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Abstracts
(Band 89/2002 und 90/2003)
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Wolfgang Ayaß:
Bismarck und der Arbeiterschutz. Otto von Bismarcks Áblehnung des
gesetzlichen Arbeiterschutzes - eine Analyse der Dimensionen und
Hintergründe (Band 89, Seite 400) Bismarck and te protective Labor Legislation The eighteen-eighties under
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck saw the establishment of statutory
workers’ insurance in Germany. Germany remained backwards, however, in
the statutory protection of workers at their workplace, the prevention of
dangers arising from industrial work, and the limitation of hours of work for
children, young persons, women or even workers in general. The protection of
young workers, for example, remained until 1891 as it had been in 1853. That
was due to the fundamental refusal of all improvements in matters of regulations
for the protection of workers on the part of Bismarck, who blocked all
relevant initiatives. Along with other sources this article draws on
previously rarely used marginalia of Bismarck’s in ministerial
documents on factory inspection, children’s and women’s labour,
the prohibition of Sunday work, and the introduction of a standard working
day. The investigation deals with the Chancellor’s motives and the
arguments deployed in his prevention of measures of workers’
protection, which he called an infringement of workers’ freedom of
action. |
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Marcel Boldorf: Entwicklung
und institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen: Die Beispiele Niederschlesien und
Nordirland (1750–1850) (Band 90/2003, S. 399) Institutions and Economic
Development: The Cases of Lower Silesia and Northern Ireland
(1750–1850) The focus of this article
is on the institutional arrangements which influenced the costs to merchants.
The guilds of the Silesian town-based merchants, acting as a cartel, lowered
the costs of linen purchase. Furthermore, they could successfully suppress
the development of a putting-out-system around the centralized markets. There
were neither widespread process innovations nor product innovations in
Silesia, like, for instance, fine linens (damask). As a consequence, there was
a lack of entrepreneurial initiative at the threshold of industrialisation.
In contrast, Ulster was an example of a rather successful development because
of the absence of guilds and restrictive regulations. Thus, the comparative
analysis can explain industrialisation or de-industrialisation within
European regional development. |
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Markuks A. Denzel: Die
Geschäftsbeziehungen des Schaffhauser Handels- und Bankhauses Amman
1748<—1779. Ein mikroökonomisches Fallbeispiel (Band 89, Seite
1) The Trade Relations of the
Schaffhausen Merchant-Banker Amman 1748—1779. A Micro-Economic Case
Study The micro-economic
investigation of the Schaffhausen merchant-banker Amman gives a good example
of the great importance smaller enterprises could have within the Europe-wide
trading network even without being based in the big and international centres
of business, commercial and financial activities. It shows how much the
European trade and payment was dependent on such ‚small’
merchant-bankers which functioned as intermediaries between economic regions
and international ‚super-companies’. The study deals with the
question how the individual parts of the Amman business developed throughout
the period of investigation, special stress will be put on the changing ‚positioning’
of this merchant-banker within the network of business partners reaching over
large parts of Western and Central Europe. |
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Markus A. Denzel und
Hans-Jürgen Gerhard: Inflationäre Prozesse in Nordwestdeutschland
im 18. Jahrhundert - Professor Dr. Karl Heinrich Kaufhold zum 70. Geburtstag
(Band 90, S. 1) This article wants to
describe some of the inflationary processes appearing in the 18th century in
the Holy Roman Empire and to survey their causes as well as their
backgrounds. It is the objective of research to show how far inflationary
processes went off either similarly or differently in Hamburg – the
single German port of global importance – as well as in Lower Saxon
territories in the Hamburg hinterland – perhaps even independently of
one another – and to find out the decisive local, regional or
international factors. The research is carried out with baskets of goods
containing for Hamburg as well as for its hinterland each time about 30
different products. |
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Rainer Fremdling / Reiner
Stäglin: Die Industrieerhebung von 1936: Ein Input-Output-Ansatz zur
Rekonstruktion der volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnung für Deutschland
im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert - Ein Arbeitsbericht (Band 90, S. 416) The Industrial Survey of
1936: An input-Output Approach for the Reconstruction of the National
Accounts of Germany in the 19th and 20th Century - a
Working Report |
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Karl Christian Führer:
Das NS-Rgime und die "Idealform des deutschen Wohnungsbaues". Ein
Beitrag zur nationalsozialistischen Gesellschaftspolitik (Band 89, Seite 141) The Natinal Socialist
Regime and the "Ideal Form of German Housing". A Contribution to
the Debate on the Social Politics of Nazism The article outlines the
history of the Kleinsiedlungen (smallholdings) in National Socialist Germany,
