Between Coercion and Private Initiative

This book explores the extent of private companies’ freedom of action during the Nazi period through six case studies of different economic sectors. Since the mid-1990s, historical research has intensively discussed the role played by private, domestic and foreign enterprises during the ‘Third Reich’. Numerous case studies suggest that even under the extreme ideological circumstances of the ‘Third Reich’, the strategic decisions of private firms followed economic criteria. In fact, the regime was especially able to control the economy successfully in those cases in which it operated with economic incentives and gave companies room for manoeuvre. This scope, however, became increasingly smaller towards the end of the war due to increasing state intervention and government control. The chapters discuss this scope of action and relate it to the National Socialist crimes.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Business History.

Ralf Banken is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His scholarly work addresses the development of economic law in Germany in the twentieth century and specifically the development of economic policies during the Third Reich. He is the author of over a dozen scholarly articles and publications.

Roman Köster is Economic Historian and currently Senior Lecturer at the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Munich, Germany. His research interests include the history of economic crises and the history of economic thought.

Ben Wubs is Professor of International Business History at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is engaged in various research projects related to multinationals, business systems, transnational economic regions, Dutch-German economic relations, and the transnational fashion industry.