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From 1933 onward, Nazi Germany undertook massive and unprecedented industrial integration, submitting an entire economic sector to direct state oversight. This innovative study explores how German professionals navigated this complex landscape through the divergent careers of business managers in two of the era’s most important trade organizations. While Jakob Reichert of the iron and steel industry unexpectedly resisted state control and was eventually driven to suicide, Karl Lange of the machine builders’ association achieved security for himself and his industry by submitting to the Nazi regime. Both men’s stories illuminate the options available to industrialists under the Third Reich, as well as the real priorities set by the industries they served.
“…a study that makes a valuable contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on wartime business.” • American Historical Review
“Having evaluated the relevant archival sources – those of the Institute for Contemporary History, the Federal Archives in Berlin, and the Siemens Corporation Archives –, Bera has written an innovative book. His research actually invites further work not only on economic and political history of the Weimar Republic and the ‘Third Reich,’ but also of the history of industrial associations, which has become somewhat forgotten in recent years.” • H-Soz-Kult
“This is an impressively designed and clearly written book that makes a fundamental contribution to the role of business in the Third Reich and advances the debate about the ‘room for maneuver’ under the Nazi regime.” • Jeffrey Fear, University of Glasgow
“This is an impressive book that adds to our picture of the complex, contradictory, and often surprising behavior of many individuals in the Third Reich. The trajectories of Lange and Reichert make for a compelling story that fills an important gap in the literature.” • David Meskill, Dowling College
Matt Bera lives in Toronto and has taught in the History and German Studies Departments at York University, as well as a number of other institutions in the region and abroad.
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Adaptation and Opposition in Democracy and Dictatorship
Chapter 1. Opposition and Adaptation: Reichert and Lange in the Weimar Republic
Chapter 2. Confidence and Complicity: Confronting National Socialist Ideology
Chapter 3. Conflict and Co-ordination: Creating a National Socialist Economy
Chapter 4. Impotence: Jakob Reichert in the Nazi Wartime Economy
Chapter 5. Indispensability: Karl Lange in the Nazi Wartime Economy
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index