- Summary
- The Flick Concern's participation in the "aryanization" of Hochofenwerk L ubeck AG, and the Julius and Ignaz Petschek Braunkohle properties located in Germany provides a case study of the relationship between industry and state in the Third Reich. By virtue of the state's racial policies, the Flick Concern was able to avail itself of a business opportunity which otherwise might not have existed. As a result of the deals which the Flick group negotiated, they were able to expand into pig iron production and Braunkohle operations which fit into the long-range expansion goals of this coal and steel firm. Throughout this process, the Flick group viewed the Nazi state as a tool which could be manipulated to their advantage if they adopted a cooperative attitude. However, as the "aryanization projects" became more protracted at the same time that Germany moved closer to war, the Flick group's ability to reach deals on their own terms became increasingly difficult. The complex picture which emerges from a detailed analysis of Flick's role in these "aryanizations" reveals that "understandings" with Nazi state officials were based upon the exigencies of the moment and that, in turn, made predictable results in the business world increasingly difficult. The Flick group's experience not only sheds light on the nature of industry-state relations, but it is also a microcosm of some dominant and consistent features of the Nazi state: rivalry for control of decision-making; the central role of autarkic goals in policy decisions; the determinative role of racial and etatist ideology; and the polymorphous character of policies against Jews. The major documentary collection used in this study were the records of the Flick Concern, primarily correspondence and inter-office memos, augmented by comparable records of the Ministries of Economics and Finance, the Foreign Office, the Dresdner Bank, and post 1945 trial and occupation records.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Stallbaumer, Lisa M.
- Published
- [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1995
- Locale
- Germany
- Notes
-
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1995.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 383-412).
Photocopy. Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI Dissertation Services, 1997. 22 cm.
Dissertations and Theses