completely illustrated by these figures. In 1930, 43 percent of the leading positions in private Jewish banks were occupied by Jews, which is not surprising.>* What is interesting, however, is that Jews also occupied 5.8 percent of the leading positions in non- Jewish banks.** This represented almost eight times the percentage of Jews in the labor force.% In 1913, fifteen prominent Jews held 211 seats on boards of directors of banks, and by 1928 this number had risen to 718.”

Jews were also influential in joint-stock corporations, the stock market, the insurance industry, and legal and economic consulting firms." Before the First World War, for example, Jews occupied 13 percent of the directorships of joint-stock corporations and 24 percent of the supervisory positions within these corporations.»® Even by 1932, when anti-Semitism was supposed to have reached a new high, Jews represented almost 3 percent of the German Economic Council, which advised the government during the depression.*° Jews were very active in the stock market, partic- ularly in Berlin, where in 1928 they comprised 80 percent of the leading members of the stock exchange.“ By 1933, when the Nazis began eliminating Jews from prominent positions, 85 per- cent of the brokers on the Berlin Stock Exchange were dismissed because of their ‘race.’

If one considers all of the branches of the economy, it is clear that Jews were significantly overrepresented as ‘‘independents,"” that is, a larger percentage of Jews than non-Jews was self-em- ployed. This reflected not only self-employment of Jews in busi- ness and commerce, but also their very considerable numbers in free professions. They were also more highly represented as white- collar workers than the German population as a whole, and cor- respondingly underrepresented as blue-collar workers and do- mestic servants. These occupational characteristics were true for both German and immigrant Jews. There was, however, only a small percentage of immigrant Jews in leading positions; they were more likely than German Jews to secure positions as blue- collar workers and comprised 36 percent of all Jews engaged in blue-collar work, although they represented only 23 percent of the Jewish labor force.