German Big Business Research Articles

Fascism and Monopoly

The recent revival of political interest in antitrust has resurfaced a longstanding debate about the role of industrial concentration and monopoly in enabling Hitler’s rise to power and the Third Reich’s wars of aggression. Proponents of stronger antitrust enforcement argue that monopolies and cartels brought the Nazis to power and warn that rising concentration in the American economy could similarly threaten democracy. Skeptics demur, observing that German big business largely opposed Hitler during the crucial years of his ascent. Drawing on business histories and archival material from the U.S. Office of Military Government’s Decartelization Branch, this Article assesses the historical record on the role of industrial concentration in facilitating Nazism. It finds compelling evidence that, while German big business principally did not support Hitler before he won the chancellorship in 1933, the extreme concentration of market power during the Weimar period enabled Hitler to seize and consolidate totalitarian power through a variety of mechanisms. Hence, the German experience with Nazism lends support to the idea that extreme concentration of economic power enables extreme concentration of political power. However, most of the conduct that created the radical economic concentration of the Weimar period would be unlawful under contemporary antitrust principles, which casts doubt on claims that a significant shift in antitrust enforcement is necessary to forestall antidemocratic forces.

American Historiography on German Big Business Activities in the Period of the Dawes Plan, 1924—1929

The article analyses the views of American historians on the activities of German big business around the Dawes Plan. The author focuses on American historiography on the impact of foreign loans on social conflicts in the Weimar Republic. This study aims to enrich discussion on the effectiveness of the Versailles-Washington system of international relations with new data and concepts. American historians cited compelling evidence of the fragility of Germany’s economic, social, and political stabilization achieved in 1924—1929. In the end, the Entente countries could not provide the conditions for the creation of a the “social world”, proclaimed in the Treaty of Versailles.

Американская историография о роли германского крупного бизнеса во время Первой мировой войны и в годы становления Веймарской республики

Американская историография о роли германского крупного бизнеса во время Первой мировой войны и в годы становления Веймарской республики

After the Gold Rush. Ursprünge und Wirkungen der Forschungskonjunktur «Unternehmen im Nationalsozialismus»

Abstract: After the Gold Rush. Origins and Outcomes of the Research Boom «Business in the Third Reich» This article starts with a preliminary statistical reconstruction of the research boom «Business in the Third Reich». Its beginnings during the mid-90s resembled a broader change of attitudes towards the history of the Third Reich and the Holocaust in particular. While this «universalization» of Holocaust memory and the accompanying shift in U.S. foreign policy is well known, the article adds a business historian's perspective and emphasizes the changes of the corporate world of the late 90s: German big business went global and were increasingly dependent on the American market, its financial institutions and the general public of the U.S. As the origins of the research boom were mainly non-academic, the article inquires how business historians reflected on scientific autonomy and conflict of interest in a field dominated by commissioned research. Strikingly, pragmatism prevailed and academics showed little interest in the current state of research on application-oriented science. In a last step, the article discusses the scientific repercussions of the massive surge in demand for commissioned histories. Subsequently, business history tended to address the ever-same set of research questions on corporate action during the 30s and 40s, while the acquisition of corporate funding also made for a distorted choice of objects.

Resistance of the Defeated: German and Italian Big Business and the American Antitrust Policy, 1945–1957

The article addresses the question to what extent American antitrust policy in Germany and Italy during the 1950s, was a success or not. Did these nations adopt this policy, did they adapt themselves to it, or did they completely reject it? By a detailed comparison of these two big European nations, Germany and Italy—both defeated powers of the Second World War, and both therefore strongly dependent on postwar American aid—the effects of the American antitrust policy will be analyzed. Eventually, the Germans better adapted, after initial resistance of German big business, to the American plans than the Italians, however, only in an amended and softer form. The Italian resistance—but we even use the expression prolonged rejection—to the economic reforms were much stronger. The US administration envisioned a unified free European market without cartels as early as 1943, however, it would take another fifty years before these ideas would be implemented.

