German Yearbook on Business History 1981 PDF
Preview German Yearbook on Business History 1981
German Yearbook on Business History 1981 German Yearbook on Business History 1981 Edited by the German Society for Business History, Cologne in Cooperation with the Institute for Banking History, Frankfurt/Main Editors: Wolfram Engels and Hans Pohl (Editor in charge) Editorial Staff: Manfred Pohl and Horst A. Wessel Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York Editors Prof. Dr. WOLFRAM ENGELS, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-UniversiUit, Seminar fUr Bankbetriebslehre, Senkenberganlage 31, 6000 Frankfurt am Main Prof. Dr. HANS POHL (Editor in charge), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms UniversiUit, Historisches Seminar, Abt. Verfassungs-, SoziaI-und Wirt schaftsgeschichte, KonviktstraBe 11,5300 Bonn I Editorial Staff Dr. MANFRED POHL, Manager of the Historical Archive of the Deutsche Bank AG, G()etheplatz 1-3,6000 Frankfurt am Main I Dr. HORST A. WESSEL, Manager of the German Society for Business His tory, SchOnhauser Str. 62, 5000 KOin 51 Letters are to be addressed to Dr. Horst A. Wessel Editorial Board Prof. Dr. KARL ERICH BORN, Eberhard-Karl-Universitat, Tiibingen Prof. Dr. ALFRED D.CHANDLER, Harvard University, Boston, Mass. Prof. Dr. GERALD D. FELDMAN, University of California, Berkeley Prof. Dr. MAURICE LEVY-LEBOYER, Universite Paris-Nanterre Prof. Dr. PETER MATHIAS, All Souls College, Oxford Prof. Dr. KEncHIRo NAKAGAWA, University of Tokyo Prof. Dr. WILHELM TREUE, Technische Universitat Hannover Prof. Dr. HERMAN VAN DER WEE, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Translator EILEEN MARTIN, 74 Kings Road, Richmond, Surrey Advertisements' Management by the Society for Business History. SchOnhauser StrafJe 62. 5000 Koln 1 ISBN-13: 978-3-642-68374-9 e-ISBN-13: 978-3-642-68372-5 DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-68372-5 This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reprnduction by photocopying mao chine or similar means, and storage in data banks. Under § 540f the German Copyright Law where copies are made for other than private use a fee is payable to "Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort", Munich. © Gesellschaft fiir Unternehmensgeschichte e. V., KOln 1981 Solkover rerint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981 The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trade marks, etc. in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchan dise Marks Act, may accordingly by used freely by anyone. 214213 14().5432 10 Introductory Remarks For at least one hundred years Germany besides England and France in Europe and besides the United States and Japan in the world has been that country with the most private and public enterprises. This is easily explained by the fact that our economy has been predominant ly characterized by small and medium-sized enterprises. Yet, until the Gesellschaft fUr Unternehmensgeschichte e. V. (Business History So ciety) had been founded in 1976, there was no institution in the uni versities and outside, which researched into the entrepreneurial econ omy and its achievements in and for society during the last centuries. Only in the banking business there has been the Institut fUr bank historische Forschung in Frankfurt since 1969. Nevertheless books on German business history can be traced back as far as 1811. We owe a lot of memorial publications to many economists, historians, journalists, archivists, and hobby historians from the economy. Most of them were ordered by entrepreneurs and managers interested in history. Even though economic history has been getting more and more important at German universities since the days of the historical school of national economy, and especially after World WarII, business history hasn't been institutionalized, neither in a private nor in a public research institute. In marked con trast to the development in Germany, a special periodical, professors' chairs, and the Research Center for Business History in Harvard fos tered by the Rockefeller Foundation came into being in the United States since the 1930s. Yet, we have to realize, that the business schools there with their empirical and theoretical teaching and re searching concepts formed a much better platform. Even the fact that there was no institutionalized business history in Germany didn't prevent some scholars from publishing important studies in business history, scholars like Richard Ehrenberg, Bruno Kuske, Walter Dabritz, Conrad Matschoss or Wilhelm Treue, who founded a periodical for business history and entrepreneurial biogra phy back in 1956. That was only possible because of some entrepre neurs and enterprises being interested in history, following the exam ple of Krupp, Siemens, and Deutsche Bank in keeping their records. Men from the entrepreneurial economy and