romania was starting to take off,  nearly 2 million barrels annually, 3rd highest in the world.  This sounded like an opening to Otto.  Expanding companies were always hungry for capital.  Besides the oil fields there were refineries, railroads to move the oil and port facilities to ship it and other possibilities perhaps.


Returning to the diplomat the young banker said, "Thank you for your offer to help your Excellency.  I have a list of names of the key figures that I wish to meet but they are just names.  It would help my work s a great deal if I knew something of the personality of the people I am to meet. "

The young businessman and old diplomat sat down to go over the who's who of the Romanian business world and their contacts with the government.  After finishing a light lunch Otto had a base outline of the personalities.  More importantly some helpful but fairly blunt hints on the state of the Romanian government.  Compared to Germany the setup was fairly corrupt.  It was clear that people would have to be paid off.  Hardly surprising as this was hardly Germany and even in Germany there was a cost to doing business.  Especially if you wanted to get the inside track and gain key a advantage.  Well it least this wasn't South America, there officials tended to not stay bought so an ongoing arrangement should be possible. 

The best option was the Finance Minister, the man had connections to the Monarchy and wasn't overtly part of the pro-Russian faction at court.  Romania was between Russia and the Ottomans which was another factor to consider.  It should make for an interesting visit before heading on to the main event at Constantinople.