Reshaping Capitalism in Weimar and Nazi Germany

Presents fresh approaches to the history of capitalism in the context of Weimar and Nazi Germany.

Moritz Föllmer (Edited by), Pamela E. Swett (Edited by)

9781108833547, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 February 2022

320 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.6 kg

'Within the recent rise of a 'new history of capitalism', studies of both the Weimar Republic and the Nazi regime have been surprisingly absent. This volume, edited by Moritz Föllmer and Pamela E. Swett, thus clearly fills a gap. Beyond that, it adds relevant findings to the current rediscovery of the interwar years as an epoch comparable to our own times.' Stefanie Middendorf, German History

In Weimar and Nazi Germany, capitalism was hotly contested, discreetly practiced, and politically regulated. This volume shows how it adapted to fit a nation undergoing drastic changes following World War I. Through wide-ranging cultural histories, a transatlantic cast of historians probes the ways contemporaries debated, concealed, promoted, and racialized capitalism. They show how bankers and industrialists, storeowners and commercial designers, intellectuals and politicians reshaped a controversial economic order at a time of fundamental uncertainty and drastic rupture. The book thus sheds fresh light on the strategies used by Hitler and his followers to gain and maintain widespread support. The authors conclude that National Socialism succeeded in mobilizing capitalism's energies while at the same time claiming to have overcome a system they identified with pernicious Jewish influences. In so doing, the volume also speaks to the broader issue of how capitalism can adapt to new times.

Introduction: Historicizing capitalism in Germany, 1918–1945 Moritz Föllmer and Pamela E. Swett
Part I. Debating capitalism: 1. Capitalism and agency in interwar Germany Moritz Föllmer
2. Aporias of 'political capitalism' between World War One and the Depression Martin H. Geyer
3. Searching for order: German jurists debate economic power, 1919–1949 Kim Christian Priemel
Part II. Concealing capitalism: 4. Capitalism, wealth, and the question of (in)visibility: The Thyssen family and its investments Simone Derix
5. Semantics of success: The cases of Friedrich Flick and Henry J. Kaiser Tim Schanetzky
6. Hamburg coffee importers: From guild to class, 1900s–1960s Dorothee Wierling
Part III. Promoting capitalism: 7. Between criticism and innovation: Beer and public relations in the Weimar Republic Sina Fabian
8. Managing consumer capitalism: Artists, engineers, and psychologists as new marketing experts in interwar Germany Jan Logemann
9. A society safe for capitalism: Violent crowds, tumult laws, and the costs of doing business in Germany, 1918–1945 Molly Loberg
Part IV. Racializing capitalism: 10. Völkisch banking? Capitalism and Stuttgart's savings banks, 1933–1945 Pamela E. Swett
11. Völkisch capitalism: Himmler's bankers and the continuity of capitalist thinking and practice in Germany Alexa Stiller.

Subject Areas: Fascism & Nazism [JPFQ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]