ARTIKEL:

Wolfgang König:
Das Scheitern einer nationalsozialistischen Konsumgesellschaft. «Volksprodukte» in Politik, Propaganda und Gesellschaft des «Dritten Reiches», S. 131 - 163

Ingo Böhle:
Die «Judenfrage» in der Privaten Krankenversicherung (PKV) im Nationalsozialismus, S. 164 – 195

Karsten Linne:
Baumwollanbau im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Eine «Einsatzfirma» in Südrußland, S. 196 - 214

Ralf Richter:
Die Währungs- und Wirtschaftsreform 1948 im Spiegel unternehmerischer Personalpolitik – Volkswagen, 1945 – 1950, S. 215 – 238

ABSTRACTS:

Ingo Böhle:
Die «Judenfrage» in der Privaten Krankenversicherung (PKV) im Nationalsozialismus. «Ganz allgemein hat allerdings die private Krankenversicherung feststellen müssen, dass Nichtarier unversicherbar sind […].»

Abstract:
In 1933 private health insurance was the second biggest insurance branch after life insurance in Germany. Private health insurance business was marked by virulent antisemitism during the period of National Socialism. In 1933 most of the companies, especially the big ones, stopped the admission for jewish people and tried to terminate jewish people’s insurance contracts by means of legal and illegal methods to have their stocks «judenfrei». They didn’t repay medical fees of jewish physicians except veterans of World War I if the insured had been «aryan». Antijewish measures were taken without governmental order, even partly in opposition to ministries of the Reich which were anxious about legal certainty and international reputation. Not until the pogroms of «Reichskristallnacht» in November 1938 and after a radical NSDAP-member became president of the German insurance authority in 1939 the German government adopted the antijewish policy of private health insurance business. The insurance authority directed the termination of jewish insurance contracts up to April 1940, but most of the companies didn’t have jewish clients any longer. Jewish insured didn’t get any compensation after World War II. This article describes the discrimination of jewish clients und tries to get to the bottom of the poisonous antisemitism in the private health insurance branch.

Wolfgang König:
Das Scheitern einer nationalsozialistischen Konsumgesellschaft «Volksprodukte» in Politik, Propaganda und Gesellschaft des «Dritten Reiches»

Abstract:
In the Third Reich a group of <people’s products> was initiated, among them the <Volksempfänger>, a radio receiver, the <Volkswagen>, and the <Volkskühlschrank>, a refrigerator. These <people’s products> could be interpreted as an attempt to establish a particular Nazi version of a consumer society. The article gives an overview of the various initiatives for <people’s products> and explains their failing. The concept of <people’s products> has its roots before the Nazi regime in the 1920ies. It represents the people’s wishes for a better life as well as industrial firms’ hopes to market greater quantities of goods. The Nazi government overtook the concept and adapted it to its political and ideological issues of population, race, <Volk>, <Lebensraum>, and autarchy. <People’s products> became defined as cheap goods and services of high quality for the broad masses being initiated by NS politics and communally produced by industry or party- and state-owned companies. In consequence, private firms were forbidden to use the term for their own products. Industry and trade cooperated with Nazi organizations in the design, production and marketing of <people’s products>, above all, because they were afraid to lose control in the consumer goods market. However, in several cases, low prices and large series which were prescribed by politics, threatened the central business goals, namely the companies’ existence and profits. In such cases as with the Volkswagen, the firms risked conflicts with Nazi politics and withdrew from the projects. The projects were overtaken by Nazi organizations. The <people’s products> main Nazi proponents were Goebbels’s ministry of propaganda and Ley’s Labour Front. The two institutions represented the concept’s two important goals. On the one hand, it should win the German people for the regime. On the other hand, it should supply the German <Volk> with the standard of living which the Nazis believed was appropriate for the ‘most valuable race’. The Nazi consumer society should be realized not by augmenting the income and wages but by extreme production efficiency. This strategy could not be successful because the main hindrance for the consumer goods’ distribution were not the purchase costs but the running costs. Taking that into account, the Nazi concept of <people’s products> can be interpreted as a combination of propaganda and illusion.

