Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Background
- 1 Politics and technological excellence: Organic chemicals, 1860–1945
- 2 Western German chemicals in flux, 1945–1951
- Part II Bargaining from strength: the political economy of technological change, 1949–1955
- Part III Alternative paths to plenty: case studies from the mid–1950s
- Part IV Consolidating the new regime, 1957–1961
- Index
2 - Western German chemicals in flux, 1945–1951
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Background
- 1 Politics and technological excellence: Organic chemicals, 1860–1945
- 2 Western German chemicals in flux, 1945–1951
- Part II Bargaining from strength: the political economy of technological change, 1949–1955
- Part III Alternative paths to plenty: case studies from the mid–1950s
- Part IV Consolidating the new regime, 1957–1961
- Index
Summary
As Allied troops swarmed into Germany in the spring of 1945, the Nazi government and economy collapsed. By April, the once mighty German organic chemical industry, along with virtually all other industries, sat idle, the victim of Allied bombing attacks, transportation outages, and disruptions in supplies of energy and raw materials. Its resuscitation did not appear imminent: All four of the Allies agreed that they should denazify, decartelize, and deconcentrate the German economy, and one of their top targets was I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G. In addition, the Allies sent teams of scientists and engineers to the defeated nation to scour university and industrial laboratories for scientific and technical information. They also set strict controls for future German research. The combined effects of the initial Allied policies therefore undermined the technological basis of Germany's economic and political power. By 1948, however, in view of the fluctuating international political situation and the costs of those initial draconian policies, western Allied policy had begun to change. Key figures in German industry were faced with a variety of technological choices, and they had to formulate their plans for the future under the constraints of that changing policy.
Politics and technology at the “zero hour,” 1945–8
The chemical industry had provided the German war machine with such key goods as synthetic gasoline, synthetic rubber, and other substitute materials, and therefore control over that industry was an important objective of the Allied occupation officials.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Opting for OilThe Political Economy of Technological Change in the West German Industry, 1945–1961, pp. 40 - 64Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994