German economic his torians thus suggested to institutionalize business history by found- VI Introductory Remarks ing a scientific society. The Gesellschaft fUr Unternehmensge schichte e. V., which was founded in 1976, is - "to do and to promote research in business history - to make available the results of that research to science, the econ- omy and the public - to work for the preservation of historic sources in the economy". The Gesellschaft fur Unternehmensgeschichte and the Institut fUr bankhistorische Forschung are striving for a close cooperation with all those persons and institutions in Germany and abroad working on the same subject. They endeavour to cope with these aims - by editing the Zeitschrift fur Unternehmensgeschichte and the Bankhistorisches Archiv - by initiating research work, for instance studies of the image of the entrepreneurs' economy in schoolbooks or of the history of the German banking business - by arranging public lecture and discussion meetings with represen tatives of various scientific disciplines, of the economy, of the ad ministration, of the media for example on the concentration move ment in the German economy, on co-determination law, on mar keting strategies, or on the universal bank system, on the develop ment of bank legislation (state superintendance of banks), or fi nancing an adverse balance of payments - by arranging scientific symposions, for example on entrepreneuri al welfare policy, on professional education and on the job train ing, on the development oflabor dispute legislation in an interna tional comparison - by providing material for scientific research, for instance by pub lishing two volumes of a guide to archives in the economy - by counselling and helping German and foreign scholars in their research work - by cooperating with scholars from abroad. In 1979 and 1981 there were symposions together with the Business History Society of Ja pan and in 1979 there was the first international symposion on bank history in Berlin. This Yearbook is to help German research in keeping contact and in cooperating with scholars and enterprises from abroad, by making available some select articles on business history from German peri odicals to the English speaking world. Thus we want to promote the international dialogue between business historians and want to arouse more consciousness in history among representatives of the economy around the world. We hope at the same time to contribute to the strengthening and further development of our free economic and social order, because only that person who is able to understand the interdependence in the world economy that has developed in the past centuries will feel sure to promote a free world economy. WOLFRAM ENGELS HANSPOHL Table of Contents The Change in Leadership and Continuity in an Enterprise (Wilfried Guth). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On the Re-Discovery of the Entrepreneur in Economic Policy Discussion (Horst Albach) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 11 The Banks and the Steel Industry in the Ruhr. Developments in Relations from 1873 to 1914 (WilfriedFeldenkirchen) . . . . .. 27 The Entrepreneur, the Family and Capitalism. Some Examples from the Early Phase of Industrialisation in Germany (Jiirgen Kocka). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 The Social Integration of Entrepreneurs in Westphalia 1860-1914 (Hansjoachim Henning) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 The World Economy in the 20th Century. Continuity and Change (Wolfram Fischer). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 107 List of Contributors Prof. Drs. HORST ALBACH Institut fUr Gesellschafts-und Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Universitat Bonn, Adenauer-Allee 24-42 5300 Bonn Priv.-Doz. Dr. WILFRIED FELDENKIRCHEN Historisches Seminar der Universitat Bonn, KonviktstraBe II 5300 Bonn Prof. Drs. WOLFRAM FISCHER Zentralinstitut fUr sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung der Freien Universitat Berlin, HittorfstraBe 2-4 1000 Berlin 33 Dr. WILFRIED GUTH Member of the board of directors of the Deutsche Bank AG, GroBe GallusstraBe 12-14 6000 Frankfurt am Main 1 Prof. Dr. HANSJOACHIM HENNING Fachbereich 1 der Universitat Duisburg - Gesamthochschule - LotharstraBe 65 4100 Duisburg 1 Prof. Dr. JORGEN KOCKA Fakultat fUr Geschichtswissenschaft der Universitat Bielefeld, Postfach 8640 4800 Bielefeld I The Change in Leadership and Continuity in an Enterprise* Wilfried Guth First of all, Herr von Siemens, let me offer you my very warmest congratulations on your 70th birthday, which we are celebrating here today. These are my personal wishes but I also extend them to you on behalf of Deutsche Bank AG, which has followed faithfully the unparalleled rise of Siemens since the time of the "Grunderjahre" in Berlin to its present position as a world-wide