The new main building of the OeNB in Vienna, Otto-Wagner-Platz, opened in 1925
Tellers’ counters in the main hall
Second edition of the 10,000 Austrian kronen bill with the imprint "Ein Schilling" (one schilling), 1925
The OeNB’s Klagenfurt branch office around 1928
Since the start of the liquidation of the Austro-Hungarian bank, it was clear that Austria, like the remaining successor states, had to have a bank of issue of its own. But first of all it was necessary to create order in the national budget. The Geneva Protocol of October 1922 provided one of these basic structures.
The statutes of the new Austrian central bank were passed in form of the Federal Law of November 14, 1922. The statutes contained the business name "Oesterreichische Nationalbank" (OeNB) and thus reinstated the venerable name of the institute that had already been accorded the sole right to issue banknotes in line with a modern concept of monetary policy in the year 1816. The fundamentals of the statutes were in line with the guidelines set up by the League of Nations with regard to central banks` absolute independence of credit demands by the state, the independence of their management, ensuring that the bank could operate fully independently, and the provision of equity to secure this independence.
The "re-established" Oesterreichische Nationalbank began to operate on January 1, 1923.
This new start was also expressed by a change of the headquarters in Vienna. Even before 1914, the management of the Austro-Hungarian Bank had ordered the construction of new buildings in the ninth district of Vienna, but only the shell of the building designed to accommodate the printing works had been completed then. The management of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank made the decision to have the new building completed to house all departments including the printing works. Finally, the new bank building was inaugurated at a ceremony on March 22, 1925.
The first great test for the new central bank was to implement the recommendations of the Financial Committee of the Council of the League of Nations in order to stabilize the Austrian currency. To this end, the Schilling Conversion Act (Schillingsrechnungsgesetz) was passed on December 20, 1924. This act provided for the introduction of the schilling currency on January 1, 1925. The schilling replaced the Austrian crown, which had been legal tender since 1892; the conversion rate was 10,000 Austrian crowns to the schilling.
The person in charge of the rehabilitation and stabilization of the national budget in the First Republic was Viktor Kienböck. He was Minister of Finance from 1922 to 1924 and from 1926 to 1929, President of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank from 1932 to 1938 and Vice President from 1952 to 1956. Under his management, the Austrian schilling remained a stabile currency to the very end, in spite of the world economic crisis.
These stable basic conditions were necessary for the Oesterreichische Nationalbank to be able to concentrate on the crisis management that the chain of bank breakdowns required. The crisis of Credit-Anstalt in 1931 marked the climax and finale of this series.
The tragic events in 1934 had little effect on the business practices of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. The confidence in the so-called "Alpendollar" (Alpine dollar), also abroad, was shown in the fact that both the government and the central bank were able to convert the bond of the League of Nations from 1922 in the same year. But the favorable monetary situation was marred by the great number of unemployed in Austria, a fact that had severe consequences on domestic policy.