Quest for Economic Empire: European Strategies of German Big Business in the Twentieth Century

German unification evoked ambivalent reactions outside its borders: it revived disquieting memories of attempts by German big business during the two world wars to build an economic empire in Europe in conjunction with the military and the government bureaucracy. But there are also high hopes that German finance and industry will serve as the engine of reconstruction in eastern Europe, just as it played this role in the postwar unification of western Europe.

German Foreign Trade Policy Towards the East in the Light of Recent Research

Robert Mark Spaulding, Osthandel und Ostpolitik. German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer (Oxford and Providence: Berghahn, 1997), 546 pp., £60, ISBN 1–57181–039–0.Volker R. Berghahn, ed., Quest for Economic Empire. European Strategies of German Big Business in the Twentieth Century (Oxford and Providence: Berghahn, 1996), 224 pp., £35:00 (hb), £16.50 (pb), ISBN 1–57181–027–7.Meung-Hoan Hoh, Westintegration versus Osthandel. Politik und Wirtschaft in den Ost-West-Beziehungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1949–1958, (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1995), ISBN 3–631–49003–8.Friedrich von Heyl, Der innerdeutsche Handel um Eisen- und Stahl, 1945–1972. Deutsch-deutsche Beziehungen im Kalten Krieg. (Cologne: Böhlau, 1997), DM 64, ISBN 3–412–03897–0.Research into the history of foreign trade relations languishes in a grey area between the history of foreign policy and economic history. This is particularly true of German trade relations with eastern Europe during the Cold War, even though this was precisely the time when the topic was the focal point of public interest. Before Chancellor Willy Brandt and Foreign Minister Walter Scheel introduced their New Ostpolitik, the Federal Republic's trade with the East (Osthandel) was one of the most controversial issues in foreign policy. The reasons for this were, in no small measure, historical, closely tied up with the ‘ghost of Rapallo’ and the myth of red trade. The treaty concluded between the German empire and Soviet Russia at the economic conference of Genoa in 1922 created the fatal impression that this was a case of two underdogs in the international community getting together to undermine the status quo established by the Treaty of Versailles. From then on, whenever the ‘ghost of Rapallo’ was invoked what was meant was that Germany could be sure of Soviet support for the implementation of its revisionist claims in the East, and thus have greater room for manoeuvre vis-à-vis the West.

Quest for Economic Empire. European Strategies of German Big Business in the Twentieth Century

Quest for Economic Empire. European Strategies of German Big Business in the Twentieth Century Get access Patricia Clavin Patricia Clavin Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar German History, Volume 15, Issue 3, July 1997, Pages 443–444, https://doi.org/10.1093/gh/15.3.443 Published: 01 July 1997

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler. Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.

<i>German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler</i>. Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.

Big Business, Weimar Democracy, and Nazism: Henry Turner's German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

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German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler Get access John P. Fox John P. Fox Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar German History, Volume 4, Issue 1, 1987, Pages 106–110, https://doi.org/10.1093/gh/4.1.106 Published: 01 April 1987

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler, by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.

Journal Article German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler, by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr. Get access German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler by Henry Ashby TurnerNew York, Oxford University Press, 1985. 504 pp. $25.00. Robert E. Neil Robert E. Neil Oberlin College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 101, Issue 1, Spring 1986, Pages 163–164, https://doi.org/10.2307/2151467 Published: 15 March 1986