electrical engineering concern. We feel very special ties both to the enterprise and to you per sonally, my dear Herr von Siemens. A relationship of trust and confidence binds our two institutions and this has developed over many decades, but precisely for this rea son I suggest that there is no need for me to speak of it further and I can turn to the subject on which I have been asked to speak: "The Change in Leadership and Con tinuity in an Enterprise". Actually, it is presumptuous for anyone who does not belong to this company to speak on one of its most important but at the same time most intimate events, the change at the top - and presumptuous bankers are certainly bad bankers. I am only protected from such a verdict - at least I hope I am - by Peter von Siemens' express birthday wish which I am delighted to fulfil today as a token of friendship and per sonal esteem. A change in leadership - I am referring to the organic change which becomes ne cessary through the passage oftime and not the abrupt change occasioned by particu lar circumstances - is an important milestone in the history of any enterprise. It is out of the long chain of such events that the company's destiny evolves. Certainly, I do not wish to overestimate the role of individuals or deny, particularly today, their inte gration in a confident management team, but basically I believe the old theory that personalities make history, or to put it more cautiously, that they very largely deter mine the style and direction in any given period. Of course the converse also applies. The chief editor of the "Borsenzeitung", Bernd Baehring, once put it very aptly: The great enterprises have for a long time been forming their leaders no less than their leaders have been forming them. The history of Siemens seems to me a particularly fine example of that. Changes at the top - even if they are as well prepared and proceed with the same admirable smoothness and calm as the one we are experiencing here - are exciting moments in the life of the enterprise. Not only the general public but especially the news-hungry press will focus full attention on the event, and in the enterprise itself * Speech given ata function of Siemens AG on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Dr. Peter von Sie mens, January 29, 1981 in Munich. 2 Wilfried Guth there will scarcely be anyone not watching anxiously to see how the change goes and what it will mean to the firm. It is hard to avoid the much-used image of handing over the baton. The smooth ness of the change is at least as important as the ability of the individual runners, both of whom must concentrate all their strength - almost like the Zen Buddhists - on en suring success. Neither may concentrate only on himself and his achievement - and certainly not his reputation. The image of the baton leads me to another thought: despite the complexity of handing over the baton the relay team runs faster than a single athlete who has to run the whole distance alone. I do not want to draw the comparison, but it seems to me that handing over the baton in an enterprise at fixed points, i. e. at certain age limits, is the right method, although we human beings have very different constitutions and the degree of discipline in our life styles may keep one person efficient for longer than another. In family businesses especially we have often seen that the head of the firm tends rather to emulate the marathon than the relay runner. Peter von Siemens on the other hand is handing over to Herr Plettner two years before the end of his mandate, because corporate rationale makes this appear appropriate. Or we can put it differently: is it not one of the most important human and at the same time entrepreneurial virtues to accept the process of growing older and its con sequences - even or perhaps precisely when one still feels young enough to carry on? Different laws apply to enterprises: they may add year to year and proudly celebrate their jubilees but they must remain young and elastic. That is why they need a change in leadership from time to time. I spoke just now of the risk involved in handing over the baton, and clearly an en terprise must try to eliminate this as far as possible. It is also clear how this can be done: through careful and early selection of the successor and ensuring his integra tion into the process of continuity in the firm. At once we see that a change in leader ship and continuity are not opposites, they belong together. But let me speak a little more on the subject of the choice of successor. Much has been said and written on the planning of succession and I do not imagine that I will be able to add anything new. But I would like to stress what we can all learn from Sie mens especially. Firstly: the choice of successor at the top should not be an isolated individual process, it should be only a part, although it