Inhaltsverzeichnis

Aufsätze (Articles):

Mario Klotzsche: Indigo und die schweizerische Farbenindustrie. Großprojekte von Ciba und Geigy, S. 3-25

Rajah Scheepers: Ökonomie und Theologie - die Entwicklung des Unternehmens Diakonie in den Scharnierjahrzehnten 1960 bis 1980, S. 26-49

Harald Degner: Schumpeterian German Firms before an after World War I. The Innovative Few and Non-innovative Many, S. 50-72

Roman Köster: Der lange Abschied vom Luftschiff: Die Diversifizierung des Zeppelin-Konzerns nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, S. 73-99

Abstracts:

Mario Klotzsche: Indigo und die schweizerische Farbenindustrie. Großprojekte von Ciba und Geigy / Indigo and the Swiss dyestuffs industry. Major projects from Ciba and Geigy

By the end of the 19th century the process of indigo production had changed radically. Scientific innovation allowed for the substitution of natural resources by synthetic materials. But the events can also be seen in the light of the broader economic environment, most notably an increasingly global competition. Swiss firms Ciba and Geigy, constantly seeking to expand their presence in foreign markets, saw the shift towards the production of synthetic indigo as a chance to wrench market shares from the leading German companies. This article offers an analysis of how Ciba and Geigy - despite being much smaller than their German competitors such as BASF, Hoechst, or Bayer - promoted own projects to mass-produce synthetic indigo. However, the two companies faced many problems and obstacles (and eventually failed to succeed in their plan). While Geigy was indeed able to develop its own process independently, it was unable to develop the right strategy to exploit its patents and ultimately failed the market test. In contrast, Ciba acquired production facilities and know-how through the merger with a smaller Swiss rival, but found it equally difficult to develop the right strategy. The technical difficulties associated with the development of competitive mass production, the complexities of patent laws, and the determination of the German competitors to keep the Swiss companies at bay were clearly underestimated.

Rajah Scheepers: Ökonomie und Theologie - die Entwicklung des Unternehmens Diakonie in den Scharnierjahrzehnten 1960 bis 1980 / Economy and Theology - The development of the Diakonie enterprise in the decades from 1960 to 1980

This article covers the change of the Protestant social welfare organizations - called Diakonie - into a diaconic enterprise. At the same time the definition of the Diakonie institution as «enterprise» is challenged. In fact, the enterprise with the most employees in Germany is the Diakonie (450,000 employees and 400,000 volunteers). But the Diakonie is a chimera aiming at a profit maximization and charity work, so the Diakonie can be described only partly as an enterprise. In contrast to asset based businesses, the main objective of Diakonie establishments is not to make profit, but to generate a people-oriented service.
The article is divided into two parts. As a theoretical foundation, the first parts deals with the relation between theology and economy with a look at the Diakonie. In spite of heavy protests, the collocation «Diakonie enterprise» found its way into theology at the beginning of the 1980s and since then, as will be demonstrated, has been widely regarded as fully established. The second part reconstructs the historic development of the Diakonie enterprise and focuses on the crucial years between 1960 and 1980. The development in the 1950s, where the crisis phenomenon already became quite clear, as well as the conceptional upheaval in the 1980s are, of course, mentioned.

Harald Degner: Schumpeterian German Firms before an after World War I. The Innovative Few and Non-innovative Many

This paper analyzes patenting activities of German firms, large and small, between 1877 and 1932 based on a newly developed dataset containing annual firm-level data about size and long-lived patents. It will be shown first that innovations were distributed extremely unequally among both firms and sectors. In addition, more than one «typical» relationship between innovativeness and firm size will be identified. This observation leads to the conclusion that, in general, the long-term relationship between innovativeness and growth is a recurring S-shaped curve.

Roman Köster: Der lange Abschied vom Luftschiff: Die Diversifizierung des Zeppelin-Konzerns nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg / The long farewell to the airship. The diversification of the Zeppelin-Company after WW I

The Zeppelin-Company was founded in 1908 for the construction of airships. During the First World War it experienced a boom by manufacturing Zeppelins for military purposes. After WW I however, the company had to face massive problems. The German state was neither willing or able to finance the airship-production; additionally, the Treaty of Versailles prohibited the production of larger airships for a certain time. For those reasons, Zeppelin had to find new areas of production such as car-manufacturing, airplanes, gears etc. This diversification-strategy was not very successful for a long time, mainly because Zeppelin had to compete on new and complicated markets. Also, the firm’s profitability was burdened by organisational problems. Furthermore, there was a strong fraction within the corporation that strove to re-establish the production of airships. That group of people were to gain control, though in the long-run it was impossible to abolish the diversification strategy. In the aftermath of the catastrophe of Lakehurst in 1937 the airship finally became a part of history.

