Reviewed by: Maritime Wirtschaft in Deutschland: Schifffahrt—Werften—Handel—Seemacht im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert Edited by Jürgen Elvert, Sigurd Hess, and Heinrich Walle Dirk Bönker Maritime Wirtschaft in Deutschland: Schifffahrt—Werften—Handel—Seemacht im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Edited by Jürgen Elvert, Sigurd Hess, and Heinrich Walle. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2012. Pp. 228. Paper €36.00. ISBN 978-3515101370. This useful collection of essays brings together maritime scholars and experts from Germany, Britain, and Norway to study the history of maritime economics in nineteenth- and twentieth century Germany. Though informative throughout, the essays, organized thematically in four parts, are of mixed quality and ambition. Some offer synthetic overviews; some are based on substantive primary research and/or offer original analysis; some offer little that is analytically or empirically new; and some work well as thought pieces. The first group of essays covers the history of shipping. In his introductory piece, Heinrich Walle presents a summary overview of German shipping in the nineteenth century. Melanie Leonhard explores the shipping enterprise(s) of the Rickmer family in Bremen between shipbuilding and East-Asia trade, combining business history with family history. Birgit Braasch analyzes personal experiences and memories of post–World War II transatlantic travel with the Cunard Line. Introduced by Sönke Neitzel, the second part of the book features articles on the history of the shipyard industry. Dirk Peters surveys the history of that industry between 1850 and 1914, with special emphasis on its relationship to its British counterpart. Cord Eberspächer presents a succinct analysis of Anglo-German competition over construction orders from China from 1870 to the mid-1890s, a rivalry that took place in the context of competing pursuits of empire and profit, as well as Chinese efforts at self-strengthening. Johanna Meyer-Lenz charts the business history of Blohm-Voss before 1914 as a fast-developing shipyard enterprise that made itself into a leading, internationally competitive company. Sketching the short-lived history of Germany’s only freight ship with nuclear propulsion, the Otto Hahn, Hajo Neumann explores the interplay between business, science, and government in West Germany. A third round of essays is grouped under the rubric of trade and framed by an introductory essay by Sigurd Hess, a coeditor of the volume. Jürgen Nagel briefly writes on European East India Companies. Robert Riemer sketches the development of European trade and industry in the age of empire before 1914. Franz Böni offers a sweeping discussion of the vulnerability of maritime trade to piracy, ranging from [End Page 669] classical antiquity to modern-day Somalia, with the bulk of the discussion devoted to the present situation. The fourth, and final, part of the volume deals with sea power. After a brief introduction by Ulrich Otto, Rolf Hobson reflects on the making of an ideology of sea power in Germany and elsewhere at the turn of the twentieth century. Michael Epkenhans gives a concise overview of the history of naval warfare and armaments in the twentieth century. Andrew Lambert offers a wide-ranging discussion of ideas and arguments about “sea power,” tracing this history from Greek and Roman thinkers of classical antiquity to the American Alfred Thayer Mahan and his British and German contemporaries in the late nineteenth century. In a final essay, Thomas Kossendey, a parliamentary state secretary in the German Ministry of Defense, analyzes Germany’s global maritime interests in the twenty-first century. Kossendey’s essay points to an important feature of this collection: as several of the contributors note, it serves a clear political-pedagogical agenda, i.e., to draw attention to modern Germany’s dependency on the promulgation and protection of seaborne trade and the interrelationship among prosperity, security, and maritime economics in what is referred to as our current “maritime century.” To make their case about the centrality of maritime interests to Germany’s wellbeing in the present and future, Hess and others openly draw on seemingly authoritative analyses offered by the German Fleet Command and the German Maritime Institute. Strikingly, some of the language used in this context could have been lifted out of pro-navy writings from an earlier time. Hess himself echoes Wilhelm II...
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Aug 1, 2015
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