Opinion ID: 76720
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The History of the Orenstein's Interests in O&K

Text: 3 In 1876, the plaintiff's great-grandfather, Benno Orenstein, together with Arthur Koppel, created O&K, which became Germany's sixth largest manufacturer of machinery. The company produced heavy earth-moving equipment and railway lines. 1 Benno Orenstein was the Director General of O&K until his death in 1926, when his son, Alfred Orenstein, became Managing Director. At this time, the Orenstein family's shares of O&K were distributed equally among Benno Orenstein's four children, although members of the family were not permitted to sell the shares without Alfred Orenstein's permission for ten years. Ungaro-Benages alleges that the family maintained a controlling interest in the company, including hundreds of thousands of preferred shares and common shares. 2 4 Ungaro-Benages does not have precise information on what happened to the O&K shares once the Nazi party came to power. She alleges that because the Orensteins were Jewish, their ownership in O&K was vulnerable to Aryanization, a state-instituted program in which Jewish assets were transferred to non-Jews by way of boycotts, force, terror and coercion. Jewish owners were ousted from the boards of German corporations and assets were sold to non-Jews at nominal values. German banks, including the defendants in this action, acted as trustees for Jewish assets and aided the German government in transferring these assets away from their Jewish owners. The plaintiff alleges that both defendant banks were voluntarily involved in and profited from the state practice of Aryanization. She further alleges that the defendant banks continue to this day to conceal documentary evidence of their actions. 5 In the case of O&K, Ungaro-Benages alleges that Dresdner Bank, with the assistance of Deutsche Bank, successfully ousted the Orensteins from their positions on the board and effectively stole their stock. In her initial complaint, she maintains that the Nazi government and the Dresdner Bank pressured and coerced the Orenstein family into an agreement whereby Erich Niemann, a Dresdner Bank managing director, took over day-to-day control of O&K and became a trustee for all of the Orenstein's shares of preferred and common stock. Niemann was replaced by Karl Rasche, another Dresdner Bank representative in 1935. By 1938, all of the Jewish members of O&K's board, as well as the boards of both banks, had been removed, and Alfred Orenstein had relocated to South Africa to manage the company's branch there. O&K later terminated its contract with Alfred Orenstein. The plaintiff alleges that, by 1943, Deutsche Bank owned two-thirds of all O&K shares and had completely divested the Orensteins of their interests in the company. There is only one record of any payment to an Orenstein family member for shares of stock: 37,943RM to Alfred Orenstein.