is the most important part, of a systematic selection, promotion and training of management staff throughout the en terprise. Siemens, as we all know, spends a great deal of time and money on these ac tivities, in the last business year nearly DM 500 million were spent on training and further training of staff. This also includes engagement in management training out side the enterprise itself, for example within the framework of the "Baden-Baden Discussions". This concern for the able and the talented within the enterprise pays a hundredfold dividend, it creates a reservoir of well-trained and motivated people to whom loyalty and hard work for the firm come naturally. I believe that there is a direct relationship between the quality of the managers in the various areas of an enterprise and the "quality at the top", if I may call it that. Quite simply: the standards are set higher. Or put more bluntly, (though I am afraid it doesn't necessarily always apply): the management gets the chief it deserves. At least when the middle and senior management are highly qualified it quickly becomes ap parent if the necessary human or specialist qualifications are lacking at the top. The Change in Leadership and Continuity in an Enterprise 3 We do not need a long explanation to see that with such a consistent policy of promotion and training for leadership, choosing the successor at the top from within the company's own ranks is the best and surest way to success. Not only does the new leader know the company, its products and services, its style, its strengths and weak nesses, i.e. above all those of its staff, but also the converse is important: the staff know him and know that he has proved his ability in various posts; he does not have to win the trust which is essential for successful management in a long process oftrial. This is not to say that the occasional much-quoted "infusion of new blood" is not wel come as well. We all know cases where this has proved a blessing or was even urgently necessary. But it should remain the exception to the rule, for it is the more difficult way both for the company and for the man who comes in. In the history of Siemens, which now spans 133 years, the head of the firm has al ways come from within the company's own ranks. In 1934, at the age of23, Peter von Siemens joined what was then Siemens & Halske AG in Berlin. He may have borne the family name but this did not bring him easy success. Like every other future man ager he had to prove his worth in various management positions before his way led him to the top of the enterprise - a way he trod so successfully, with a seemingly natu ral self-possession, and with the self-confidence of someone who combines knowl edge, a cosmopolitan outlook, a broad view of things and at the same time insight into detail. Bernhard Plettner has also made his career at Siemens. He embodies in the best possible way the virtues which have helped the company to world standing and re nown. During the last 10 years he has given repeated proof of his management ability and leadership qualities and so we all feel that his move yesterday to the chair manship of the Supervisory Board is a logical step which we can confidently ap plaud. And finally in Karlheinz Kaske, an experienced manager from the power en gineering and energy technology divisions, another proven "Siemens man" is moving to the highest level of executive responsibility. To him in particular we wish good for tune and success for the great tasks ahead. Can we deduce from the succession ofleaders at Siemens general principles or in structions which we could all observe in finding the "right" man for the job out of the list of possible candidates? I hardly think so. But let me make one negative qualifica tion and say that continuity, the continuance of a tradition and style do not r~quire a succession of the same type of personality. On the contrary: a change in type of ability and professional experience at the top can be good for the company, it can harbour opportunities and give new impUlses. Just consider the succession of commercial, or ganisational and technical talents which we have seen in the Siemens management in recent decades. Indeed, I think that the argument that different phases of our economic and so cio-political development require different types of entrepreneur is right to a certain extent; however, I would rather speak of different specific abilities for which, in each case, there is a specific need. What does that mean for the man who is handing over? Concern for the correct successor is rightly seen as one of his most important management tasks, indeed it is perhaps the most important. It requires above all;'as'it seems to me, a little humility to let other talents have their due. Only those who cannot see their own limitations will
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