Karsten Linne:
Baumwollanbau im Krieg: eine «Einsatzfirma» in Südrußland

Abstract:
The Baumwoll-Aktiengesellschaft Bremen (Baumag) was founded in November 1941 as a private company of cotton traders and spinners. It was put in charge of the cultivation of cotton in the German occupied Soviet territories, especially the Ukraine and the Crimea, by the state-controlled Ostfaser. Thus, the history of the Baumag allows an insight in the structure of the new enterprises which were supposed to manage the exploitation of the Soviet Union, and also in the German occupational practice as a whole. The remarkable aspect of this is the mixture of private entrepreneurs and state, party and military representatives in the supervisory board of the Baumag. Furthermore, the influence of the German big banks, first of all the Deutsche Bank, attracts attention. The experts of the company followed the first German troops and took over the Soviet system of cotton cultivation. However, there were many problems which complicated the work of the Baumag, above all the lack of fuel and seed and the deportation of workers during harvest. The Baumag was increasingly impeded by the malfunctioning occupational administration. So the company could never reach its declared aim: the improvement of German supply with cotton.

Ralf Richter:
Die Währungs- und Wirtschaftsreform 1948 im Spiegel unternehmerischer Personalpolitik – Volkswagen, 1945–1950

Abstract:
Economic historians focusing on macroeconomic approaches emphasise the importance of the Currency Reform in 1948 for the rapid growth of the West German industry in the post-war era, while other economic historians deny their significance. This highly controversial discussion is mainly caused by a lack of data, especially on the radical change of the workforce potential. This article aims to examine the significance of the Currency Reform from the personnel management perspective of one of the major West German enterprises. The investigation of a single enterprise allows the use of qualitative and quantitative sources that are not available on a macroeconomic level. The case of the Volkswagen Company shows what difficulties the management had to face to build up a core workforce in the immediate post-war time. It demonstrates to what extent the management was able to control their workforce and to steer the working process. The study also explains what strategies the workers developed in a shortage economy and which factors influenced their working output and quality. From these perspectives of business history the significance of the Currency Reform becomes much more clearer.

REZENSIONEN:

Saul Friedländer / Norbert Frei / Trutz Rendtorff / Reinhard Wittmann (Hrsg.), Bertelsmann im Dritten Reich (Florian Triebel)

Privatbanken in der NS-Zeit: Rundschreiben der Wirtschaftsgruppe Privates Bankgewerbe 1934-1945 (Microfiche-Edition und Erschließungsband) (Harald Wixforth)

Thomas Keiderling, Unternehmer im Nationalsozialismus. Machtkampf um den Konzern Koehler & Volckmar AG & Co (Otmar Seemann)

Kenneth Warren, Big Steel. The First Century of the United States Steel Corporation, 1901-2001 (Alfred Reckendrees)

Hans-Gerd Conrad, Werbung und Markenartikel am Beispiel der Markenfirma Dr. Oetker von 1891 bis 1975 in Deutschland (Vera Hierholzer)

Michael Dorrmann, Eduard Arnhold (1849-1925). Eine biographische Studie zu Unternehmer- und Mäzenatentum im Deutschen Kaiserreich (Christof Biggeleben)

Gudrun Bechtloff, Die Mitropa AG. Ein privatrechtliches Unternehmen des Schlaf- und Speisewagenverkehrs im Spannungsfeld wirtschaftlicher Interessen und staatlicher Einflüsse und Abhängigkeiten (Joachim Lilla)

Bernhard Stier, Staat und Strom, Die politische Steuerung des Elektrizitätssystems in Deutschland 1890 -1950 (Andrea H. Schneider)

Stefan Przigoda, Unternehmensverbände im Ruhrbergbau. Zur Geschichte von Bergbau-Verein und Zechenverband 1858-1933 (Werner Bührer)

John Armstrong/Andreas Kunz (Hrsg.), Costal Shipping and the European Economy 1750-1980 (Peter Borscheid)

Philippe Marguerat / Laurent Tissot / Yves Froidevaux (Hrsg.), Banques et entreprises industrielles en Europe de l´Ouest, XIXe – XXe siècles : aspects nationaux et régionaux (Martin Fiedler)

Irene Götz / Andreas Wittel (Hrsg.), Arbeitskulturen im Umbruch. Zur Ethnographie von Arbeit und Organisation (Heide Stieger)

Thomas Fischer (Hrsg.), Ausländische Unternehmen und einheimische Eliten in Lateinamerika. Historische Erfahrungen und aktuelle Tendenzen (Béatrice Ziegler)

Alice Teichova / Herbert Matis / Andreas Resch (Hrsg.), Business History. Wissenschaftliche Entwicklungstrends und Studien aus Zentraleuropa (Friederike Sattler)