Shareholders and the EC Commission give the Go-ahead

Abstract

This chapter concerns ‘folkloristic’ pastimes of the young (West German) Federal Republic without it having anything to do with the assertion of the German bank’s business interests. Three ‘holy’ key phrases sum up this special set of circumstances: shareholder democracy, regulatory politics and antitrust legislation. As a matter of fact, in German economic policy at that time there was scarcely anything more important for journalists to cast their Argus eye (careful and severe eye) upon. The times demanded that something exemplary be produced in all three respects. Great care was called for with all three virtues, as no good could be expected to come of them.