German Economic and Business History from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day: Introductory Remarks

Abstract

If we look back over the last 200 years of Germany’s economic and business history in an attempt to identify its essential features, two points stand out. One is the comparatively stable business and industrial structure that characterized the German economy from the mid-nineteenth century onward. The other is the astonishing resilience involved in those structures holding their own despite the crises and upheavals that marked the period between 1900 and the present. Indeed, to judge by every measurable index of an export-oriented industrial sector, they have performed with great success to this day. Moreover, such durability suggests an amazing ability to adapt. On the one hand, the structural change affecting industry also impacted directly on German firms. The sorts of heavy industry that dominated the economic picture from the mid-nineteenth century until well into the modern period (mining particularly but also iron and steel) have largely vanished, as have most textile manufacturers of note—certainly in comparison with the importance of that branch in the years before 1914. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of the larger German firms (but also of the firms in the small- and medium-sized business sector that were established between the 1850s and the 1880s) have over the last 150 years shown themselves to be highly flexible technologically without in the process forfeiting their industrial character. Business and business firms in Germany have undoubtedly undergone change. The point is that industrial character and the associated technological and marketing strategies have largely proved their worth.