Buchbesprechungen (Reviews):

Johannes Bähr / Ralf Banken / Thomas Flemming, Die MAN. Eine deutsche Industriegeschichte (Florian Triebel)

Burkhard Beyer, Vom Tiegelstahl zum Kruppstahl . Technik- und Unternehmensgeschichte der Gussstahlfabrik von Friedrich Krupp in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Kim Priemel)

Jörg Lesczenski, August Thyssen 1842-1926. Lebenswelt eines Wirtschaftsbürgers (Michael Schäfer)

Ralf Ahrens, Die Dresdner Bank 1945-1957. Konsequenzen und Kontinuitäten nach dem Ende des NS-Regimes. Unter Mitarbeit von Ingo Köhler, Harald Wixforth und Dieter Ziegler (Boris Gehlen)

Hans Pohl (Hrsg.), Deutsche Bankiers des 20. Jahrhunderts (Martin L. Müller)

Margrit Schulte Beerbühl, Deutsche Kaufleute in London. Welthandel und Einbürgerung (1660-1818) (Jorun Poettering)

Paul Thomes, «Da wo sie zu Hause sind». 150 Jahre Sparkasse Saarbrücken (Harald Wixforth)

Paul Erker, Das Logistikunternehmen Dachser. Die treibende Kraft der Familie als Erfolgsfaktor im globalen Wettbewerb (Armin Müller)

Karl-Peter Ellerbrock, Auf Stärke gebaut. Geschichte der Fa. Crespel & Deiters 1858-2008. Ein unternehmensgeschichtlicher Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Stärkeindustrie im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Petra Boden)

Richard Tilly, Willy H. Schlieker. Aufstieg und Fall eines Unternehmers (1914-1980) (Ralf Ahrens)

Rainer Karlsch, Uran für Moskau. Die Wismut – Eine populäre Geschichte (Friederike Sattler)

Knut Kühn-Leitz (Hrsg.), Ernst Leitz. Ein Unternehmer mit Zivilcourage in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus / Knut Kühn-Leitz (Hrsg.), Ernst Leitz. Wegbereiter der Leica. Ein vorbildlicher Unternehmer und mutiger Demokrat (Benjamin Obermüller)

Philipp Ischer, Umbau der Telekommunikation. Wechselwirkungen zwischen Innovationsprozessen und institutionellen Wandel am Beispiel der schweizerischen PTT (1970-1998) (Benedikt Burkard)

Detlef Hechtel, Zur Geschichte der Kommunikation auf See: Das Ende der Einsamkeit (Michael Friedewald)

Gisela Hürlimann, Die Eisenbahn der Zukunft. Automatisierung, Schnellverkehr und Modernisierung bei den SBB 1955 bis 2005 (Michael Hascher)

Christopher Kopper, Die Bahn im Wirtschaftswunder, Deutsche Bundesbahn und Verkehrspolitik in der Nachkriegsgesellschaft (Gisela Hürlimann)

Alfred Reckendrees / Toni Pierenkemper (Hrsg.), Die bundesdeutsche Massenkonsumgesellschaft 1950-2000 / The West Germin Mass Consumption Society 1950-2000 (Thomas Welskopp)

Barry Eichengreen, The European Economy since 1945. Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond (Werner Bührer)

Hubert Kiesewetter, Die Industrialisierung Sachsens. Ein regional-vergleichendes Erklärungsmodell (Michael Schäfer)

Thomas Brockmann / Peter Hertner (Hrsg.), Menschen, Märkte und Maschinen. Die Entwicklung von Industrie und mittelständischer Wirtschaft im Raum Halle (Saale) (Harald Wixforth)

Ivan T. Berend, Markt und Wirtschaft. Ökonomische Ordnungen und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in Europa seit dem 18. Jahrhundert (Werner Bührer)

John M. Dobson, Bulls, bears, boom, and bust: a historical encyclopedia of American business concepts (Mira Wilkins)

Marcel Boldorf, Europäische Leinenregionen im Wandel. Institutionelle Weichenstellungen in Schlesien und Irland (1750-1850) (Ralf Banken)

Gerhard A. Ritter, Der Preis der deutschen Einheit. Die Wiedervereinigung und die Krise des Sozialstaats (Peter Borscheid)

Britta Leise, Die Vereinigung deutscher Wirtschaftsarchivare e.V. (VdW). Aspekte zur Entwicklung des Archivwesens der Wirtschaft in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland bis 1990 (Sebastian Beck)