a special form of accommodation that was commonly regarded as the ideal of
housing for practical as well as for ideological reasons since 1933. However,
grandiose schemes to build hundreds of thousands or even millions of
smallholdings failed; in reality the Kleinsiedlungen formed only a small part
of the new housing production. This failure can be put down to the racist
policies of the NSDAP and to the party’s fixation on military strength
as the most important political task. The National Socialist regime could not
react to any of the manifold practical problems that obstructed the
smallholding schemes since all these problems were caused by the regime
itself. The essay thus contributes to the on-going debate on National
Socialist domestic policy and argues that the NSDAP was in principle unable
to pursue a policy of constructive social reform. |
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William D. Godsey, Jr.:
Adelsversorgung in der Neuzeit: Die Wiederbelebung des Deutschen Ritterordens
in der österreichischen Restauration (Band 90, S. 25) During the revolutionary
era 1789-1815, the nobility in the core territories of the Habsburg Empire
underwent no fundamental structural changes such as the nobility in the rest
of Central Europe experienced. Unlike in Germany, manorial rights,
patrimonial jurisdiction, and estatist constitutions remained mostly
untouched there, as did many time-honored supports of the traditional
understanding of nobility such as collegiate foundations and honors at Court,
both of which required proof of noble birth in the maternal and paternal
lines. Renascence rather than crisis or decline most accurately describes the
Habsburg aristocracy during the Restoration and the Pre-March (1815-1848).
One important facet of this renascence was the revival in the Hapsburg Empire
of institutions such as the Teutonic Order and the Order of Malta for the
socio-economic maintenance of noble agnates. These institutions had formerly
spanned the Holy Roman Empire, but were not found in the other German states
after 1815. Unlike the reform-proposals for the German nobility drawn up by
statesmen such as Baron vom Stein, we can speak here of true
‘restoration’, as the Teutonic Order unmistakably maintained its
pedigreed, Old-Regime aspect. Down to the collapse of the Monarchy, the
Teutonic Order continued to provide valuable economic support to the less
prosperous members of the Hapsburg aristocracy. |
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Margrit Grabas unter
Mitarbeit von Paul W. Frey: Der vergessene Mittelstand — Entwicklung
und Bedeutung kleiner und mittelgroßer Unternehmen an der Saar in der
Zeit des krisenhaften Strukturwandels 1873—1894/95 (Band 89, Seite 41) The Forgotten Middle
Classes — The Development and Importance of Small and Medium-Sized
Enterprises in the Saar Region at the Time of Crises-Ridden Structural
Changes form 1873 to 1894/95 The core of the present
investigation involves more clearly determining the regional-economic
importance in the Saar Region of small and medium-sized enterprises which had
to cope with crisis-ridden structural changes from 1873 to 1894—95.
Assuming that market process and enterprise development are reciprocally
connected, our interest lies primarily in the question which strategies for
market adjustment medium-sized enterprises employed to react to the challenge
of the "Great Depression". By combining macro- and microeconomic
methods, it can be demonstrated that small and medium-sized enterprises
played a more important role in the socio-economic modernization of the Saar
Region towards the end of the 19th century than has been conceded by
economic-historical research: On the basis of technological and
organizational changes small and medium-sized enterprises succeeded in
expanding, especially in the manufacturing sector and, in this way, in
breaking open an industrial structure dominated by coal and iron. |
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Dieter Hertz-Eichenrode:
Die Feudalisierungsthese – ein Rückblick (Band 89, Seite 265) The Feudalization
– Theory reconsidered The present article
proceeds from the assumption that the so-called feudalization theory was a
historiographic error. This theory maintains that between 1850 and 1918, a
substantial segment of the German middle class, the bourgeoisie, abandoned
its liberal positions in favour of pre-modern (that is, feudalistic) views. The work is divided into
four parts: 1) the rise of the feudalization theory and its revision via new
critical research (1960–2000); 2) the development of the theory in the
19th century (1848–1918), whereby the work focuses on three components
(political, socio-psychological and sociological); 3) the beginnings of an
empirico-historical argumentation in support of the theory (1920–1960);
and 4) some critical notes dealing with this theory – from a
methodological standpoint – as a collective judgment levied on the
German bourgeoisie, a judgment lacking adequate scholarly groundwork. |
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Laurent Heyberger:
Gesundheit und Ernährung in Frankreich im 19. Jahrhundert (Band 90,
Seite 316) Health and Nutrition in
Ninteenth-century France Stature is a human
development index. It allows to estimate the biological standard of living of
the population of 19th century France. At that time, this population was
mostly vegetarian. Several correlations point out a link between
anthropometric data and nominal or real wheat prices between 1814 and 1847.
