For time immemorial, we have been shaped by interpersonal relationships and the urge to seek out the new and unknown: trade, commerce and communication have played a pivotal role for mankind over the millennia. In the process, humans left their familiar surroundings and, driven by curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, ventured out to the four corners of the world on journeys of discovery.

So by no means is globalisation a new phenomenon, and it is certainly not just an invention of the Europeans. Its roots are to be found in the centuries-old avenues for buying, selling and communicating that have stretched since antiquity across the Mediterranean region, Africa and the Middle East, all the way to India, China and ultimately North and South America.

The creative leitmotif of our 2012 annual report is: “on the move”. By highlighting the key trade routes of the past four thousand years, it illustrates the dynamic force and flow that has always carried humanity to new horizons.

The rendering of banking services has forever gone hand-in-hand with this evolution of trade and communication. And the means and modes of payment along these routes have been constantly refined.

VP Bank itself is also “on the move” by discovering new products, new advisory approaches, new markets – and above all, new contacts to people and new clients. A passion for the new plays the most important role in VP Bank’s way of exchanging ideas and communicating. So navigate with us through the various passages of this annual report and get to know more about VP Bank.

Aeons ago, vast stretches of forest in northern and north-eastern Europe were swallowed up by the sea. Over the millennia, heavy surf ultimately loosened the petrified resin droplets from the conifers on the seabed and swept them ashore. For centuries, amber has been the name given to this golden semi-precious gemstone of fossilised pine sap, especially large quantities of which are indigenous to the Baltic Sea region. The trade route for transporting this treasure (along with other goods) from the North Sea and Baltic region southward to the Mediterranean and onward via Greece to Egypt was referred to as the Amber Road. In the strictest sense, this was not a single road but instead a web of independent routes that led to the Mediterranean.

Already in the Bronze Age 3000 years ago, amber from northern Europe was a valuable medium of barter and trade that found its way southwards. The honey-like gem has always fascinated people and in all great dynasties it was viewed as a manifestation of luxury and power. But amber was also a gladly received means of payment. Even in prehistoric times it was used as jewellery and for creating works of art. Adornments made from imported amber were worn in Greece in 1600 B.C., and several objects found in Egypt have been proven to date back even more than 3500 years – all from the North Sea region.

In more recent times, the most famous artwork of its kind is the Amber Room, a chamber decorated with amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, which was created at the behest of King Friedrich I of Prussia in the early 18th century. It was ultimately gifted by the king’s first son, Friedrich Wilhelm I, to Tsar Peter the Great, thereby cementing a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden. For almost two centuries it had its home at the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, only to be dismantled during World War II and returned to Germany, where as of 1942 it was exhibited at Königsberg Castle in East Prussia. Its components disappeared at the end of the war, never to be found again. Since 2003, a true-to-original reproduction of the Amber Chamber dazzles visitors at the Catherine Palace.