Modifications in the Reconstruction

Whether we are speaking of chewing gum or rubber tyres - it is evident that an »Americanisation« of German industry and the production of consumer goods took place in the 20th century. But how can this history of transfer and reception be explained and divided up into periods? Volker Berghahn looks at the era encompassing the two World Wars and notices a change in the American influence on German industry. After 1918, the USA provided assistance with reconstruction, but did not have a changing effect on the system itself. During the time after 1945, however, he diagnoses an American-influenced modification in West German industry. Berghahn investigates the main contours of this development, and then looks at it more closely using the example of the entrepreneur Otto A. Friedrich. In an epilogue bringing together his research from over four decades, followed by a final discussion, the German-American historian spans the period from the 1960s to the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008.

America and the German industrial system in the 20th century - transatlantic economic relations in two post-war periods.

The Author
Volker Berghahn, born in Berlin in 1938, is a Seth Low professor of history at the Columbia University in New York. Berghahn has received the Helmut Schmidt Prize, awarded by the ZEIT Foundation, and the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class, for his publications and his achievements in the area of cultural relations between Germany and America.