However, the dependence was less important after 1834. The anthropometric
improvement especially affects the poorest regions, south of a line that
extends from Saint-Malo to Geneva. |
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Wolfgang König: Der
Volksempfänger und die Radioindustrie. Ein Beitrag zum Verhältnis
von Wirtschaft und Politik im Nationalsozialismus (Band 90, Seite 269) The Volksempfänger and
the Radio Receiver Industry: Politics and Economy in the Third Reich In Nazi Germany a family of
‚people’s products’ was planned by which the National
Socialists wished to demonstrate the forthcoming consumer society. The only
‚people’s product’ which was produced was the
‘Volksempfänger’, an inexpensive radio receiver. It was
initiated by politics and designed and manufactured by industry. This article
outlines the disputes between Nazi institutions, trade organisations, and
business firms when developing and marketing the
‘Volksempfänger’. Particularly, it were the production
numbers and the receiver’s price which resulted in enduring
discussions. The article’s concern is to work out the reasons of the
companies’ positions towards the ‘Volksempfänger’ as
well as its economic outcome. The ‘Volksempfänger’-story is
interpreted as an example for the interrelationship between Nazi-politics and
the consumer goods-industry. try. |
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Christian Koller: Arbeit
und Geschlecht in frühsozialistischen Zukunftsvorstellungen (Band 90, S.
141) This article analyses the
socialist thought of the first half of the 19th century in regard to the
gender-specific division of work. Wilhelm Weitling’s and Etienne
Cabet’s visions were based on essentialist gender categories and
derived from a hierarchical order wherein men should dominate over women.
Fourierism and Saint-Simonism also assumed essentialist categories, but they
aimed at utilizing these in order to step up productivity and viewed the
gendered division of labor in a non-hierachical manner. Only Robert
Owen’s theory was neither essentialist nor hierarchical. Owen was
deeply convinced that the human character was mainly formed by the environment,
and he wanted – after a period of transition and education that would
last several generations – to overcome all gender-specific divisions of
labor. |
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Matthias Meinhardt:
Magister Sebastian Leonhart (1544 – 1610). Bildungs- und Karriereweg
eines wettinischen Fürstenlehrers und Hofbibliothekars (Band 90, S. 44) Recently, there has been
growing interest in the subject of education at court in medieval and early
modern times. About the educators and tutors of young princes or dukes,
however, fairly little certain knowledge is available. This is mainly due to
a lack of sources which, in turn, can be attributed to the fact that
education at court usually took place in seclusion. Therefore, those few
individual cases are very important in which outstandingly good sources allow
to reconstruct the biography of an educator for the higher nobility. An
example, which up to now has been scarcely noticed in recent work, is the
biography of the Saxon tutor of princes and court librarian Sebastian
Leonhart (1544–1610), which is described in the present essay. As a
historical biography, it deals with the scholar’s own education and his
career until his death, taking into account his social surroundings,
relations to patrons and the conditions of upward mobility. Moreover, the ways
and contents of education at court are also discussed within the biographical
context. |
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Alexander Nützenadel:
Wissenschaftliche Politikberatung in der Bundesrepublik. Die Gründung
des Sachverständigenrates zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Lage
1963 (Band 89, Seite 288) Scientific Policy
Counseling in the Federal Republic. The Foundation of the Council for
Economic Survey 1963 The article analyzes the
political debates on the German Council for Economic Survey between 1958 and
1963. It is argued that through the "Sachverständigenrat", a
new model of scientific policy counseling was established, which laid the
foundation for the eminent role of economic expertise in the political
discourse of the Federal Republic. |
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Jonas Scherner: Zwischen
Staat und Markt. Die deutsche halbsynethetische Chemiefaserindustrie in den
1930er Jahren (Band 89, Seite 427) Between State an Market.
The German Rayon and Staple Fibre Industry in the 1930s Between 1933 and 1939,
autarky branches in Germany expanded significantly. The rayon and staple
fibre industry was one of these branches. In difference to other autarky
branches the semisynthetic fibres branch continued booming in West Germany
after World War II. The literature suggests that the expansion of this branch
in the 1930s was caused mainly by the incentives of the Nazi economic policy.
