Aufsätze (Articles)

Louis Pahlow/Sebastian Teupe
Business Strategies and the Law: Three Types of Entrepreneurial Processes from a Legal History Perspective 161

The relationship between business strategies and legal institutions is important for understanding the historical dynamics of modern capitalism. While legal history and economic history have remained distinct disciplines, a growing number of studies now populates a vibrant «borderland» between the two. Building on frameworks of legal history, organization studies, and «new entrepreneurial history», our contribution systematizes the relation of entrepreneurship and the law from a historical perspective of change. This paper explains how an analysis of this specific relation contributes to our understanding of economic change and addresses the question of synthesis and interdisciplinary connectivity by offering a conceptual triad that focuses on the problems of agency and change at the intersection of businesses and the law. This paper argues that economic actors have used, sought, and avoided laws to transform their legal and economic environments. Each of these interactions combined a distinct set of variables conceptualized as legal business creativity, legal-institutional entrepreneurship, and Schumpeterian rule-breaking.

Nancy Bodden
Eine Frage der Branchenkooperation: Der Verband Rheinisch-Westfälischer Brauereien und das Problem eines einheitlichen Flaschenpfands 1915 bis 1975 191

The taking of deposits on returnable bottles was not an inevitable consequence of the breweries’ increasing bottled beer output since the end of the 19th century. The example of the Association of Rhenish-Westphalian Breweries clarifies the developments that opposed a uniform and functioning cash deposit system over decades. The strong competition on the bottled beer market and the breweries’ preference for their short-term individual advantage prevented the most efficient way of sector cooperation. Accordingly, political support was the significant factor in resolving the conflict in the mid-1970s.

Michael Bermejo-Wenzel/Andrea H. Schneider-Braunberger
Geraubte Diamanten, Schmuck und Edelmetalle 219

The essay explores the role of gemstone merchants, jewelers and goldsmiths in the expropriation of diamonds, jewellery and precious stones from the Jewish population of Germany as well as German-occupied countries in the Nazi era. Their participation along with the possibility for them to profit from these efforts will be highlighted, and it will be shown in how far there is proof for the involvement of specific persons. Due to their changeable nature, many of the stolen pieces of jewellery are nigh impossible to trace. For this reason, the essay narrows its focus on individual gemstone merchants, jewellers and goldsmiths to gain insight into their involvement in the robbery. Structures and regulations that were exploited to this end can be observed on an administrative level, in responsible administrative bodies and in the administration of occupied territories. In addition, implementation methods can also be reconstructed, i. e. which middlemen the National Socialists made use of within the circle of gemstone merchants, jewellers and goldsmiths. It shows that all three levels – trade, handicrafts, and sales – benefited from the robbery. On the one hand, jewellers and goldsmiths were used as henchmen for the procurement and evaluation of gemstones, on the other hand, some of these goldsmiths took advantage of the sales orders placed by the National Socialists and obtained the necessary gems and precious stones and metals via the established networks. A scheme in which all participants systematically benefited from the robbery of Jewish property can be identified. Within the framework of foreign currency supply, military raw diamond demand and satisfaction of the Nazi art needs, the participation in the robbery seems limited to an elitist group of gemstone merchants, jewellers and goldsmiths, who were also closely linked to the Nazi elite. In how far the remaining, much larger group of jewellers were actively involved in the robbery of Jewish property remains a question to be answered by further research.

Harald Wixforth
Handlungsspielräume in Umbruchszeiten 255

The Bremer Vulkan AG in Bremen-Vegesack was one of the large companies in Germany for which a high degree of continuity can be demonstrated from the Second World War to the early years of the young Federal Republic of Germany. This applies above all to the shipyard’s management personnel. Under the leadership of its go-getting general manager Robert Kabelac and his fellow board members, Bremer Vulkan became a crucial part of naval armament during the war, especially of submarine construction and thus of the German armaments industry. After the end of the Second World War, this constellation turned out to be by no means a burden for the future development of the company. Kabelac and his colleagues succeeded relatively quickly in having war damage repaired and in again acquiring large orders for the shipyard. This enabled the shipyard to resume its successful performance in the maritime industry during the war. If one compares this success story with the situation of many other prominent companies in the defense industry at the beginning of the 1950s, only a few examples can be found where this was achieved in a similarly impressive manner.

Rezensionen (Reviews)

Dietmar Bleidick
Manfred Grieger/Rainer Karlsch/Ingo Köhler, Expansion um jeden Preis. Studien zur Wintershall AG zwischen Krise und Krieg, 1929–1945 293

Christian Marx
Paul Erker, Zulieferer für Hitlers Krieg. Der Continental-Konzern in der NS-Zeit 294

Roman Köster
Manfred Grieger, Sartorius im Nationalsozialismus, Generationswechsel im Familienunternehmen zwischen Wirtschaftskrise und Entnazifizierung 296

Jonathan Voges
Daniela Rüther, Der »Fall Nährwert« Ein Wirtschaftskrimi aus der Zeit des Zweiten Weltkrieges 298

Hermut Kormann
Hartmut Berghoff, Moderne Unternehmensgeschichte
Hartmut Berghoff/Ingo Köhler, Verdienst und Vermächtnis – Familienunternehmen in Deutschland und den USA seit 1800 300

Kristina Huttenlocher
Karin Hartewig, Mauxion, Rotstern und Stollwerck. Die bewegte Geschichte der Schokoladenfabrik in Saalfeld 302

Alan van Keeken
Thomas Fröhlich/Klaus Gertoberens, Musima – Gitarren für die ganze Welt / Guitars for the Whole World / Ein Musikriese aus Markneukirchen und seine Geschichte 1954–2003 / A Musical Giant from Markneukirchen and its History 1954 – 2003 304

Juliane Czierpka
Christian Böse/Michael Farrenkopf/Andrea Weindl, Kohle – Koks – Öl. Die Geschichte des Bergwerks Prosper-Haniel
Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, Grubengold. Das Zeitalter der Kohle von 1750 bis heute
Gunnar Gawehn, Im tiefen Norden. Die Geschichte des Steinkohlenbergbaus in Ibbenbüren
Arne Hordt, Kumpel, Kohle und Krawall. Miners’ Strike und Rheinhausen als Aufruhr in der Montanregion
Gabriele Unverferth (Bearb.), Kohle, Koks und Kolonie. Das Verbundbergwerk Gneisenau in Dortmund-Derne 306

Andrea H. Schneider-Braunberger
Stefanie van der Kerkhof, Waffen und Sicherheit im Kalten Krieg, Das Marketing der Westdeutschen Rüstungsindustrie 1949–1990 313

Dirk Wiegand
Wolfgang König, Geschichte der Wegwerfgesellschaft. Die Kehrseite des Konsums 315
Sean Byrne

Simon Mee, Central Bank Independence and the Legacy of the German Past 317
Jonathan Voges
Maren-Sophie Fünderich, Wohnen im Kaiserreich, Einrichtungsstil und Möbeldesign im Kontext bürgerlicher Selbstrepräsentation 320

Boris Gehlen
Wolfgang Hardtwig, Freiheitliches Bürgertum in Deutschland: der Weimarer Demokrat Eduard Hamm zwischen Kaiserreich und Widerstand 322