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Trade Associations and Economic Power: Interest Group Development in the German Iron and Steel and Machine Building Industries, 1900–1933*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Gerald D. Feldman  and
Ulrich Nocken
Gerald D. Feldman
Affiliation:
Professor of History, University of California,Berkeley
Ulrich Nocken
Affiliation:
Acting Instructor in History, University of California, Berkeley
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Abstract

This study traces the evolution of several large and powerful trade associations in early twentieth-century Germany and seeks to place them in comparative perspective.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , Winter 1975 , pp. 413 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1975

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Footnotes

*

This collaborative effort is a product of the Research Apprenticeship Program of the Institute of International Studies of the University of California at Berkeley. The paper was first presented to the Conference on Twentieth Century Capitalism sponsored by the Council for European Studies and held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in September 1974. The paper summarizes some of the findings of longer studies being completed by the authors, Mr. Feldman's “Iron and Steel in the German Inflation, 1916–1923” and Mr. Nocken's dissertation on the AVI Agreement.

References

1 Brady, Robert A., “Policies of National Manufacturing Spitzenverbände I,” Political Science Quarterly, 56 (June, 1941), 199CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the most extensive, international bibliography of studies dealing with interest groups, both past and present, see Kurt, P. and Tudyka, Juliane, Vebände — Geschichte, Theorie und Funktion: Ein bibliographischsystematischer Versuch, Schriften der Bibliothek für Zeitgcschichte, Weltkriegsbücherei Stuttgart, Vol. 12 (Frankfurt, 1973)Google Scholar. Representative studies of “peak associations” are Steigerwalt, A. K., The National Association of Manufacturers, 1895–1914: A Study in Business Leadership (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1964)Google Scholar and Kaelble, Harmut, Industrielle Interessenpolitik in der wilhelminischen Gesellschaft: Centralverband deutscher Industrieller 1895–1914 (Berlin, 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 The following studies contain some analysis of the activities of certain trade associations: Lambi, Ivo N., Free Trade and Protection in Germany, 1868–1879 (Wiesbaden, 1963)Google Scholar; Nussbaum, Helga, Unternehmer gegen Monopole (Berlin-DDR, 1966)Google Scholar; Stegmann, Dirk, Die Erben Bismarcks. Parteien und Verbände in der Spätphase des wilhelminischen Deutschlands (Köln, 1970)Google Scholar. For an economist's anti-trust approach see Whitney, Simon N., Trade Associations and Industrial Control: A Critique of the N.R.A. (New York, 1934)Google Scholar. The new historical approach is exemplified by Galambos, Louis, Competition and Cooperation: The Emergence of a National Trade Association (Baltimore, Md., 1966)Google Scholar.

3 Boulding, Kenneth E., The Organizational Revolution: A Study in the Ethics of Economic Organization (Chicago, 1968), xiiiGoogle Scholar.

4 Burn, D. L., The Economic History of Steelmaking 1867–1939 (Cambridge, 1940), 376Google Scholar.

5 See especially the stimulating essays by Fischer, Wolfram, “Konjunkturen und Krisen im Ruhrgebiet seit 1840 und die wirtschaftspolitische Willensbildung der Unternehmer” and “Staatsverwaltung und Interessenverbände im deutschen Reich 1871–1914” in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in Zeitalter der Industrialisierung. Aufsätze, Studien, Vorträge (Göttingen, 1972), 179–223CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Rosenberg, Hans, Grosse Depression und Bismarckzeit. Wirtschaftsablauf, Gessellschaft und Politik in Mitteleuropa (Berlin, 1967), 154CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.

6 On the VdESI, see Clemens Klein's unpublished “Geschichte des Vereins Deutscher Eisen- und Stahlindustrieller” in Bundesarchiv Koblenz (BA), R 13 1/12–13.

7 Ibid. Also, Kaelble, Industrielle Interessenpolitik, esp. 23, 127–128.

8 In this discussion we follow closely the excellent analysis in Wiskott, Otto, Eisenschaffende und eisenverarbeitende Industrie: Eine Untersuchung über die Verschiedenheit ihrer Struktur und über ihr gegenseitiges Verhältnis (Bonn and Leipzig, 1929)Google Scholar.