Following this argumentation, the Nazi economic policy in this branch could
be characterised as an at long sight successful industrialization policy. To
test this hypothesis, I try to estimate the hypothetical German production of
semisynthetic fibres assuming the counterfactual situation of Germany without
autarchy policy. It can be demonstrated that the rayon and staple fibre
production would also have expanded significantly without the specific Nazi
economic policy. |
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Lil-Christine
Schlegel-Voß / Gerd Hardach: Die dynamische Rente. Ein Modell der
Alterssicherung im historischen Wandel Band 90/2003, Seite 290) The social security reform
of 1957 introduced dynamic pensions, which are institutionally linked to the
increase of nominal wages, into the German social security system. Since
then, dynamic pensions which provide an adequate income for the old
generation are considered as one of the mainstays of the West German welfare
state. However the concept of dynamic pensions is much older. It was first
suggested in imperial Germany. Other dynamic pension systems were discussed,
but not implemented at the beginning of the Weimar Republic, under the Nazi
dictatorship, and in the German Democratic Republic. The aim of our article
is to describe and discuss the historical evolution of the concept of dynamic
pensions in Germany. |
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Florian Schui: Zur
kritischen Analyse der neuen Institutionenökonomik: Douglass Norths
Interpretation der frühmittelalterlichen Grundherrschaft (Band 90, S.
157) The present article offers
historical arguments for a critique of Douglass North’s institutional
analysis of the medieval manor. On a first level the formal rigor of
North’s argument is challenged. His argument focuses only on
transaction costs without including other potential determinants of the
institutional framework of the manor. Then it is examined whether
North’s interpretation can be empirically verified ex post. The crucial
point being the impossibility to quantitatively compare the two relevant
forms of transaction costs. Finally, the article challenges North’s
implicit and explicit assumptions about the Middle Ages on the base of the
historical literature. The implicit assumptions challenged are the tendency
of medieval man to adopt economically efficient institutions, and the ability
of lord and serf to freely chose an institutional framework. The explicit
assumptions challenged are the dominance of labour services among the
obligations of the serf, the provision of effective protection by the lord,
and the ‘rudimentary labor market’ that North sees for the serfs.
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Margrit Schulte
Beerbühl: Staatsangehörigkeit und fremdes Know-how. Die deutschen
Kaufleute im britischen Russlandhandel des 18. Jahrhunderts (Band 89, Seite
379) British Nationality and
Foreign Know-how: German Merchants in Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Russian Trade The fact that Great Britain
became the foremost imperial and industrial power in the world was largely
due to the supply of products grown and manufactured in Russia during the
18th century. The following article deals with the number of German merchants
in the Anglo-Russian trade and their contribution to the upswing of the
bilateral trade. It argues that in order to circumvent the vagaries and
economic risks of the widely unknown Russian market Britain secured the help
and superior knowledge of German merchants. On the one hand it obliged
Germans to take up British nationality in order to secure a legal claim to
their services. On the other hand it offered them attractive economic
prospects and markets in exchange for their superior knowledge of Russian
trade and trade practices. |
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Brigide Schwarz: Das
Repertoirum Germanicum (Band 90, S. 429) The Repertorium Germanicum |
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Oliver Volckart:
Polykratische Wirtschaftspolitik: Zu den Beziehungen zwischen
Wirtschaftsministerium, Arbeitsministerium, DAF und Reichsnährstand,
1933-1939 (Band 90, S. 174) In this article, the
hypothesis is examined that in the "Third Reich" bureaucratic
agencies engaged in economic policies competed with each other. First, a
model of competition is constructed whose predictions are then compared with
actual political processes in Nazi-Germany. This shows that the bureaus
indeed competed with each other, supplying Hitler with political support in
exchange for rents. However, in contrast to what the model predicts, the
bureaus did not adapt their policy supply to the dictator’s wishes. In
order to explain this outcome, the paper examines how Hitler protected
himself against competitors to himself and how his choice of strategy
affected bureau competition. |
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Dirk Zeiseler: Die
Bedeutung spanischer Eisenerze für die britische Rüstungsindustrie
während des Ersten Weltkrieges (Band 89, Seite 167) The Importance of Spanish
Iron Ores for the British Armament Industrie during the First World War This article examines the
importance of Spanish iron ores for the British armament industry during the
First World War in quantity and quality. It demonstrates that the British
ability for warfare depended highly on the continuous and sufficient
provision of Spanish iron ore for the manufacture of steel and ammunition.
Therefore, the respective authorities in London tried to eliminate import
impediments like tonnage shortage or export restrictions. At the same time
Britain began to reduce the dependence on Spanish ores by introducing the
flexible basic process in the steel industry. However, this strategy only
succeeded in the last few months of the war. The British dependence on iron
ore imports provided Spain an effective instrument to exert pressure on
Britain which short-term strengthened the position of that neutral country in
the calculation of British war policy. |