Stephen G. Gross. Export Empire: German Soft Power in Southeastern Europe, 1890–1945.

Abstract

Some months ago, German newspapers reported with a degree of pride that Germany would once again be Exportweltmeister (export world champion) in 2016 as measured by the current account surplus and effected primarily through massive merchandise exports. As today, merchandise exports played a pivotal role in the German business model between the early Wilhelminian period and the end of World War II. This period, especially the turbulent decades after World War I, is the focus of Stephen G. Gross’s excellent study Export Empire: German Soft Power in Southeastern Europe, 1890–1945. Gross explores the trade relations between Germany and two comparatively small, agrarian, and less industrialized southeastern European countries, Romania and Yugoslavia, and skillfully connects them to international politics and the practices of German imperialism. Analyzing the emergence of German “soft power” and trade-driven imperialism in southeastern Europe, the author pays special attention to the previously neglected role of non-state organizations. Drawing on recent scholarship on trade, international relations, and imperialism, which has underlined non-state actors’ often influential role in policymaking, Gross elaborates on the activities of such key non-state entities as the Leipzig Trade Fair, the Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftstag (an association of German and non-German business elites), and the Mittel-Europa Institut, as well as the academic institutes in Leipzig and in Dresden.