9 On the VDMA, see Polysius, Otto, Verbandsbestrebungen im Deutschen Maschinenbau (Dessau, 1921)Google Scholar and the unpublished history in the Frankfurt/Main archives of the VDMA, “Der Deutsche Maschinenbau.”

10 Polysius, Verbandsbestrebungen, 82; “Machinenbau,” 149–151, 160 ff.

11 Ibid., 149 ff.

12 Ibid., 201.

13 Ibid., 458.

14 Ibid., 202.

15 There is an informative unpublished Zendei history — Max Frese, “Annalen zur Geschichte des Zentralverbandes der deutschen elektrotechnischen Industrie und der Wirtschaftsgruppe Elektroindustrie” in the library of the Zentralverband der Elektrotechnischen Industrie e.V., Frankfurt/Main. For the statistics, ibid., 32.

16 For an important general discussion, see von Beckerath, Herbert, Kräfte, Ziele und Gestaltungen in der deutschen Industrie (Jena, 1922)Google Scholar. For wartime development, see Feldman, Gerald D., Army, Industry and Labor in Germany, 1914–1918 (Princeton, N.J., 1966), esp. 45Google Scholar ft., 150 ff., 253 ff.

17 Good older discussions are to be found in Schlaghecke, Alfons, Die Preissteigerung, Absatzorganisation und Bewirtschaftung des Eisens 1914–1920 (Giessen, 1920)Google Scholar und Tross, Arnold, Der Aufbau der eisenerzeugenden und eisenverarbeitenden Industriekonzerne Deutschlands (Berlin, 1923)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also, Feldman, Gerald D., “The Collapse of the Steel Works Association 1912–1919: A Case Study in the Operation of German ‘Collectivist Capitalism,’” in Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, ed., Sozialgeschichte heute: Festschrift für Hans Rosenberg zum 70. Geburtstag (Göttingen, 1974), 575–593CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 “Maschinenbau,” 224 ff.; Frese, “Annalen,” 53 ff.; Reichert's, Jacob revealing Rettung aus der Valutanot (Berlin, 1919)Google Scholar; and the various discussions in the VdESI executive committee in BA, R 13 1/157–159.

19 Ibid.

20 Feldman, Gerald D., “German Business between War and Revolution: The Origins of the Stinnes-Legien Agreement,” in Ritter, Gerhard A., ed., Entstehung und Wandel der modernen Gesellschaft: Festschrift für Hans Rosenberg zum 65. Geburtstng (Berlin, 1970), 312–341.Google Scholar

21 Feldman, Gerald D., “Wirtschafts- und sozialpolitische Probleme der deutschen Demobilmachung 1918/19,” in Mommsen, Hans, Petzina, Dietmar, and Weisbrod, Bernd, eds., Industrielles System und politische Entwicklung in der Weimarer Republik (Düsseldorf, 1974), 618–636Google Scholar.

22 Gerald D. Feldman, “Iron and Steel in the German Inflation,” chs. I–IV.

23 Director Mayer-Etscheit to Director Guggenheimer, February 2, 1922, MAN Werksarchiv Augsburg, unabgesezte Korrespondenz 1922, B1. 112.

24 The truce was concluded at a meeting of December 8, 1923, the record of which is to be found in BA. R 13 1/202. B1. 133.

25 Stürmer, Michael, Koalition und Opposition in der Weimarer Republik 1924–1928 (Düsseldorf, 1967), 33–38Google Scholar.

26 Jacob Reichert to General Director Paul Reusch, November 26, 1927, BAR 13 1/64; Bernd Weisbrod, “Zur Form schwerindustrieller Interessenvertretung in der zweiten Hälfte der Weimarer Republik,” in Mommsen, et al., Industrielles System, 674–692.

27 Reusch to Reichert, June 9, 1928, Historisches Archiv, Gutehoffnungshütte, HA GHH 400101222/11.

28 Memorandum Reusch to the members of the board of directors, October 19, 1926, HA GHH 4000020/1. Reusch forbids anyone to agree to any cartel or syndicate agreement without his personal assent.

