Aufsätze
Gerald D. Feldman Die Deutsche Bank und die Automobilindustrie
Toni Pierenkemper Was kann eine moderne Unternehmensgeschichtsschreibung leisten? Und was sollte sie tunlichst vermeiden
Martin Fiedler Die 100 größten Unternehmen in Deutschland - nach der Zahl ihrer Beschäftigten - 1907, 1938, 1973 und 1995
Detlev Heiden "Im Grunde alles erreicht, worum wir jahrelang gekämpft haben": Die hessische Sozialisierung und die Unternehmer
Joerg Lichter Die Familie von der Leyen als Schumpetersche Pionierunternehmer im 18. Jahrhundert
Abstracts
This paper traces the relationship between the Deutsche Bank and the automobile industry, which began in 1904 when it became a shareholder in Daimler. Its recent role in the Daimler-Chrysler merger is a major episode in a long history of Deutsche Bank involvement in efforts to organize and rationalize the automobile industry nationally and now internationally. This has been no easy task, and the paper discusses the difficulties of bringing Daimler and Benz together in 1925-1926 as well as the failure of its efforts to create an automobile trust in the late Weimar Republic. Daimler-Benz and B.M.W. collaborated but could not be brought together and Opel fell into the hands of General Motors. While the National Socialist regime favored motorization in the early years, it also favored small car producers rather than Daimler, and its chief interest became military in the late 1930s. The development of a consumer-friendly German automobile industry and the reemergence of Deutsche Bank as a major player in the industry could only take place in the reconstruction after the German defeat of 1945.
Conventional German business history draws upon some very heterogeneous traditions, and attempts to meet the information needs of various and quite different elements. Thus it manifests itself in a variety of forms, ranging from a few solidly based scholarly works to a broad array of "Festschriften" with an eye on public relations. The author argues for a new approach towards modern business history, oriented towards modern economics, that aims first of all to decipher the distinctive logic of economic decision making, before dealing with the activities and consequences of enterprise for society and politics. This approach should direct itself towards clarifying the issues under investigation before taking up the facts of the case, defining the field of investigation as broadly as possible, and applying quantitative methods and systematic comparisons. Other approaches to business history, in the author's oppinion, suffer from inevitable shortcomings and often carry with them the seeds of failure.
The following lists of the hundred largest employers in German business in 1907, 1938, 1973, and in 1995 are offered as a working tool for business historians. Though not perfect, employment as a yardstick with which to measure the largeness of corporations is considered to have an advantage over other measures like turnover, market-value of capital, or assets. The figure of employement is timeless, indepen-dent of distinct accounting practices and changing currencies and suitable to international comparison. The applied method is described in detail. For all the figures in the lists the sources are cited in order to indicate the degree of exactness or to facilitate corrections. The four lists clearly demon-strate the well-known trend towards concentration in twentieth century German big business, and provide evidence on the likewise familiar shift from manufacturing to services.
The Hesse constitution of 1946 decreed public ownership of the mining industry, primary iron and steel manufacturers, utilities and small railroads. In the following eight years an often symbolic struggle was fought about this socialization attempt, which was always overloaded with mighty but anachronistic traditions of the German labor movement. The article examines how the entrepreneurs not only in Hesse but also in the Ruhr reacted to a social democratic experiment which was unique in West German postwar history and how they defended private property. It especially deals with the failure of a reorganization of the power supply industry and covers the example of the Buderus'sche Eisenwerke. In the beginning the Hessian entrepreneurs acted only following their individual interests, and it was not before 1948 that they began to build up a succesful network that spread all over Western Germany. In vain they tried to transfer a regional confrontation to the stage of the federal parliament or even government. Anyway, in the years of the Wirtschaftswunder the demand for socialization lost nearly all support. By mutual agreement the social democratic Hessian government and the former owners reached a pragmatic winding up of the constitutional instructions. This settlement was enabled because the entrepreneurs pursued economic aims and put their ideological interests back.
Schumpeter's model of the pioneering entrepreneur provides an exceptional good base to explain the rise of the von der Leyens, the leading 18th century merchant entrepreneurs in Prussia. Based upon the rural industry (Verlagswesen), which kept costs low, the von der Leyens were the founders of the silk industry in the Crefeld area. The subsequent process of expansion and adaptation failed, because of the inability and unwillingness of the urban handicraft and preindustrial factories (Manufakturwesen) to adopt modern technologies and methods of production previously invented by the von der Leyens. Thus both parties were not able to produce on the same level of low costs. The Prussian's policy of industrial promotion of the silk industry as its focus also proved to be unsuccessful. This was mainly because of the preindustrial factories and inappropriate means and devices, subsidies and the privileges of exclusive rights.
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