Societal commitment has a long tradition at Deutsche Bank. As early as 1876, the bank had already founded a retirement and aid fund for its employees, to help with cases of illnesses or emergencies. The bank has assisted talented young artists in the Villa Romana in Florence since 1929; it has supported scientific research and training with some 5 million euros annually for over 30 years through the Deutsche Bank Foundation Fund.

Today, with funding of more than 80 million euros (2007), Deutsche Bank and a total of six worldwide foundations and non-profit organisations are amongst the world’s most active corporate citizens. Sustainability is the supreme maxim and foundation of our corporate social responsibility, to ensure that economy and ecology are no longer contradictions.

Growing social and economic capital is a key concern of our company. For this reason, we promote talent in a wide variety of disciplines as a critical prerequisite for growth and progress, and provide impetus for the development of individual personalities. Creativity and inspiration, which we support through our commitment to the arts, are a prerequisite for finding innovative solutions. 53,000 works of art inspire Deutsche Bank employees to look at the familiar from a new perspective.

In a globalised world, we and society are facing great challenges which require effective solutions. To assist people in creating their own futures, the focus on our bank's social commitment is helping people to help themselves. Microcredits are an important tool in this concept – Deutsche Bank was the first bank to create microfinance fund ten years ago. This enabled people with few material securities to gain access to small amounts of credit.

Deutsche Bank's commitment also manifests itself in specific, active personal commitment by people for people: in 2007 alone, Deutsche Bank employees volunteered 19,440 working days on 2,400 charitable projects.