29 See the extensive reports of the economics department of the Gutehoffnungshütte, Reports of Department W, HA GHH 400127/0–9.

30 For the domination of the larger firms within the VDMA, see the protocols of the board of directors meetings in the VDMA archive, Frankfurt. Mittelstand generally translates as a middle class but it includes peculiar German overtones of traditional estates. For this phase of the Nazi regime, see Schweitzer, Arthur, Big Business in the Third Reisch (Bloomington, Ind., 1964)Google Scholar, Chs. 3–5.

31 VDMA, “Der Deutsche Maschinenbau,” Vol. 2, 463, 754.

32 Between 1924 and 1925, membership declined only from 1,203 to 1,190 firms. Ibid., 641.

33 Ulrich Nocken, “Inter-industrial Conflicts and Alliances as Exemplified by the AVI-Agreement,” in Mommsen, et al., Industrielles System, 693–704.

34 For a discussion of the wider impact of the agreement, see ibid, or the forthcoming dissertation on the AVI-Agreement. A basic outline of the agreement is provided by Schmidt, Rolf, Das AVI-Abkommen, ein Mittel verbandsmässiger Exportförderung (Diss. Köln, 1930)Google Scholar.

35 Diercks, Ewald, Das System der Ausfuhrvergütungen in der deutschen Eisenindustrie (Diss., Köln, 1933), 63Google Scholar.

36 The papers of Alexander Rüstow in the Bundesarchiv Koblez contain important material on his activities in the VDMA. For examples of the use of statistics, see the business section (Wirtschaft) of the VDMA journal Maschinenbau or their statistical handbook, Statistisches Handbuch für die deutsche Maschinenindustrie 1930 (Berlin, 1930)Google Scholar. For similar attempts in the American machine industry, see Wagoner, Harless D., The U.S. Machine Tool Industry from 1900 to 1950 (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), 159Google Scholar.

37 Testimony of Karl Lange, Ausschuss zur Untersuchung der Erzeugungsund Absatzbedingungen der deutschen Wirtschaft, Verhandlungen und Berichte des Unterausschusses für allgemeine Wirtschaftsstruktur, 3. Arbeitsgruppe, part 4, section 2 (Berlin, 1930), 167–169Google Scholar.

38 See the collection of speeches by Karl Lange in the folder: Vorträge Lange aus 1924–1927, VDMA archive, Frankfurt.

39 See the correspondence with the business reporters in the Rüstow papers, especially with Arthur Feiler of the Frankfurter Zeitung, Nachlass Rüstow, 17, 20.

40 See the correspondence of Rüstow with Paul Legers, business manager of the association of Remscheid tool producers and Josef Hartmann of the Krefeld silk weaving industry, Nachlass Rüstow, 17, 25, 26.

41 For an analysis by the iron producers of the VDMA connections to the bureaucracy, see the memorandum of Niebuhr, August 6, 1928, BAR 13 1/314.

42 The papers of the VdESI in the Bundesarchiv (R 13 I) contain a wealth of material on the connections with the bureaucracy. For the contact with the State Secretary, see Max Schlenker to General Director Reusch, January 21, 1930, HA GHH 400101221/11.

43 For many examples of this influence see Döhn, Lothar, Politik and Interesse: Die Interessenstruktur der deutschen Volkspartei (Meisenheim am Glan, 1970)Google Scholar.

44 Speech of Jacob Reichert to the VDMA member meeting, December 4, 192.5, BA R 13 1/208.

45 BA Nachlass Rüstow 1.

46 Galambos, Competition and Cooperation, 291.

47 Cochran, Thomas C. and Miller, William, Age of Enterprise: A Social History of Industrial America (New York, 1961), 305Google Scholar.

48 Turner, Henry A., “The Ruhrlade, Secret Cabinet of Heavy Industry in the Weimar Republic,” Central European History, 40 (September, 1970), 195–228CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Galambos, Louis, “The Emerging Organizational Synthesis in Modern American History,” Business History Review, XLIV, (Autumn, 1970), 279–290CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Parker, William N., “Entrepreneurship, Industrial Organization and Economic Growth: A German Example,” Journal of Economic History, XIV (1954), 381Google Scholar.