Historie der Auskunftei: Gutachten: Kein Missbrauch von Schufa-Daten in der NS-Zeit

On the occasion of Schufa's 100th anniversary in 2027, the agency commissioned a comprehensive historical investigation of the company's operations during the Nazi regime by independent scholars. The final report by D.I.E. Firmenhistoriker states that there is no evidence of Schufa's card archive being misused for Nazi purposes.

However, the three Jewish founders of Schufa - Kurt and Walter Gerhard Meyer and Robert Kauffmann - were systematically removed from their positions and forced into emigration after the rise of National Socialism. Similarly, Jewish members of the management board of the 1927-founded "Schutzgemeinschaft für Absatzfinanzierung und Kreditsicherung" (today's Schufa) lost their positions in 1933.

The National Socialists did not target the Schufa directly during this period. The company's historical research, conducted for Schufa between 1927 and 1945, focused on its economic role in the Nazi economic system. According to the 85-page report, the Schufa's data mainly concerned economic aspects like payment capacity and credit behavior, and did not include information on religion, political stance, or ancestry.

There is no indication of Schufa's data being used for political or racial persecution. Today, Schufa, which stands for "Schutzgemeinschaft für allgemeine Kreditsicherung" (General Credit Guarantee Association), holds information on 68 million people in Germany. Its creditworthiness assessments for companies like Schufa, Creditreform, or Crif are crucial for banks, mail-order businesses, mobile phone providers, and energy suppliers to assess the creditworthiness of their customers before concluding contracts and delivering goods.

The 2001-founded D.I.E. Firmenhistoriker GmbH specializes in corporate and economic history. The Schufa building in Berlin, where the archive is located, was destroyed by a bombing in 1945.