Reviews

Book reviewed in this articleREVIEW OF PERIODICAL LITERATURE, 1984A selective survey of periodical literature on British economic and social history published in other journals.GREAT BRITAINT. F. T. Baker (Ed.)‐ The Victoria History of the Counties of England: A History of the County of Middlesex, Vol. VIII.K. J. Stringer. Earl David of Huntingdon, 1152‐1219: A Study in Anglo‐Scottish History.Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran. The Growth of English Schooling, 1340‐1548: Learning, Literacy, and Laicization in P re‐re formation York Diocese.Mary Prior (Ed.). Women in English Society, 1500‐1800.Philip Riden (Ed.). George Sitwell's Letterbook, 1662‐66.Philip Riden. History of Chesterfield, Volume II, Part I, Tudor and Stuart Chesterfield.Margaret Spufford. The Great Reclothing of Rural England: Petty Chapmen and their Wares in the Seventeenth Century.Patrick McGrath. (Ed.). A Bristol Miscellany.Roger Burt. The British Lead Mining Industry.John Cannon. Aristocratic Century: The Peerage of Eighteenth‐century England.L. E. Cochran. Scottish Trade with Ireland in the Eighteenth Century.Jeffrey G. Williamson. Did British Capitalism Breed Inequality?Richard Dennis. English Industrial Cities of the Nineteenth Century: A Social Geography.Royden Harrison and Jonathan ZeitlinRoger Penn. Skilled Workers in the Class Structure.David J. V. Jones. The Last Rising: The Newport Insurrection of 1839.M.J. Daunton. House and Home in the Victorian City: Working‐Class Housing, 1850‐1914.Martha Vicinus. Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850‐1920.Alun Howkins. Poor Labouring Men: Rural Radicalism in Norfolk, 1870‐1923.Michael Sanderson. From Irving to Olivier: A Social History of the Acting Profession in England, 1880‐1983.R. P. T. Davenport‐Hines, Dudley Docker: The Life and Times of a Trade Warrior.Jim Tomlinson. British Macroeconomic Policy since 1940Alec Cairncross. Wars of Recovery: British Economic Policy, 1945‐51.B. A. Holderness. British Agriculture since 194S‐L. S. Pressnfxl and John Orbell. A Guide to the Historical Records of British Banking.GENERALL. A. Clarkson and E. M. Crawford. Ways to Wealth: The Cust Family of Eighteenth‐century Armagh.William H. Sewell. Structure and Mobility: The Men and Women of Marseilles, 1820‐70.Arndt Fleischer. Patentgesetzgebung und Chemisch‐Pharmazeutische Industrie im Deutschen Kaiserreich, 1871‐1918.Hknry Ashby Turner Jr. German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler.Manuel Martin Rodriguez. Pensamiento ecónomico espaol sobre la Poblacidn.Kathleen Burk. Britain, America and the Sinews of War, 1914‐1918.Hal S. Barron. Those Who Stayed Behind: Rural Society in Nineteenth‐century New England.Charles W. Cheape. Family Firm to Modern Multinational: Norton Company, a New England Enterprise.Norman B. Wilkinson. Lammot du Pont and the American Explosives Industry, 1850 84.Steven Hahn. The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850‐90.James C. Cobb. Industrialization and Southern Society, 1877‐1984.Gilbert C. Fite. Cotton Fields No More: Southern Agriculture, 1865‐1980.Richard B. Sheridan. Doctors and Slaves: A Medical and Demographic History of Slavery in the British West Indies, 1680‐1834.Jean Stubbs. Tobacco on the Periphery: A Case Study in Cuban Labour History, 1860‐1958.Srinivasa Ambirajan. Political Economy and Monetary Management: India, 1766‐1914.Peter Greenhalgh. West African Diamonds, 1919‐83: An Economic History.J. C. Russell. Late Ancient and Medieval Population Control.R. J. Holton. The Transition, from Feudalism to Capitalism.Robert I. Rotberc and Theodore K. Rabb

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler.

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler.

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

&lt;sc&gt;henry ashby turner, jr&lt;/sc&gt;. &lt;italic&gt;German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler&lt;/italic&gt;. New York: Oxford University Press. 1985. Pp. xxi, 504. $25.00

henry ashby turner, jr. German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler. New York: Oxford University Press. 1985. Pp. xxi, 504. $25.00 Get access Turner Henry AshbyJr.German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler. New York: Oxford University Press. 1985. Pp. xxi, 504. $25.00. Gerald D. Feldman Gerald D. Feldman University of California, Berkeley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 90, Issue 3, June 1985, Pages 717–718, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/90.3.717 Published: 01 June 1985

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler

German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler